In a rare Thursday night game, moved up a day because of the Halloween observance on Friday, the Escalon Cougars welcomed the Riverbank Bruins to their home field and the varsity football Cougars had no intentions of playing hospitable hosts, destroying Riverbank 54-0 in front of their home crowd. Rainy weather shortly before game time cleared away in time for kickoff, but the threatening skies kept the crowd size on both sides of the field to a minimum.
The Bruins were forced into one of their more disappointing showings of the season, failing to get into the end zone for the second consecutive week and running their season-long losing streak to five consecutive losses.
The Trans-Valley League front-running Cougars - tied with Modesto Christian at the top of the standings - scored early and often in the contest, pushing the game out of reach with a 28-point second quarter. Riverbank was unable to solve any attack Escalon tossed its way, walking into the halftime intermission with a 41-0 halftime deficit.
"We got up so quickly, we couldn't throw the ball," Escalon coach Mark Loureiro pointed out of keeping the ball on the ground for much of the game. "We knew going in that they were really undermanned."
The Bruins recently folded their JV team, so did not play a JV game that night. Some of the remaining JV players made the jump to varsity, but were just not able to handle the multi-pronged attack of the Cougars.
Riverbank attempted nine passes but the only ones that were caught were a trio of interceptions by the host team.
The Bruins will have to fill a few gaping holes when they roll out the welcome mat for the Ripon Indians this Friday, Nov. 7 at Riverbank High. The Indians are coming off a convincing win over the Ripon Christian Knights and will look to make a strong push to close out the TVL schedule.
Riverbank will undoubtedly need to work on hindering the Ripon High rushing attack. The Bruins were unsuccessful in doing that against the Cougars, surrendering over 350 yards on the ground in the loss.
The Bruins will wrap up a rough TVL campaign with back-to-back home games, closing out the 2008 season with a battle against the Hughson Huskies on Nov 14. Both contests are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. kickoffs.
The Bruins were forced into one of their more disappointing showings of the season, failing to get into the end zone for the second consecutive week and running their season-long losing streak to five consecutive losses.
The Trans-Valley League front-running Cougars - tied with Modesto Christian at the top of the standings - scored early and often in the contest, pushing the game out of reach with a 28-point second quarter. Riverbank was unable to solve any attack Escalon tossed its way, walking into the halftime intermission with a 41-0 halftime deficit.
"We got up so quickly, we couldn't throw the ball," Escalon coach Mark Loureiro pointed out of keeping the ball on the ground for much of the game. "We knew going in that they were really undermanned."
The Bruins recently folded their JV team, so did not play a JV game that night. Some of the remaining JV players made the jump to varsity, but were just not able to handle the multi-pronged attack of the Cougars.
Riverbank attempted nine passes but the only ones that were caught were a trio of interceptions by the host team.
The Bruins will have to fill a few gaping holes when they roll out the welcome mat for the Ripon Indians this Friday, Nov. 7 at Riverbank High. The Indians are coming off a convincing win over the Ripon Christian Knights and will look to make a strong push to close out the TVL schedule.
Riverbank will undoubtedly need to work on hindering the Ripon High rushing attack. The Bruins were unsuccessful in doing that against the Cougars, surrendering over 350 yards on the ground in the loss.
The Bruins will wrap up a rough TVL campaign with back-to-back home games, closing out the 2008 season with a battle against the Hughson Huskies on Nov 14. Both contests are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. kickoffs.
