Merced finishes off perfect 10-0 regular season to recapture Mayor’s Cup.
The Merced High football team put the exclamation mark on a perfect 10-0 season by capturing the Mayor’s Cup for the 13th consecutive season with a 41-7 win over Golden Valley on Friday night at Veterans Stadium.
Bears players took turns posing for pictures with the Mayor’s Cup trophy after the game and Bears coach Rob Scheidt received the Gatorade bucket shower.
Going undefeated through a 10-game season is rare and the Bears celebrated the accomplishment. It’s Merced’s first 10-0 season since 2007.
“This is only my second one in 24 years at Merced,” Scheidt said. “It’s hard to do. Not a lot of teams do it.”
Merced now holds a 17-8 advantage all-time in the series against Golden Valley. Friday’s game marked the 25th time the crosstown rivals had squared off.
The Bears defense dominated on this night.
Merced held Golden Valley (6-4, 3-3 Central California Conference) to just 29 total yards in the first half as they opened up a 27-0 lead. The Bears sacked Cougars quarterback Jonathan Peredia six times in the first two quarters.
It was a sack-fumble by Bears linebacker Ke’saun Eddings that set up the Merced offense for the first score. Eddings exploded off the edge and knocked the ball out of Peredia’s hands as Roman Montez pounced on the ball.
“I’ve been close on those sacks this year,” Eddings said. “I saw him about to throw it so I ran as fast as I could to hit him. I got him.”
The Bears took over at the GV 37 yard line, which led to an eventual Dhameer Warren 10-yard touchdown run that gave Merced a 6-0 lead with 8:22 left in the first quarter.
Montez also had a big night on defense, picking up two and a half sacks on the night to go along with the fumble recovery.
“The effort was high all night from our guys,” Scheidt said. “I was really proud of our guys. It’s always a little tough when you have already clinched a conference championship. We played a Golden Valley team that played Buhach Colony tough last week. You have to tip your hat to Golden Valley. They played tough all season and played some really big games. They did it with basically 30 players all year.”
The Bears scored on their second possession of the game, driving 55 yards in eight plays. Junior Garcia connected with Xavier Stewart for a 5-yard touchdown to give Merced a 13-0 lead with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
Garcia and Warren added touchdown runs in the second quarter to extend the lead to 27-0 at the half.
Warren added a 32-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Hopkins in the third quarter and running back Desmond Thompson scored from 1-yard out to give Merced a 41-0 lead late in the third quarter.
Thompson finished with 126 yards on 13 carries to go over the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
“It means the world to me,” Thompson said. “I never thought a day like this would happen in my life..”
The Cougars lost their top two tailbacks to injuries when Jaren Phillips and Avery Townsel left the game with injuries. Davon Johnson moved from fullback to tailback and rushed for 106 yards on 16 carries.
Etrell Bowers hauled in a 22-yard touchdown pass from Peredia with 8 minutes left in the game for the Cougars’ lone score.
Golden Valley will have to sit and wait to see if its 6-4 record is good enough to make the postseason. The Cougars were ranked No. 11 in the Calpreps Division III rankings coming into this week. The top 12 teams in each division make the playoffs.
Merced will likely earn at least a top three seed in Division III with fellow 10-0 teams Capital Christian and Placer. The Sac-Joaquin Section will announce the playoff brackets on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
“Probably when I was younger I was more opinionated about everything and those type of decisions,” Scheidt said. “I’m happy we’re in the playoffs. I can’t control anything else. It’ll play out. You have to play everyone eventually.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2018 at 12:01 AM.