On Oct. 31 at Loftin Stadium, the Atwater Falcons defeated the Los Banos Tigers freshman team by 38-8.
Despite the loss, the young Tigers (4-4-1) had a fine freshman season and showed promise for its football future.
Not only were the Falcons (10-0) undefeated, but the members had only given up one score all year long. The Tigers were able to put together a 74-yard scoring drive against Atwater.
Tigers quarterback Zaevin Cancino (12/27 passing, 157 yards, and a touchdown) engineered the scoring drive by rushing for 25 yards on the ground and completing passes to Issac Garza, Austin Ladd and two strikes to Elijah Chiappetta (four receptions, 81 yards, and a TD).
The last one covered 35 yards for the TD. Cancino ran in the conversion to give the Tigers its eight points. The young quarterback completed passes to five receivers: Ladd, Chiappetta, Garza, Maggio Carter and Joseph Freitas.
Cancino had a successful freshman season (54/113 passing, 853 yards, nine TDs, 85 carries, 387 yards and eight TDs). He frequently targeted Chiappetta (26 receptions, 551 yards and six TDs).
Bradley Villagrana paced the Tigers ground with 31 carries for 120 yards and two TDs. Early in the year, the Tigers lost leading tackler Zachery Yates, who suffered a season-ending injury, but Los Banos had several defenders with fine freshman seasons.
Jesus Hernandez (31 tackles) paced the defense, followed by Villagrana (27 tackles), Chiappetta (25 tackles) and Garza (24 tackles). The Falcons Jeffrey Barnthouse had 24 tackles, and Ladd had 21 stops.
