Pigskin Preview - Badgers 2008

By Mike Hackworth

(Updated: Thursday, September 11, 2008, 7:34 PM)

The Badgers football team will kickoff the 32nd season of gridiron action at Yosemite High School as they open with the Panthers of San Joaquin Memorial High School in a Friday night contest on September 12 in Badgers Stadium.
Badgers on Radio:
The games will be broadcast live on KTNS AM 1060 - the home of the Badgers. Veteran announcer Jason Anaforian will call the play-by-play action in his seventh season as the voice of the Badgers. Games will be rebroadcast on Saturday morning.
The Coaches:
Yosemite head football coach Aaron Eames is 89-52 (.584) in his 13th season as the Badgers head coach. He has led the Badgers to four league championships and 16 playoff appearances in the last six seasons and two Division III Central Section championships.
The Badgers head coach is 1-1 against the Panthers in the last two seasons.
San Joaquin Memorial head coach Anthony Goston is in his fifth season as the Panthers' head coach with a record of 24-22.
The Badgers - Preview:
Coming off their eighth winning season in a row, something which has not been accomplished at Yosemite in more than 30 years, the Badgers enter the 2008 season with a mixture of returning lettermen and youthful depth with 14 returning lettermen and eight starters from a 7-5 team a year ago which reached the Division II playoffs.
Since Eames took over the program prior to the 1996 season, the Badgers have gone 89-52 with four Division III Central Section championship game appearances and the 2002 and 2004 titles.
"Our program was successful in Division II we knocked-off the number three seed by double digits last year (Sunnyside 43-14, the Badgers were a 14 seed out of 15 teams)," Eames said. "Returning to Division III is good for us and we are certainly one of the favorites, but this team has to come together as a team for us to be successful."
Yosemite reached the Central Section playoffs for the second time in its two seasons in Division II falling at Reedley in 2007, 29-24 after a late 62 yard run by the Pirates.
One of the team's strengths that Eames points out are the skill positions on offense, including senior quarterback Jesse Lownsbury (6-feet-1-inch, 210 pounds) who completed 172 passes in 301attempts (both Yosemite records) for 2,442 yards in 12 games, just 70 yards shy of Shawn Long's record of 2,512 yards accomplished in 13 games, and senior wide receiver Cody Shahan (6-feet-0-inches, 175 pounds) who caught 61 passes (Jon Blea set the previous record of 60 during the 2005 season) for 990 yards.
But the Badgers also face the task of replacing four starting offensive lineman.
"Our offensive line is young and athletic and we need for them to take some huge strides," Eames said.
On the defensive side of the ball, the team brings back four starters from last season.
These include senior All-North Sequoia League defensive tackle Greg Smith who will move to inside linebacker, junior All-League defensive back Jackson Glines moves to safety and junior defensive back Detri Dunn and Shahan round out the speedy secondary. Again, the Badgers must replace the holes left by last year's seniors.
"We are inexperienced on the defensive side of the ball but our secondary and linebackers are very athletic and our defensive line plays very hard," Eames said.
The Panthers - Preview:
The San Joaquin Memorial Panthers return 12 starters from last year's team. With the defense built around D1 prospect senior Sullivan Grosz (LB/DE, 6-feet-4-inches, 245 pounds). In 2007 Grosz made 114 tackles (76 solo) and had two sacks. The Panthers defenders look to be as opportunistic as in 2007 when it collected 19 sacks, 12 interceptions and recovered seven fumbles for a Memorial team that went 4-7 last season.
In the '07 game between the two foes, the Panthers picked off three Lownsbury passes and recovered one of the Badger quarterback's fumbles in the 24-14 loss.
Grosz will get support from junior David Garcia (LB, 6-feet-0-inches, 220 pounds), Alex Coyle (CB, 5-feet-9-inches, 165 pounds) and junior Wesley Miller (S, 5-feet-10-inches, 165 pounds).
On the offensive side of the ball, the Panthers will be led by Daniel Whittemore (QB, 6-feet-2-inches, 185 pounds) completed 48 percent of his passes in '07 (20 of 41) while playing in six games, starting in two, including a 27-6 victory of Central Valley Christian. The senior signal caller six returning receivers, but Dimitri Gonos (TE, 6-feet-1-inches, 200 pounds) is the most experienced with four catches a year ago.
According to coach Goston on the team's MaxPreps Internet site: "We have good leadership and our strength and speed is much better. We also have more depth than last year. This team has the ingredients you need to be successful in high school football."
Last meeting:
September 21, 2007 at Badgers Stadium in Oakhurst.
Despite four Yosemite turnovers the Badgers prevailed 24-14 in a game that showcased the Yosemite defense.
The Badgers jumped out in from 28-6 in the first half on a pair of Josiah Stansbury touchdown runs and Lownsbury passing and running for the other two.
Rocco Dicicco scored the lone Panther's points on a long 41yard touchdown pass from Blake Stanley.
The Yosemite defense did the rest spending most of the evening in Memorial's backfield keeping Stanley company on 10 QB sacks. The stingy Badgers "D" held the visitors to -16 yards rushing on 28 attempts.
Stansbury finished with 107 yards on 31 carries and two touchdowns. Lownsbury completed 15 of 29 passes for 220 yards but had three interceptions.
Where they are ranked:
Preseason polls being what they are, the Fresno Bee has Yosemite ranked at number 13 overall in the Central Section and second to Tehachapi in Division III. MaxPreps list the Badgers at 19 in the section.
Memorial is not ranked in Division II by the Fresno Bee and MaxPreps lists the Panthers at 43 overall in the Central Section.
Who will win:
The Badgers have the best passing tandem in the section and the Panthers have an untested secondary, that should answer that, but beating the odds is what football is all about. Yosemite 27, Memorial 21. The home field advantage jury is still out on the Badgers.
Just for fun:
In September of 1996, before he had even coached his first game for Yosemite, Aaron Eames made the statement, "If our running game comes along, I would like to run a balanced attack with both the pass and the run."
The following Central Section total offense results proves the Coach's balanced offense point:
Yr Rank Run Pass Pts Lge Fin Play
07 5th 2423 2442 32.6 2nd 1-1
06 7th 2195 2124 26.9 1st 1-1
05 7th 2385 2624 38.7 1st 2-1
04 1st 2410 2525 36.9 1st 3-0
Interestingly enough, in 2004, Yosemite finished first in total offense in the Central Section, Chowchilla was second and Dos Palos was fourth.
The Badgers were Division III Section champs, Chowchilla was Division IV champs and Dos Palos finished second in D-IV losing in the championship game to the Redskins.
The three teams finished 6-1 in the NSL with Yosemite losing to Dos Palos, Chowchilla lost to Yosemite and Dos Palos lost to Chowchilla. THAT was a good year for the North Sequoia League!