There was a lot of “outside noise” surrounding the Hilmar High football program heading into their season opener on Friday night at McSweeney Field, as longtime head coach Frank Marques described it.

But for all the talk about Marques retiring at the end of the season and the loss of dynamic playmakers like Caden Bailey and Merek Ellerd to graduation, the Hilmar High football team seemed dead set on one thing — returning to the gridiron to play hard-nosed football and prove doubters wrong.

They did exactly that in the form of a dominant 32-0 win over Grace Davis of Modesto, a game in which their offense used two quarterbacks throughout the night and had eight ball carriers, and their defense forced five turnovers and a pair of safeties.

“It was just a really great win,” Marques said. “The fact that we have this much depth and there are this many kids that are becoming part of the team and contributing is really a fantastic thing.

“The defense had a great night tonight, shutting out this Davis team, which is a pretty potent offense, to keep them off the board was really special.”

Junior safety Nathan Ayala was the unquestioned tone-setter for the Yellowjackets, as he intercepted Caleb Zaragoza on the third play from scrimmage. He promptly followed it up by breaking off a 26-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive. From that point forward, it was a defensive slugfest, with each team trading possessions until midway through the second quarter.

“Davis, we watched a lot of film and they basically run the same offense as us,” Ayala said. “We studied them this whole week… That (interception) was a spark, and especially with the touchdown, everybody was going crazy.”

With just over seven minutes in the first half, similar scenes unfolded. After a sack by junior Lucas Beo pushed the Spartans back 13 yards and pinned them inside their own 10-yard line, a low snap on fourth down forced their punter’s knee to hit the ground inside the end zone for a safety and make it a 9-0 game.

After an empty four-minute possession from the ‘Jackets, Jacob Sward placed a punt at the Davis 8-yard line, and on the first and only play of the drive, junior Dominick Clayton ran down Zaragoza and forced a grounding penalty while he was in the end zone, marking another safety to extend the lead to 11-0.

Senior Kaden Cobb snagged the second Hilmar interception of the night with four seconds to go before the intermission. And in the second half, it was the Adam Branco show.

The sophomore running back, after compiling just 15 yards on eight rushes in the first half, was handed the ball nine times, proceeding to rush for 45 yards and three touchdowns to push the lead to 32-0 and helping milk significant time off the clock.

Branco’s first score was a 3-yard rush on Hilmar’s first drive out of the half, while his second came on the team’s very next possession, punching it in from the half-yard line early in the fourth quarter. He capped off the hat trick with another 3-yard burst with two minutes remaining in the contest.

“At the beginning, it was a little rough. They stopped me pretty good,” said Branco, who described his style of running as tough and downhill. “But I feel after the second quarter, I got my second wind. We got out there, and with our team bond, just pushed through. And the blocking was a lot better.”

As for the quarterback play, snaps were split evenly between juniors Cohen Felber and Jorden Jacobo, who each passed five times for a combined 67 yards. On the ground, Felber rushed for 41 yards while Jacobo gained 56, a bulk of those coming on a 37-yard dash in the fourth quarter.

“It's a straight switch off between those two, because they're both doing a great job,” Marques said. “It's just like any other position. If we have tailbacks doing a great job, we're switching back and forth. I don't think we need to have a definite starter, as long as they're both performing, they keep each other fresh, and they're such good teammates. In practice, they get along really well, in the game they're always talking to each other, they're just a good compliment to each other. It’s a great situation to have two guys that can actually carry the ball and can throw the ball. We were really blessed to have two guys at quarterback like that.”

The Yellowjackets will look to keep opponents on their toes with their constant rotations at each position next week when they travel to Los Banos, who lost 43-19 to Dos Palos on Friday.

“We definitely have momentum heading into this next game,” Ayala said.

“Hopefully, this game shows other teams what Hilmar can do,” Branco added.