Omar Maxwell didn’t waste any time in setting the tone for Sierra’s 2019 football season at Daniel Teicheira Memorial Stadium.
After holding visiting Modesto Christian to a three-and-out to start the game, Maxwell — a two-way lineman — managed to scoop up a punt that was blocked by Josh Valdez and rumbled 10 yards to the goal-line for the first of what would be many Timberwolves touchdowns, as Sierra rolled to a 63-0 victory in a battle of former state champions.
“It’s every lineman’s dream,” Maxwell said. “That was all Josh making the block and then giving me the chance to see the ball and scoop and score.
“That really helped set the tone for the game and you saw what the outcome was. This is a team that really comes to play.”
With additional early touchdowns from Kimoni Stanley, who scored twice in the first quarter, as well as touchdowns by air and ground from quarterback Shane Johnson, Sierra boasted a 36-point lead by the end of the first quarter and extended that lead 50-0 by the end of the half.
Despite the fact that the depleted Crusaders only had 16 players on the roster and several players carried off the field with injuries during the game, Sierra coach Chris Johnson said that he was proud of his team for the tempo that they showed on Friday night and how physical the Timberwolves were at the line of scrimmage.
One of those lineman, Maxwell, helped open up the holes for people like Stanley and Johnson to do their handiwork on the ground — Kimoni finished just shy of 100 yards on six carries, and scored three times — but it was his early touchdown that made Johnson smile and helped fire up the Timberwolf side for an offensive torrent that set a blazing tempo that continued through the running clock for the game’s entire second half.
“It’s good for him — he’s been one of the hardest working guys in this program since he was a sophomore and that’s great to see,” Johnson said. “Being the first game of the season against a team that has had a lot of success in the past, you want to come out and do your best and that’s what these kids did tonight.
“We still make a lot of mistakes and there are things that we need to clean up, but we came out and played hard and took care of things up front. In the league that we play in you have to be physical, and I think that we showed that we’re a team that can come out and be physical, too.”
Sierra (1-0) will try travel to Ceres next week to take on the Central Valley for the first road game of the season.

SCORING SUMMARY
Sierra              36    14    7    6 — 63
Mod. Ch.          0     0      0    0 — 0

First quarter
S—Omar Maxwell fumble return (kick failed), 10:16.
S—Kimoni Stanley1 run (conversion run), 6:42.
S—Shane Johnson 15 run (Jordan Shinn kick), 4:52.
S —Stanley 8 run (kick failed), 2:07.
S—Safety, 1:23.
S—Matt Dunham 28 pass from Johnson (Shinn kick), 0:28.

Second quarter
S—Dunham 17 run (Shinn kick), 6:54.
S—Kimoni 1 run (Shinn kick), 3:52. 

Third quarter
S—Henry Palacios 23 run (Shinn kick), 4:23.

Fourth quarter
S—Adrian Ochoa 7 run (run failed), 6:15.