It’s been five years since Denair qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section football playoffs, a time marked by high effort from the players but low turnout for a program that celebrated a state Division 7 championship in 2018.

The lean years made the taste of victory all the sweeter Friday night as Denair made a triumphant return to the postseason with a commanding 49-16 blowout of Delta of Clarksburg in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 7 tournament.

“It felt great,” summed up Denair Coach Anthony Armas, whose club led 34-0 in the third quarter before Delta finally scored. “Playoff games have a different feel.  Our players were playing at a different level.”

There were plenty of heroes for the home team.

Degan Butler carried 18 times for 174 yards, Jesse Ruelas gained 54 yards on the ground and scored three touchdowns, Alex Vargas ran for two touchdowns and caught two passes for another 46 yards, Derek Potter completed all four of his passes for 75 yards and a score, and Austin Silva caught a TD pass and also intercepted a pass on defense.

But the biggest play of the night, according to Armas, happened when 6-foot-5, 215-pound defensive lineman Brody McFarland returned a Delta fumble for a touchdown in the second quarter to make the score 21-0.

“We had just punted two plays before — our only punt of the game,” Armas said. “We were already playing at a pretty high level, but Brody’s scoop-and-score really took the energy of the team to another level.”

McFarland’s moment thrilled the partisan crowd at Jack Lytton Stadium, where most of the home fans were clad all in black – something the Denair players had been lobbying for all season.

“We told them if they wanted the blackout, we needed to host a playoff game,” Armas said. “The crowd was great. You could feel the energy in the stadium.”

Up next for the Coyotes (6-5) is a familiar foe – Stone Ridge Christian (8-2) of Merced, which earned a No.2 playoff seed and a first-round bye after tying with Delhi for first place in the Southern League. Denair finished in a third-place SL tie with Waterford.

The Knights and Coyotes faced each other on Sept. 20 in the SL opener, with Stone Ridge coming away with a 28-6 home victory.

“They are very talented and well coached,” Armas said.

What will it take for Denair to pull off an upset?

“We need to play good assignment football. Each person needs to do their job. No more, no less,” Armas said.

Kickoff Friday is at 7 p.m. in Merced. The winner will advance to the semifinals on Nov. 22 against the winner of this week’s game between No. 3 Elite (8-2) of Vallejo and No. 6 Rio Vista (6-5).

Voters in the Denair Unified School District appear poised to pass a $34.3 million bond measure that
would support major upgrades, especially at the elementary and high school campuses.

With 100% of the early absentee ballots and votes cast at precincts Tuesday counted, Measure Z had
1,445, or 61.9%, “yes” votes and 889, or 38.1%, “no” votes. It takes 55% for the measure to pass.

The totals are from a 1:17 a.m. update from the Stanislaus County Election Office. There still are an
unknown number of absentee ballots that were returned since Saturday to verify and count.

Measure Z would add $60 per $100,000 of assessed value to property owners’ tax bills, as indicated in
the sample ballot provided to each voter. However, this tax rate will not be levied until the district’s
2001 election bonds are paid off in 2028. Therefore, the new Measure Z tax rate would be offset by a
scheduled reduction in future rates, and there is no projected increase in overall bond rates to
taxpayers.

Superintendent Terry Metzger said that the money raised from Measure Z would pay for a range of
much-needed improvements in the district, many of them at Denair Elementary Charter Academy, the
district’s oldest campus.

 Construction of two new classroom wings
 Relocation of the kitchen to the gym (currently, much of the cooking for DECA students is done
at Denair Middle School)
 Creation of a drop off/pick up and bus zone (like at DMS) on Madera Avenue for efficiency and
safety
 Conversion of the old cafeteria into an administration building
 Security enhancements, including making DECA a single-point entry campus

Measure Z money also would be used to make Denair Charter Academy a single-point entry facility,
Metzger said. At Denair High School, the 400 wing of portables would be replaced a permanent
classroom building and other security upgrades completed. DMS, the district’s newest campus, would
receive some classroom upgrades and repairs.

A grass-roots committee of parents, employees and community members worked on the Measure Z
campaign. They got the word out through social media, talking with neighbors and friends, walking
neighborhoods, texting, and direct mailers.

“Funds from Measure Z will be carefully spent to ensure that our children have campuses that support
teaching and learning in a modern and safe environment,” Metzger said.

As part of its passage, Measure Z includes a bond oversight committee. Metzger encouraged residents
interested in serving on the committee to contact the district office.

Back-to-back losses to close out the regular season isn’t the way Denair Coach Anthony Armas envisioned his team preparing for the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 7 football playoffs, but that’s the scenario the Coyotes now face.

Friday’s disappointing 41-14 loss to Waterford on the heels of the previous week’s 27-20 defeat to Delhi and left Denair (5-5, 3-3) tied for third in the Southern League. But whatever frustration the Coyotes may have been feeling was replaced by excitement Sunday when the playoff pairings were announced.

Denair earned the No. 7 seed and will host No. 10 Delta (6-4) of Clarksburg on Friday at 7 p.m. The winner will travel to Southern League co-champion and No. 2 seed Stone Ridge Christian on Nov. 15.

It is the first time in five years Denair has qualified for the playoffs.

“The kids are definitely excited,” Armas said. “We had a viewing party down at the school for the bracket announcements. There was a loud cheer when we were announced.  The goal from the beginning of the season was the playoffs. … The players know anything can happen once we’re in. They’re excited to go chase that blue banner.”

Denair already is planning a special “welcome” for Delta at Jack Lytton Stadium this Friday.

“It will be a ‘blackout.’  We encourage as many fans as possible to show up dressed in black to support our kids,” Armas said.

To win this week, Denair will have to execute better than it did against Waterford, which jumped out to a 27-8 halftime lead and never looked back.

“We missed a lot of assignments on offense and had some misalignments on defense,” Armas said. “Our message at halftime was to clean up the mistakes.  Offensively, we were making a lot of mistakes with our blocking assignments.  Defensively, we told them to fix the alignment issues and step up and tackle.”

Denair’s only touchdowns came on a 2-yard run by Jesse Ruelas in the second quarter and a 5-yard pass from Derek Potter to Degan Butler in the fourth period.

The Coyotes will have to be better on both sides of the ball this week against Delta, which finished second in the Sacramento Metropolitan Athletic League. The Saints like to spread their offense out and throw the ball. Armas expects Delta’s defense to challenge Denair to pass.

“They have a pretty tall wide receiver they like to target quite a bit,” he said. “I am sure they will commit a lot of defenders to the run when they play us, but so does everyone else.”

JV score: Denair 6, Waterford 6. The Coyotes finished 8-1-1 this season and tied Waterford for first place in the Southern League.

Sal Virgen and Jose Ponce led five Denair runners in the top 10 Wednesday as the Coyotes captured the Southern League boys cross country title at River Bluff Regional Park in Ceres.

Virgen, a junior, finished the 3.1-mile course in 18 minutes, 57 seconds to place second overall. Ponce, a sophomore, was third in 19:40. Both were named All-League.

Three other Denair runners finished in the top 10 – freshman Isaac Maldonado (eighth, 20:47), junior Angel Rodriguez (ninth, 20:53) and freshman Zane Simbalenko (10^th, 20:58).

The Coyotes’ team score – an aggregation of where their top five runners placed – was 32 points, six points better than Delhi. Waterford, with 55 points, was third.

“The entire team stepped up,” said Denair Coach Matthew Groom. “We had a plan and they executed it well. Jose had third place, lost it, and got it back by about a half of an inch. Our goal was to get our top five runners in the top 10 and they did it.”

The Southern League meet continues an outstanding season for Virgen, who earlier won individual medals at the Thunder Cross Country Classic and the Hilmar Flat Land Invitational. Rodriguez also medaled at the Thunder Cross Country Classic.

Groom credited Virgen for recruiting many of his friends to join him on this year’s team.

“This group is special,” Groom said. “They put in the effort all season and I hope to have all of them back next year.”

Next up for the Coyotes is the Clovis East Twilight Invitational on Friday at Clovis East High School. That race will be a tune up for the Sac-Joaquin Sub-Section meet Nov. 9 on the Frogtown course at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angels Camp. The Section meet is Nov. 16 at Willow Hills Reservoir in Folsom.