HUGHSON — New division, same Huskies.

The Hughson High football program, having moved up a division in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs after completing a championship three-peat a season ago, made easy work of Pioneer (Woodland) in the opening game of the Division IV bracket on Friday night at Husky Memorial Stadium, claiming victory by a 49-6 score.

The No. 3 Huskies (9-2) pulled away from the No. 6 Patriots (7-4) with the help of an explosive passing attack led by freshman quarterback Hudson Baldwin, who passed for 219 yards and four touchdowns on just six completions.

The Huskies will travel to take on second-seeded Roseville next week in the semifinal round. The Tigers defeated No. 7 Escalon by a 49-30 score on Friday. Hughson defeated the Cougars 29-6 in a Trans-Valley League clash on Oct. 3.

Hughson entered Friday’s contest without having played a game in three weeks, as their regular season bye landed in Week 10 and last week’s slate on the section calendar was dedicated to regional bowl games. 

“I was really worried about the three weeks off,” said King. “That's a long time, but the boys did good. They came out and made a couple mental mistakes here and there, but that’s what happens when you haven't been on the field for that long, I'm definitely happy.”

Most of those mental mistakes, including a pair of offsides infractions on Pioneer’s first possession of the game, came after the Huskies had already taken a 7-0 lead. On only their sixth play from scrimmage, junior receiver Titus Beers found himself with a step in front of a pair of Patriot defenders, easily hauling in a pass over the middle from Baldwin and taking it the 68-yard distance.

Baldwin and Beers connected again over the middle on Hughson’s second drive of the night, with the 6-foot-2, 180-pound wideout making a catch in traffic near midfield and evading three defenders on his way to a 52-yard touchdown.

The two touchdowns were the lone receptions by Beers.

Baldwin explained that senior wideout Bryce McDaniel, a three-star commit to Fresno State, had been drawing some double teams early on, giving Beers just enough room to get himself open and make plays with the ball in his hands.

“I saw the safeties carry with Bryce, so anything over the top was open,” said the 6-foot-1, 175-pound signal caller.

“After that first throw, I knew me and Huddy were on the same page,” Beers added. “The safety came down, Huddy saw it, and it was just a perfect ball. He just trusted me after that and we were able to do it again.”

That didn’t mean McDaniel went without his own magnificent moment. In his lone catch of the game, midway through the second quarter, Baldwin delivered a screen pass to McDaniel, who behind lead blocker Valente Sora, was able to race down the home sideline for a 59-yard touchdown.

Soria and Beers are both two-way players, playing predominantly at each end of the defensive line. Three minutes after senior running back Eli Wilbanks scored a 4-yard touchdown to extend the Hughson lead to 28-6 in the third quarter, Soria hauled in a screen pass and rumbled to a 31-yard score. On the ensuing drive, Soria recorded his second sack of the night to go along with a three tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

“Valente is the type of player that any coach would want to have,” King said. “He’s the soul of this defense. Personality-wise, he's awesome. He does everything right, and he's one of those guys that, in my coaching career, I absolutely love.”

“There's a lot of pride in that,” Soria said in response. “Just doing whatever it takes for the team, and just setting up those plays, on both sides of the ball. (Offensively), most of the time, I'm just blocking, but I don't mind. I love blocking for them. They make amazing plays and just opens up the opportunities for me later to go ahead and score.”

Beers also added two tackles for loss while pressuring Pioneer quarterback Jordan Constancio throughout the night.

“When we got Titus put in opposite of Valente, it’s pick your poison on defense,” King said. “It's been a great blend.”

Pioneer’s top playmaker throughout the year had been senior receiver Devion Corely, who was responsible for the lone points of the game after taking a shovel pass at the line of scrimmage and running the 41-yard distance for a touchdown. Other than that, he was held to -1 yard on seven rushes and 74 yards on five receptions. Corely and tailback Joe Mendez slipped a combined five times while carrying the ball on the wet grass field. It had been raining in Hughson for most of the day.

“The gameplan for the past two weeks was to stop No. 5, simple as that,” King said. “I mean, No. 5 is the guy that can beat you, and our focus was on stopping him and making them beat us in another way. The plan worked.

With a running clock in the fourth quarter, the Huskies received rushing touchdowns from senior Alex Vargas (eight yards) and sophomore Caden Bowerman (23 yards) to cap off the night’s scoring.

“This game showed that we can put up numbers,” Baldwin said. “After a game like this, it gives us a whole lot of confidence moving forward.”

There will be no rugged grass to run on next week for the Huskies to take advantage of, as they will enter a Roseville stadium with modern turf, fit for their speedy skill players.
“They're very fast,” King said. “I was really hoping to get the two seed to get them down here on the grass, but they have the turf up there, so it's going to be another case of finding who their guy is and do our best to contain them.”