Not long after starting with nothing, White Tigers having great season
Oct. 8, 2021 10:07 PM PT
4S RANCH — When Jon Goodman took over the Escondido Charter High football program, he did not have enough helmets for a program that had not experienced a winning season in a decade.
He only had 40 helmets at first for the entire program.
“I was begging helmets from everyone I could think of,” Goodman admitted.
Now Goodman has enough to outfit his team and loan out a few helmets to other programs in the same boat he was in 2019.
He battled through a losing season and then encountered the coronavirus-shortened season last spring.
That set the stage for this season to wipe out the memory of a 25-70 record since the last winning season.
The White Tigers, thanks to a 42-7 road victory over Maranatha Christian on Friday night, are among the few undefeated teams left in the San Diego Section.
Now 7-0 overall and 4-0 in Pacific League play, they are one victory from tying the school record of 8-3 set in 2009 for coach Greg Brose.
“Our mantra is work hard, live pure, lead with courage and honor one another,” Goodman said. “I had a lot of doubts coming over here because I think we had more coaches than players at the first practice.”
The White Tigers, who have outscored opponents 229-33, have already clinched a third winning season.
Escondido Charter scored touchdowns on its first four possessions with Dane Patterson running for a pair of scores and quarterback Rocko Huntsman’s two TD passes.
“We have a new culture,” said Huntsman, a 5-foot-8, 150-pounder. “I was confident before the season that we could do this.
“We were so young when coach Goodman got here and everyone was a little lazy. No one took football too serious. Everyone takes it seriously now.”
Maranatha Christian (1-5, 0-1) finally got on the board on the final drive of the first half with Stewart hitting Aiden Falk for a 7-yard TD on the last play before halftime, slicing the deficit to 28-7.
Patterson added two more touchdowns in the second half as the White Tigers keep moving toward an undefeated regular season.
There are still games against Parker, Foothills Christian and Classical Academy, which is Goodman’s last head coaching job before coming to Escondido Charter.
“Coach hounds us pretty hard to ignore the scoreboard and play like it’s 0-0 for 48 minutes,” said Huntsman, who was 8-for-11 passing for 139 yards in the game. “I wouldn’t have this any other way.
“There is pressure on us all the time now, but we will ignore it. No, there better not be any trap games out there for us the rest of the way.”
Escondido Charter rushed for 179 yards for a total offense of 318.
Maranatha Christian, which still holds a 5-3 edge in the series, had 175 total yards.
Now that Goodman has more than 90 helmets for his program, he also has an unblemished team.
FOOTBALL
Pacific League
Escondido Charter 42, Maranatha Christian 7
Escondido Charter 7 21 14 0 — 42
Maranatha Christian 0 7 0 0 — 7
EC — Patterson 3 run (Campbell kick)
EC — Barrera 33 pass from Huntsman (Campbell kick)
EC — Patterson 34 run (Campbell kick)
EC — Campbell 4 pass from Huntsman (Campbell kick)
MC — Falk 7 pass from Stewart (Pinneker kick)
EC — Patterson 3 run (Campbell kick)
EC — Patterson 3 run (Campbell kick)