The Yellowjacket seniors heard the words, “Are you ready for some football?” echo from the press box of McSweeney Field one last time as they took the field against Mountain House High for their final game of the regular season Friday night.
The answer was a resounding “yes” from their performance as the ‘Jackets displayed a potent offensive attack that earned them a share of the Trans Valley League championship with a 42-14 victory over the Mountain House Mustangs.
“We did what we had to do tonight,” said Frank Marques, Hilmar head coach. “The starters came out, they were solid—and they moved the ball well. We took care of business early and everyone got a chance to play for senior night.”
Taking care of business early is an understatement as Daniel Teixeira connected with four different receivers for four touchdowns in the first half.
The ‘Jackets blocked a punt on the Mustang’s opening drive to force their turnover on downs and inch them closer to the first taste of the Mountain House end zone.
Hilmar’s opening drive started deep in Mustang territory at their 13-yard line. Two plays later they were first on the scoreboard as Teixeira completed a pass to Cody Rentfro that he converted to a touchdown with 10:03 left in the first quarter.
“We ran some plays that we drew for this team,” said Teixeira. “It was just simple plays because we didn’t want to show too much on film for next week’s playoffs, but it seemed to work.”
George Banks had most of the carries for the Mustangs and picked up huge gains in many of their drives.
Jarrod Willis intercepted one of those passes and brought the ball back to the Yellowjackets' 41-yard line. Teixeira capitalized on this momentum shift and completed a 49-yard pass to Chase Kindberg.
“I threw to four different guys, it was cool to get those touchdowns in early and be able to get the other senior guys a chance to get in and play,” said Teixeira.
Teixeira threw back-to-back 49-yard touchdowns, the following one to Brandon Almeida after Mountain House pushed back the line of scrimmage from three false starts on procedure calls.
The Yellowjackets recovered a fumble on the play and set up their line of scrimmage in Mustang territory as Teixeira connected with Alex Chavez for a 35-yard touchdown pass.
“Chavez just broke the single season receiving record tonight,” said Marques. “He only needed 16 yards to break the record and he got more than that in two catches he had tonight.”
Mountain House put some points on the board in the second half with a pair of touchdowns and finished the game strong, but it was not enough to mask the damage that Hilmar had done in the first half.
Teixeira finished the night 5-for-7 with 166 total yards and four touchdown passes.
“This team is really firing at all cylinders, our defense is playing really well, our offense has quickened and we’re excited for playoffs,” said Marques. “I don’t care who we’re playing; We’re ready.”
