A Friday night road game was a success for the Oakdale High School varsity football team. On Oct. 10, the Mustangs went to Patterson and defeated the Tigers by a final score of 56-14. A 22-point second quarter helped lead the Mustangs to their third Valley Oak League victory of the season.
Oakdale’s defense got things rolling early as Dex Edwards picked off Patterson’s Caden Lozano at their own 14-yard line on the Tigers opening drive. The Mustangs took advantage of the turnover as Richard Flores scored the first points of the night on a 60-yard rushing touchdown with 3:52 left in the first quarter. The Tigers answered back with a 38-yard keeper by Lozano to tie the game at 7-7 with 1:07 remaining in the first quarter. Just 13 seconds into the second quarter, Oakdale scored on a 63-yard rushing touchdown by Flores to go up 14-7.
Coming off his monster game against East Union last week, Wes Burford also got on the scoreboard against the Tigers. In the second quarter, Burford scored from a yard out to make it a 22-7 game with 6:38 left in the half.
The Tigers were threatening to score until Lozano threw an interception in the end zone with 45 seconds left in the half. It was Beau Kesterson who came away with the interception. With just two seconds left in the half, Flores scored his third touchdown of the game on a 25-yard run, making it 29-7 at the half. Flores finished the game with 10 carries for 185 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
The third quarter saw Burford score a pair of touchdowns. He scored from 30 yards out with 7:02 left in the quarter to extend the lead to 36-7. Patterson’s final points of the night came when Lozano rushed it in from the one-yard line with just under five minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Mustang defense, however, continued to punish the Tigers as Chase Baron came away with a fumble recovery with less than two minutes left in the third quarter. One play later Burford scored for the third time in the game on a 54-yard rushing play to make it a 43-14 game with 1:44 remaining in the quarter. In the fourth quarter Burford found the end zone for the fourth and final time on a 14-yard rushing touchdown with 8:36 left in regulation. Burford finished the night with 21 carries for 233 rushing yards and four scores. The final score of the evening came when Anthony Navarro burned the Tigers for a 34-yard rushing touchdown with 1:17 left in the game.
“It was a little different than last week,” Oakdale head coach Garrett Martin said, as it was an offensive showdown between Oakdale and East Union on Oct. 3, with the Mustangs prevailing 71-55. “Our defense did very well tonight. Three turnovers plus a few more turnovers on downs really helped motivate our offense tonight. We know we have a big one next week and we need to prepare for that.”
The game that Martin referred to is against Central Catholic this Friday night. The Raiders are 2-1 in league play and are coming off a 61-29 road win over East Union. Oakdale is 3-0 in league play and have won six straight games. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Oakdale’s junior varsity team came away with a 14-0 road win over Patterson on Friday night, while the freshman team posted a 48-6 home win Thursday night against the Tigers.
