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Multiple Hilmar players earn TVL honors
Hilmar football honors
Hilmar High’s Luis Vargas (pictured accepting the football) was named Most Valuable Player of the Trans-Valley League for the 2022 football season. Sophomore quarterback Caden Bailey (pictured handing off the football) was named the league’s Outstanding Offensive Player (Journal file photo).

Hilmar High’s Luis Vargas was named Most Valuable Player of the Trans-Valley League for the 2022 football season.

Vargas, a senior, rushed for 1,270 yards and 15 touchdowns for the 7-4 Yellowjackets. He also caught 14 passes for 130 yards and another TD.

In TVL action, Vargas’ averages were even better. In six league games, the 5-foot-11, 180-pounder rushed for 734 yards on 76 attempts — good for 9.7 yards per carry and 123 per game.

Vargas and the ’Jackets captured the outright TVL championship and defeated two eventual state champions — Escalon and Hughson — during the league campaign. In those games, Vargas was at his best, delivering a season-high 198 yards against Hughson and 141 against Escalon.

Teammate Caden Bailey, a sophomore quarterback who was promoted from the junior varsity early in the season when senior Hudson Azevedo went down with a shoulder injury, was named the league’s Outstanding Offensive Player.

Bailey made seven starts for the varsity and while he only passed for 552 yards, he rushed for 800, recording 100 or more yards in five of his seven contests. He had a season-high 180 against Hughson.

Hughson’s David Burns was the league’s Outstanding Defensive Player, while the Huskies’ Shaun King was named the Coach of the Year.

Hilmar’s Landon Gomes, along with Escalon’s Ryan Lewis, were dubbed the Outstanding Defensive Lineman, while the Yellowjackets’ Jerado Ponce and Escalon’s Jamin Miller shared the Outstanding Linebacker designation.

Hughson’s Naui Arretche and David Delgado were Outstanding Offensive Lineman and Outstanding Defensive Back, respectively, while Escalon’s Logan Anderson was Outstanding Offensive Back and Owen Nash was Outstanding Receiver.

Hilmar’s first-team honorees included Derek Taylor (WR); Brandon Freitas (OL); Gomes and Isaac Agueda (DL); Jack Inderbitzen (DE/LB); Ponce (ILB); and Noel Lopez (CB).

The Yellowjackets’ second-team honorees were Jax Branco (RB); Agueda, Gomes, Isaac Cardenas and Saul Hernandez (OL); Cardenas and Hernandez (DL); Taylor (DE); Logan Cardoso (ILB); Luke Cox (S) and Jax Jarvis (CB); and McKade Jensen (K/P).