Two days before its regular season finale, Orestimba High’s flag football team narrowly defeated Hilmar High, 33-31, to win the Trans Valley League for the second straight year. Head coach John Labno said the win offered consolation for the team, including himself, especially since Orestimba won in overtime at Hilmar earlier this month.
While the moment was worth celebrating for, Labno told the team that they still have one goal in mind: to win the Sac-Joaquin Section championship.
“We reached one of the goals we wanted, which was to be the TVL champ, but we’ve got bigger goals,” Labno said. “We would like to advance, continuing to advance through the playoffs coming up.”
The Warriors concluded its regular season with a 19-6 win on the road against Hughson High. Orestimba surpassed last season’s overall win count of 21 wins by finishing at 22-2 (10-0) overall and going undefeated in TVL play. Orestimba will be the top seed in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 postseason.
While the score may suggest that the match wasn’t close, it was anything but that.
Leading with a 13-6 lead with than two minutes remaining, Hughson was at its 20-yard line. Looking for an open teammate, Leah Hobby’s pass was intercepted by Orestimba’s Imelda Beltran. This later set up the game-sealing drive as Mariah Moreno ran 20 yards to the end zone for a rushing touchdown, leaving Hughson 19-6 win.
Throughout the season, Orestimba has played in multiple tight games but has found ways to win. Much of that can be credited to the Warriors’ players ability of handling adversity and buying into being a selfless team, Labno said.
“It’s pretty remarkable to watch and see how close knit they are,” he said. “I think they really care and want to support and do the best for each other on the team.”
After a scoreless opening quarter from both teams, Orestimba opened the second quarter with a touchdown. At Hughson’s 15-yard line, Salece Machado threw a pass to Madelyn Perez, who ran into the end zone to give the Warriors a 6-0 lead. During the extra point attempt, Machado’s pass intended for Perez was tipped by a Hughson defender. The ball, however, went towards Beltran, who scored the extra point.
Hughson responded with a drive to Orestimba’s 25-yard line with the help of a couple of passes from Hobby and three penalties called on Orestimba, two of which were false starts. After getting a stop on fourth down, the Warriors were called for roughing the passer penalty. This resulted in a Huskies’ first down on the Warriors’ 10-yard line.
Hobby threw a pass to Keylee Lundquist towards the left side of the end zone for the team’s first touchdown, 7-6. Hughson missed the extra point attempt to tie the game.
Near the end of the first half, Hailey Starr threw a 32-yard pass to Perez, who got Orestimba at Hughson’s 2-yard line. After calling a timeout, Orestimba couldn’t convert on the opportunity to close the half.
Orestimba and Hughson went scoreless in the third quarter as both teams failed to convert on fourth down to complete potential scoring drives.
After getting a much-needed stop on fourth down, Hughson had its best opportunity of the second half to score. Hobby threw a 32-yard pass to Lundquist to get to Orestimba’s 18-yard line. The moment, however, was short-lived after Hobby’s pass was intercepted by Perez.
This later set up the Warriors at Hughson’s 10-yard line with less than four minutes remaining. Julianna Figueroa received a handoff from Machado to score a rushing touchdown to lead 13-6.
The Warriors later got a defensive stop to win the game.
With the postseason approaching, Orestimba will wait to see who they’ll host Wednesday in pursuit of a section championship.
Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.
