Oakdale pulls away late from Merced in semifinal win. Mustangs advance to title game.
Once the Oakdale High football team eliminated the turnovers and penalties that plagued it in the first half, the Mustangs were tough to stop.
Oakdale scored touchdowns on four of its first five possessions in the second half to pull away from No. 6 seed Merced for a 51-27 win in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV semifinals at the Corral on Friday night.
“We’re a triple triple threat in the backfield,” said Mustangs running back Zeke Saffar, who carried the ball 23 times for 243 yards and a touchdown to go along with a receiving touchdown. “There’s me, Leo Ayala and Rylan Kerr. If you slow one of us down, one of the other two will kill you. It’s pick your poison.”
The No. 2 Mustangs (9-3) will play No. 4 Sierra (10-3), which upset top seed Rio Linda, 21-14, in the section championship on Saturday at Lincoln High in Stockton at 6 p.m.
“I’m proud of our kids,” said Oakdale coach Trent Merzon. “I’m happy for our seniors, who had never won a league title until we beat Central Catholic three weeks ago to create a three-way tie. Now we’re playing on the grand stage. That’s something you dream about doing growing up in Oakdale.”
Merced (7-5) battled the Mustangs for much of the game, which was still in doubt after quarterback Seth Scheidt scored on a 2-yard run to cut the Mustangs’ lead to 31-27 with 49 seconds left in the third quarter.
Early in the fourth, it appeared the Bears would force Merzon into a tough decision on fourth down when a Merced defender looked to have Ayala stopped on third down. However, Ayala broke free for a 9-yard gain and a first down.
Isaac Valeron scored on a 12-yard run on the next play and the Mustangs went on to outscore Merced 20-0 the rest of the way.
“You’re always going to look at the score and take it for what it’s worth, but we just had a couple things not go right for us,” said Bears coach Rob Scheidt. “Obviously, Oakdale is a great team. We knew their offense was going to be tough to stop. We were able to do a lot of good things.
“I blew the last possession of the first half. I got conservative. We knew we had to put the ball in their secondary and we didn’t do that.”
The first half was back-and-forth with both teams exchanging big plays.
Merced took advantage of two Oakdale turnovers, cashing both in for touchdowns.
The second turnover was a fumble by Mustangs quarterback Jackson Holt that Merced’s Damien Phillips recovered at the Oakdale 1-yard line.
Two plays later, Desmond Thompson scored his second touchdown on the night to give the Bears’ a 21-17 lead with 5:47 left in the first half.
After the Merced defense forced a punt, the Bears went three-and-out on three running plays.
Oakdale got the ball back at the Bears’ 39-yard line with 1:51 left in the half and scored five plays later on a Valero 2-yard touchdown to give the Mustangs’ a 24-21 lead going into halftime.
“It was just a weird first half,” Merzon said. “We made some uncharacteristic mistakes and I think they did, too. There were a lot of young players on the field and this was a big game. There was maybe 4,000, 5,000 people here tonight. I don’t think many of these players have played in front of 5,000 people before.”
While Oakdale plays in front of another large crowd next week, Merced’s season came to an end.
“I grew up with a lot of the guys I played with,” said Thompson, who finished with 84 yards and two touchdowns. “A brotherhood formed with these guys. We love each other. There’s a strong bond.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2019 at 12:00 AM.
