Two-point conversion lifts Escalon to win over Patterson, fourth straight section title
The Escalon High football team led the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV championship game all of 36 seconds, but it was all they needed to complete the comeback of the year.
Escalon rallied back Friday night at St. Mary’s High School in Stockton, making big play after big play to slowly chip away at the 21-point lead No. 3 Patterson built in the first half.
A fourth quarter touchdown with under a minute cut the lead to one point, a two-point conversion gave them a lead and a last-second defensive stand secured the win as Escalon came from behind to win the Division IV title, 36-35.
It is the fourth straight section championship for the Cougars and third straight for the talented senior class. It is also Escalon’s first in recent memory in Division IV. They were moved up from Division V due to the section’s continued success rule.
“I can’t even think straight right now,” Escalon coach Andrew Beam said. “We couldn’t have started this game any worse than we did. … I’m so proud of our guys for never quitting. We were losing the whole game, and didn’t start well at all. I’m just so proud of our guys.”
Escalon fell into a 14-0 hole after the first quarter but got on the board with an electric play.
Sam Jimenez scored Escalon’s first touchdown on a 76-yard punt return, but his night was far from over. The junior, who just started playing football three years ago, caught three touchdown passes and added an interception for good measure.
“There’s a lot of guys that are good one way … I want to be the best at everything I do, so if I’m playing both ways, I’m going hard at every position at all times,” Jimenez said. If I can make plays on both sides, I’m going to make plays to help my team out.”
The Cougars scored 21 straight points to overcome a 28-7 first half deficit.
Quarterback Donovan Rozevink found Jimenez for a 35-yard touchdown on the Cougars’ final first half possession and the pair connected again on the first drive of the second half for a 24-yard touchdown. Rozevink found Talan Reider to cap the Cougars ensuing drive with a 26-yard touchdown to tie the game at 28-28 with 1 minute, 15 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We came out of halftime and knew we had to score,” said Rozevink. “Coach was trusting me to sling the rock and that’s what got the momentum going. I knew that they trusted me to do that, so I trusted myself. … We’re playing football next week, that’s all that matters.”
Patterson took a 35-28 lead, leaving just over six minutes in the game for Escalon to answer. Rozevink has started in over 40 high school games in his career and it showed on the Cougars’ final drive.
Rozevink and the Cougars overcame sacks and third and fourth downs to put together an 80-yard drive that stretched nearly the entire six minutes. Rozevink found Jimenez to cut Patterson’s lead to one point.
“The offensive line is our strength and you have a third-year quarterback who made his 43rd start at the high school level,” Beam said. “He’s been in every big-time situation there is. He took some sacks, but he never panicked and that’s the maturity that as a sophomore, he didn’t have. We’re fortunate to have a three-year starter with 40-something starts.”
After a timeout, Rozevink caught the snap from the shotgun and rushed three yards through the right side of the offensive line to convert the game-winning two-point conversion.
“I told him (Beam) I wanted to throw the football because that was what was working all night,” Rozevink. “We were going to do that but we were about to get a delay of game so we called a timeout. … And then he called Q-Strong and I was like ‘Woah I’ve never run that before’ so I was scared for a second. He was like no one’s stopping you at three yards. He was just telling me to trust myself. My o-line did a great job on that play getting a push. I didn’t get touched.”
Rozevink burst through into the end zone untouched and after seeing the referee’s signal, sprinted along the Escalon sideline and ran straight into the arms of his coach.
Three-peat complete.
“I almost tripped into the end zone because I was so excited,” said Rozevink, who also secured section titles in 2021 and 2022. “I didn’t even know what was happening.”
Said Beam: “We told them there’s a little bit of ‘Escalon Magic’ in these games. And the longer you play these games, if you can keep it close, that Escalon Magic seems to seep through and we’ve seen that happen a couple of times.”
Patterson is on the map
Leading up to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV championship game, Patterson coach Rob Cozart spoke about how he believes the Tigers spent years flying under the radar.
Despite winning over 30 combined games in the last three seasons, the Tigers went unnoticed by a large part of the section and embraced the underdog role during the postseason. After losing in the D-III section semifinals the past two seasons, the Tigers beat Vista del Lago 28-19 in the D-IV semis to advance to the final. The appearance is just the second in program history and first since 2007.
They showed no signs of inexperience as they jumped out to an early 28-7 lead.
Jeremiah Lugo rushed for an eight-yard touchdown run and Patterson forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. Lugo scored again from five yards out a few offensive plays later and the Tigers took a 14 point lead before Escalon’s offense took the field. After a Cougars touchdown, sophomore quarterback Max Medina found Lugo on a swing pass in the second quarter for a five yard score and Lugo scored on the Tigers’ next drive on a 38-yard run.
Welcome to the limelight, Patterson High.
“That’s what you want,” Patterson coach Rob Cozart said. “I mean, we had the community behind us and we started off exactly how we wanted to start off. We had to be able to sustain it.”
The Cougars tied the game but Patterson answered with an 11-play scoring drive capped by a Lugo one-yard rushing score.
On Escalon’s final possession, Patterson forced a pair of sacks and had the Cougars in multiple third and fourth down situations, but could not find a way to get the defending section and state champions off the field. Timely Escalon catches and a pair of Patterson pass interference penalties kept the scoring drive alive.
“We answered, what it came down to is could you get the stop when he needed to and we just couldn’t get that stop,” Cozart said. “It was by a yard, it was by an inch, it was by a yard, it was by an inch. It was a stop, but a penalty. … In championship games, you have to be perfect.”
Though they were not perfect, the Tigers were pretty close. On their last play — an untimed down from their own 47 yard line thanks to offsetting penalties on what many in the stadium thought was the game’s final play — Medina completed a pass to senior Donjhae Hardin at the line of scrimmage and Hardin took it to the Escalon 19 yard line.
Lugo, a junior, finished with 166 total yards on offense and was responsible for all five of Patterson’s touchdowns.
“Those guys didn’t quit. Those guys didn’t quit and I’m so proud of them,” Cozart said. “They could have mailed it in after that league loss to Merced, knowing that it was probably going to be inevitable that we weren’t going to win league, but look at how they responded. … To go toe to toe with the defending state champs, they’re (Escalon) going to get the best out of everybody. So props to them too, but I can’t be more proud of my guys.”
Escalon survives another week
Escalon advances to the California Interscholastic Federation Northern California Regional Championships for the fourth straight year. Its season continues with one game to play until the state championship.
Regional Championship matchups will be released Sunday, Nov. 26, on the CIF website. Games will be either Friday, Dec. 1 or Saturday, Dec. 2.
Regional championships will be at home sites but for the first time this season, every state championship game will be in Southern California. If the Cougars win the NorCal Regional title, it will play at either El Camino College in Torrance, Pasadena City College or Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.
The Cougars are looking to repeat as state champions. Last season, they won the Division 4-AA state title after beating Pleasant Valley in the NorCal Bowl Game and Northwood in the championship game.
“It’s crazy, if you asked people before the season started, no one thought we would be here besides all the guys in this locker room,” Jimenez said. “To go out there and keep proving people wrong week in and week out feels really good.”
