First-year Pitman head coach Braden Plaa knows the deal.

A 20-17 loss to Kimball (Tracy) in one of the Sac-Joaquin Section’s inaugural bowl games Friday leaves the Pride with a 5-6 record — the seventh consecutive season the team has finished below .500.

“Our kids battled really hard this year,” said Plaa. “It’s disappointing for them to drop this game, but when you look at the big picture we had a really good season. Our record maybe wasn’t a winning one, but we took a step in the right direction for this program. Every game that we played, we were in.”

It’s true. Every game Pitman played this year — with the exception of a 28-0 loss to Downey that was a scoreless tie at halftime — was within a single score in the fourth quarter. Three of the Pride’s losses this year were by three points or less.

The Jaguars came into Friday’s game with a misleading 1-9 record. On the field in 2025, they were 4-6 but had to forfeit three games for what head coach Nico Herron called “an adult issue.”

“It had nothing to do with our players or our coaches,” said Herron. “That was just something our players had to suffer through. Our record does not reflect the men I coach or the men I work with on our coaching staff.”

With the score tied 17-17 late in the fourth quarter, the Jaguars took a 20-17 advantage when kicker Jordan Ortiz booted a 27-yard field goal with 4:04 to play in the contest.

Pitman’s Mason Helwick fielded the ensuing kick on about the 30 and and slalomed between defenders along the sideline to bring the ball out to his own 46.

The Pride had four minutes and all three of their timeouts to cover 54 yards. But on the first play from scrimmage, they went for broke, and R.J. Wilharm’s pass was picked off by Apollo Flores at about the 25 and returned 8 yards to the 33 with 3:46 to play.

Pitman held running back Keyshawn Bartlow to gains of 1, 4, and 3 yards, bringing up fourth-and-2 from the 41. The Jaguars called what seemed like an ill-advised timeout with 2:37 to play, but quarterback Richard Sandoval found Yuvraj Balagan between the hashes for a gain of 16 yards, effectively putting the game away.

“I think we can hang our hat on the fact that we competed in all 11 games this season,” said Plaa. “We’ve got to get this program going into Year 2, and our goal will be to, obviously, take another step forward. And that step will be to have a winning season.”

The Pride got things going on a 1-yard TD plunge from Helwick with 6:12 to play in the opening quarter. Helwick had gained 29 on the previous play; his dive to the pylon came up just short.

Kimball countered with a touchdown on its next possession, going 65 yards on 11 plays, and capping the drive with Sandoval’s 18-yard strike to Flores. A two-point conversion gave the Jaguars an 8-7 lead.

Pitman regained the advantage when Wilharm hit Ethan Estacio on a 24-yard toss, making it 14-8.

Kimball scored next with 3:56 to play in the first half when Dawson Pelech delivered a pick-six from 13 yards out to make it 14-14 — Ortiz missed on the PAT.

The Jags took a 17-14 lead on a 30-yard field goal by Ortiz with 6:59 remaining in the third, and Pitman tied it on Aaron Garcia’s 23-yard boot with 3.1 seconds left in the third.

“That’s a really good Kimball team,” said Plaa. “Their record is 1-9 on MaxPreps, but if you look at the teams that they beat, I think it was a pretty good pairing by the CIF.

“My assessment of the bowl game is that I really liked it. I thought it was a good opportunity for our seniors to play one more time at home. Unfortunately, things didn’t go our way.”