First Madden Poll for 2011

OAKDALE....HANDS DOWN!

I know I am a bit bias, but Oakdale is the better team of the 3.
While Escalon does have a young a physical team and made it to the Bowl games I am not sure they could beat the Oakdale Mustangs. Oakdale is loaded with more talent then Sonora and Escalon combined. Oakdales JV team was tough, they won every game in the league except for Sonora. I believe the JV team would have beat Sonora with no problem if they had there 5 starters on the team who were moved up the Varsity.
Sonora does have a lot of returners and a very good JV team who will be Varsity next season, but Sonora lacks the experience of the Mustang squad and they don't play a real physical brand of football or at least there Juniors didn't. But this is where there future juniors will
help next season.

I want to retract the statement in my post above, "Oakdale has more talent then Escalon and Sonora combined". As I realized this was not an appropriate post nor probably true. I will just say, that Oakdale is going to be loaded with an access and extreme amount of talent next season.

Escalon has 2 of their leaders coming back. RB Josh Miguel is one of the most decorated Juniors this district has seen in a long time! Escalon's QB is the best in the district. Oakdale and Escalon should have hooked up and played in 2011.GAME OF THE DECADE!
This game would have been the BIG one for these two small towns

1 Escalon
2 Oakdale
3 Sonora

As good as Oakdale's going to be,I don't think they could stop #5 Josh Miguel from Escalon!

Miguel plays both ways,so there's no break from his talents

I agree, if Escalon and Oakdale were to play it would have been "THE GAME OF THE DECADE". The turnout would be like nothing that we have probably seen before.

Escalon does have some extremly exceptional players on the team. The two names in which you have mentioned are extemely talented players. I watched the Bowl Games and was very impressed with these two kids and the whole team for that matter.

I often wonder why these two very good programs do not get together and schedule/play a game.

Are both coaches afraid to find out what the outcome might be? I guess for now we are going to have to continue to play this, "IF we were to play, WHO would win game"

MAKEMYDAY wrote:

1 Escalon
2 Oakdale
3 Sonora

As good as Oakdale's going to be,I don't think they could stop #5 Josh Miguel from Escalon!

I have to disagree with you MAKEMYDAY. Oakdale stopped the run on a very good Del Oro team. I know the score was 21-0 and for those of you who were not at this game it looks like they ran all over the Mustangs, but in reality this was not the way it was at all. They had a hard time running against us. The 3 scores that D.O made were, 1 on offense (72 yrd pass) in the middle of the second qtr, the 2nd came from special teams a k.O return which would not have happend if Merzon didn't call a pooch kick, and the 3rd came from defense with an interception that came late in the fourth. This very good D.O team which plays D-2/D-1 schools like Folsom could not do much offensivley. Oakdale had almost twice as many yards rushing than Del Oro.

Both teams will very good next year. If we had a point spread ,I think it would be Escalon by 3.

This game would be a Barnburner and its too bad it wont happen.
Can anyone out there explain why?
They had a opportunity to do this in 2011 and it did not happen.

Mustang, Oakdale lost AC Brown" Defensive player of the year."
Who will step into his shoe's next year??

Oakdale
Escalon
Sonora

If I was making a bet .I would put my money on Escalon.
If they played I would be on the Oakdale side

@sjs... I will get back to you on that. Really not sure who would step into AC's shoes, not even sure if anyone could, that kid had alot of talent, but Oakdale will have some great players comeing up. AC was a great player, but he was not the whole team.

@playball...I wouldn't put all of your money on Escalon if you were makeing a bet against an Oakdale/Escalon game. I garantee you would lose.

Question? you said you would bet on Escalon, but sit on the Oakdale side. Does this mean you are a Oakdale fan, but thinks Escalon would win? just curious.

I see Escalon is winning the poll. Must be alot of Escalon fans on this forum or the same fans keep posting over and over.

[quote="mustang"]@sjs... I will get back to you on that. Really not sure who would step into AC's shoes, not even sure if anyone could, that kid had alot of talent, but Oakdale will have some great players comeing up. AC was a great player, but he was not the whole team.

@playball...I wouldn't put all of your money on Escalon if you were makeing a bet against an Oakdale/Escalon game. I garantee you would lose.

Question? you said you would bet on Escalon, but sit on the Oakdale side. Does this mean you are a Oakdale fan, but thinks Escalon would win? just curious.

I'm an Oakdale fan with good reason,so I would be sitting on the Oakdale side, But I dont pick teams with my heart!

The only way I can be honest with myself if I think of who I would bet cold hard cash on and that team would be Escalon.
And Oakdale won't have the oldest player in high school football history AC Brown!

AC if your out there, I'm just joking! Congrats on your All State Status!

Go AC Brown

Story on AC in the Oakdale leader

[quote="Playball"]

mustang wrote:

@sjs... I will get back to you on that. Really not sure who would step into AC's shoes, not even sure if anyone could, that kid had alot of talent, but Oakdale will have some great players comeing up. AC was a great player, but he was not the whole team.

@playball...I wouldn't put all of your money on Escalon if you were makeing a bet against an Oakdale/Escalon game. I garantee you would lose.

Question? you said you would bet on Escalon, but sit on the Oakdale side. Does this mean you are a Oakdale fan, but thinks Escalon would win? just curious.

I'm an Oakdale fan with good reason,so I would be sitting on the Oakdale side, But I dont pick teams with my heart!

@playball...I don't pick teams with my heart, well, maybe a little, but as I stated in another post I believe Sonora is going to be really good and possibly give Oakdale something to worry about next season. So, if I picked my team solely by heart I would not have made this statement.

Oakdale lost to one of Del Oro's weaker teams of recent years. Ask any DO watcher and they will tell you this was not a typical DO team. No where near as physical as teams of years past. WHS was in a race with them the whole game. No doubt OD is good but then again so are other teams.

@WHS...Yes, there are many teams that are good. I by no means think that Oakdale has nothing to worry about next season, especially in post season. Once in playoffs I know Oakdale will be playing some really great teams.

But this Mustang team should be just as good if not better then this seasons. There has been alot of talk about this team comeing up and I am looking forward to seeing if they can live up to the hype and expectations that everyone has.

Oakdale has not "played down" in recent years unless there was an advantage to doing so. Oakdale typically will play up, or play a team with some name recognition. I believe Merzon's scheduling strategy has been aimed at playing teams that are larger and/or have some name recognition with section commissioners. Like Modesto Christian last year, Escalon is now a state championship team, so the "playing down" aspect is gone from an Oakdale/Escalon game and there is a reason for Oakdale to schedule Escalon.

That being said, remember that scheduling a team involves much more than simply wanting to play them. There must be a mutually open week on the schedule and each team must balance home and away games. So even though there may be a desired match-up, it's not always practical or possible.

If Oakdale did play Escalon in 2011, I would take Oakdale in a close game. Yes, Escalon has talent, great coaching, and a couple serious offensive weapons. However, all the same can be said of Oakdale. Where Oakdale has the advantage, IMO, is on the defensive side of the ball and in experience. I think Oakdale's defense could slow Escalon's offense more than the Escalon could stop Oakdale's. But like I said, it would be a good contest.

@TimHub, I hear that Oakdale is playing Aptos in pre-season and Cordova. Not sure if it is true but just what I have heard, and if they are then I am not sure that Oakdale would be playing up this next season.

Aptos went 5-4-2 overall and 3-1-2 in league and lost in the first round of playoffs. I believe this was the first time since 2006 that they have been in the playoffs.

Cordova went 3-7 overall and 2-3 in league and did not make it to the playoffs. This could be considered playing down just a bit.

Are they larger schools?

Cordoval high has about 2003 students and Aptos has around 1341 students. Both play in D-3.

I thought Merzon would schedule some D-1/D-2 for pre-season or at least teams that have good records, or teams that make it to the playoffs year after year.

I remember reading that Aptos hired a new coach, I can't recall if he was hired this last season or if he is starting this comeing up season, but he has over 25 years of experience and is supposed to be a pretty good Coach.

Hmmmmm, I wonder if this is the first sign of how the new playoff format is changing scheduling strategies.

WHS wrote:

Oakdale lost to one of Del Oro's weaker teams of recent years. Ask any DO watcher and they will tell you this was not a typical DO team. No where near as physical as teams of years past. WHS was in a race with them the whole game. No doubt OD is good but then again so are other teams.

DO's team this season may have been the weakest team that they have had in years, but Oakdale had the youngest Mustang team in Oakdale history. This has never been done at Oakdale high. Bringing up 5 sophmore and putting them in starting positions and makeing it to the Championship game was big, not to mention that no one even thought they would get passed the first round of playoffs with such a young team. I believe that most of the other starters were juniors.

It's hard to compare teams from year to year. Every year is different and a coach has to try to make a team the best team possible with what talent they have to work with.
.
If I had to compare Oakdale and there past teams it would be there 2007 team when Oakdale won the Championship against Whitney. Oakdale had every weapon that year. They had a great QB, receivers, RB's, you name it they had it.

It's no doubt that OD hwill be very good the next two years. This coming Junior class is a good one. those 5 soph's wwere very good.

The year Whitney lost to Oakdale, they were a very heavy junior laden team. The next season they blew everyone and I mean everyone out they played. Many were wanting a rematch but it wasn't in the cards.

DO, while Champs and it's hard to say a down season when one wins the section but it is felt by many not a typical power Del Oro team.

They also were heavy with juniors and shopuld be very good next season. WHS another team loaded with juniors, returns allot of quality players. looks as if D3 will be a great playoff.

The Oakdale 2007 team did have it all ,and a lot a people were excited about this team coming together before it actually happen!
The Mustang upcoming Junior class has been creating the same kind of buzz.
To make it to the Section Championship with 5 starting 10th graders , just gives you a taste of what your all about to see


I also agree with WHS,The Whitney upcoming Junior class is going to be dam good .They actually beat Oakdale as Freshman!

They will be short of thier very talented RB. He defected to DO #5 and did his damage again to Oakdale. Yes he was a soph. playing up.

Isn't DO right on the fence between D2 and D3? Depending on the teams that make the playoffs, DO could be D2 next year, yes?

WHS wrote:

They will be short of thier very talented RB. He defected to DO #5 and did his damage again to Oakdale. Yes he was a soph. playing up.

Loosing a talented RB in High School can make or break a high school team.Most High school teams don't have the depth to fill the position.