The Modesto Bee

MLL & SAL football preview: Stanislaus District teams embrace moves to new leagues

By Quinton Hamilton,

12 days ago

A pair of Stanislaus District teams made a big move as a result of Sac-Joaquin Section realignment, joining the Mother Lode League beginning this season. Riverbank moves into the league one year after playing an independent schedule in 2023. The Bruins, who played in the Trans Valley League from 2018 to 2022, decided to operate without a league in order to bring the spirit of football back to campus. They won three games last season and already have seen an increase in participation. They will have more than 25 players apiece on their junior varsity and varsity teams for their first season in the MLL.

Big Valley Christian enters the MLL after being one of the top teams in the Central California Athletic Alliance. They are in the midst of a culture shift and believe the move provides increased competition for the team, which returns some talented skill position players.

Denair and Waterford remain in the Southern League but welcome Stone Ridge Christian, a team low on numbers but high on talent out of the Merced area. The Knights consistently competed for CCAA titles with Big Valley Christian and return their leading rusher for their first year in the SAL.

Here is a look at some of the local teams that will compete in the Mother Lode and Southern leagues starting this season:

Mother Lode League

Riverbank

Riverbank finally ended the section’s longest losing streak last season, and head coach Joe Pirillo is hoping to see things continue to trend upward. Over the past few seasons, Pirillo said the program has been building in the right direction. It has improved in the classroom, gotten more interest in the program across campus and picked up three wins in 2023, which was the final piece to the rebuild.

“Getting a win under our belt is kind of liberating, in a sense,” he said.

The Bruins went 3-7 last season playing as a freelance team independent from a league, but easily could have been 5-5 with a pair of two-point losses that could have gone either way.

The team has 60 players in its program (29 on varsity, 31 on JV) and welcomes back key players from last year’s team who don’t want their 2023 success to be a fluke. Gabriel Nisperos, Esteban Ruiz, Payton Mayfield and Randall Freitas are senior returners whom Pirillo said the team will rely on to push this year’s team forward. They also return George Serna, who played three games at quarterback after their senior starter was injured. He has fully taken over QB1 responsibilities as a junior and, according to Pirillo, “keeps pushing us in the right direction.”

The Bruins will play their third different schedule in three seasons. They were part of the TVL in 2022, independent last season and joined the Mother Lode League this year after realignment.

Big Valley Christian

The Lions are in the middle of a culture shift. Their players are as bought in as they’ve ever been, the program’s numbers have grown, they’ve doubled their coaching staff and they’ve taken a significant jump in moving from the Central California Athletic Alliance to the Mother Lode League. They saw flashes last season in comeback efforts and a pair of blowout wins — all part of second-year head coach Adam Lema’s plan. This year, he wants them to take that next step.

Lema said they’ve put in the work, they’ve seen it translate in games, now they have to believe they belong.

“When you roll into school, you need to be proud,” he said of his message to the team’s leaders. “You guys put in the hours over the summer. You should be proud of the fact that you can put on that football polo and go to chapel. You should be proud of the fact that you can put on that jersey.”

There’s anticipation that this year’s team could be the most explosive the school’s ever had, Lema said. Its shotgun Wing-T offense will flow through returners Nick Toledo, who led the team with six rushing touchdowns in 2023, Jackson Howell and Titus Beers, two of the team’s top receivers last year, and Noah Castleburry.

The Lions spent the last few seasons as one of the top teams in the CCAA. Their move to the MLL means this year’s 22-man varsity squad plays some of the section’s best small schools — Summerville, Linden and Calaveras — in the most important games of the season. It’s a challenge the Lions embrace.

“Competition is just better for everybody,” Lema said. “It’s better for our players to experience the great programs that have strong traditions. … Last year, we were in a league where at the end, we only had two league games. So our schedule was close to being independent, honestly, because we had to find eight other games every year. So this year, it’s nice. We have more travel, obviously, but it’s a good league.”

MLL participants (alphabetical order)

Big Valley

Bret Harte

Calaveras

Linden

River Islands

Riverbank

Summerville

Southern Athletic League

Denair

▪ Denair is looking to make the postseason for the first time since 2019. That year, the Coyotes made their second straight section title game.

▪ Last season was the five-year anniversary of the Coyotes’ state title season. They won the Division VII section title over Golden Sierra and beat Santee in the Division 7-AA state championship.

▪ The Coyotes remained in the Southern League through realignment. They have been in the league for over two decades.

▪ Two returners were All-League selections in 2023: Jesse Ruelas (offense and defense utility honorable mention) and Efuardo Zacarias (second team defensive line). Both are seniors.

▪ According to MaxPreps, Denair has 29 varsity team members, up 10 players from each the previous two seasons.

Stone Ridge Christian

▪ Stone Ridge joins the Southern League after being one of the successful CCAA programs over the past few seasons.

▪ The Knights finished with one league loss over the past three seasons.

▪ In 2023, the Knights beat Gustine and Mariposa a combined 109 to 20.

▪ Stone Ridge returns one of the Merced area’s top running backs, Daijon O’neil, who as a sophomore rushed for 1,449 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Waterford

▪ The Wildcats have made the section playoffs in two of the last three seasons. In 2023, they lost to Le Grand in the first round.

▪ In 2023, the Wildcats were led by a freshman quarterback, Bryan Martinez, who passed for 2,121 yards and 23 TDs.

▪ None of Waterford’s top seven rushers last season were seniors. The Wildcats had three sophomores, three juniors and a freshman tally all 1,092 yards and 11 touchdowns.

▪ Three juniors and four sophomores accounted for all 2,140 receiving yards and all 23 receiving touchdowns.

▪ Christian Gayle finished with six interceptions and 16 receiving touchdowns in 2023. He is a senior this year.

▪ Waterford finished 2023 with six players tallying more than 50 tackles.