Special moment for Merced seniors, who were 0-10 as freshmen. Now they’re CCC champs

It’s the chant every team in the Central California Conference wants to yell at the end of the season. It was the Merced High football team’s turn on Friday night.

After shaking hands with Atwater players, the Bears players started jumping up and down, chanting “CCC! CCC! CCC!”

Merced clinched the CCC championship with an emphatic 60-19 win on the 49th annual Santa Fe Bowl at Dave Honey Stadium.

“This means everything,” said Bears senior Xavier Stewart, who caught five passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns to go along with two sacks on defense. “We went from a freshman team that went 0-10. Even though I wasn’t on that freshman team (Stewart played junior varsity as a freshman), this means a lot for me to see those guys have a winning season.”

So far, it’s been a perfect season.

Merced (9-0 overall, 5-0 CCC) has dominated its way to the top of the CCC. The games haven’t been close.

The Bears are averaging almost 52 points per game in conference and have outscored their five CCC opponents 259-45.

Merced coach Rob Scheidt talked about the group of seniors who went 0-10 as freshman to a possible 10-0 as seniors.

“Really, my hat’s off to them,” Scheidt said. “They really worked hard. I told them before the game, they have a chance to be conference champions. Nobody outside of our locker room truly thought we could have the season we’ve had.”

Quarterbacks Dhameer Warren and Junior Garcia were part of that winless freshmen team.

Warren took center stage against the Falcons (5-4, 2-3 CCC), throwing for three touchdowns to go along with 134 yards rushing and two more scores.

Garcia threw for 182 yards and three touchdowns.

The Bears jumped out to a big lead early with Warren starting the scoring with a 13-yard run that capped a 13-play drive that went 63 yards.

Warren later added a 12 yard touchdown pass to Noah Leal and then later lined up at running back, took a pitch from Garcia and then found Ezra Morales in the end zone for a 25-yard touchdown pass that gave Merced a 24-7 lead early in the second quarter.

“The O-line made things easy for me,” Warren said. “There were a couple times where I had to make someone miss, but they got it done tonight.”

The Falcons were able to hit a couple big plays against Merced, as Darius Hyde pulled in a 47-yard touchdown catch from Isaiah DeLeon that cut the lead to 17-7 with 10:41 left in the first half. Nathan Knight also caught a 54-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Diaz in the second quarter, but Atwater couldn’t slow down Merced.

Stewart outjumped an Atwater defender to haul in a 15-yard touchdown pass from Garcia. Stewart made a similar catch in the third quarter to pull down a 16-yard touchdown pass from Garcia.

“Whenever I tell our quarterbacks to throw a jump ball it’s because I know I have a shorter defender on me,” Stewart said. “Once I see the ball, I know I have to go get it. I want to make the play.”

Stewart has been making plays all season. He has caught at least one touchdown in all nine games and has 13 touchdown catches on the season.

The win was the Bears’ ninth consecutive win over Atwater and improved their overall record in the series to 35-14.

Merced will finish the regular season against Golden Valley (6-3, 3-2 CCC) at Veterans Stadium on Friday.

This story was originally published October 19, 2018 at 11:42 PM.