Last month, Orestimba High’s flag football team lost to Merced High School, 33-12. The loss served as a humbling moment for the Warriors, who came into the contest at 11-1 overall.

Head coach John Labno said the loss ignited the players of what improvements needed to be made. He also called Merced as “one of the two best teams we’ve played all year.”

“I think it kind of woke the girls up that we needed to work a little harder to be able to get where we want to go,” he said.

Since then, Orestimba has won nine straight games including a decisive 14-7 on road against Escalon High on Wednesday. The Warriors’ improve to 20-2 (8-0) overall and remain at the top of the Trans Valley League standings. Orestimba also surpassed its regular season win count of 19 games.

Orestimba opened the game with a 7-0 lead after Hailey Starr threw a touchdown pass to Imelda Beltran.

When the Warriors’ offense struggled, it was made up with its defense. Escalon struggled with passing the ball for most of the match as the Warriors’ contained Bretta Brooks.

In the second quarter, Salece Machado extended the Warriors’ lead, 14-0, after she threw a touchdown pass to Natalie Corrella. Orestimba entered halftime with a two-possession lead.

Despite its struggles, the Cougars found a way to get back into the game late in the third quarter.

After leading Escalon with a drive near Orestimba’s endzone, Brooks threw a short pass to Kenadie Baker on fourth down to make it a one-possession game, 14-7.

With much more time left in the match, Escalon now had the opportunity to tie the game. However, both team’s offenses were stagnant for the remaining parts of the match.

From not converting fourth down attempts to dropping passes, both teams couldn’t find anything going offensively. However Orestimba’s defense stepped when it needed to.

Near the Warriors’ 40-yard line on fourth down, Brooks couldn’t get a down conversion to keep the Cougars’ drive alive.

With the help of two down conversions from Mariah Moreno, Orestimba were now 6 yards from the endzone.

After failing its first three down attempts to score, the Warriors’ were met with an ultimatum: punt the ball back or go for the fourth down.

Labno told his team to go for it on fourth down and they did. Machado decided to run for the endzone but was short. While the Warriors didn’t score, the turnover was what sealed the win for Orestimba as the Cougars had to drive down the field with less than a minute left in regulation. Escalon was unsuccessful as time ran out. 

“We knew that they’re going to get the ball back and have a couple shots, so we need to try to get down as far as we could,” Labno said about the fourth down attempt. “If we went into the endzone, that’s great, but we didn’t want to throw it [in the endzone] because we didn’t want an interception.”

Monday will see a highly anticipated matchup between the two best teams in TVL when Orestimba hosts Hilmar High at 6 p.m. The last time both teams played one another was on Oct. 1 when the Warriors escaped with a 24-18 comeback win on the road in overtime.

Having already played against Hilmar, Labno said the team will need to adjust its defense to quarterback Brisa Gonzales who found success when running against Orestimba’s defense.

“We just need to play the solid defense like we’ve been playing, and just adjust to whatever [Hilmar is] going to throw at us,” he said. 

Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist based in Stanislaus County