College Roundup: Merced College defense dominates as Blue Devils football defeat San Jose
Jaylen Thao-Booth recorded five and a half sacks and forced two fumbles as the Merced College defense dominated in a 13-3 win over San Jose City College on Saturday at Stadium ‘76.
Thao-Booth finished with 14 tackles and raised his season total to nine and half sacks in six games.
The Blue Devils (5-1 overall, 3-0 Gold Coast Conference) held the Jaguars (3-3, 1-1) to just 236 yards of offense and recorded seven sacks on the day.
The game was tied 3-3 at the half before the Blue Devils outscored San Jose 10-0 in the final two quarters.
Isaiah Hidalgo scored the only touchdown of the game on a 3-yard run early in the fourth quarter that gave MC a 13-3 lead.
Blue Devils running back Justin Incaprera carried the ball 24 times for 130 yards.
Jason Mendoza made field goals of 34 and 22 yards for Merced College.
The Blue Devils travel to De Anza College in Cupertino next Saturday at 1 p.m.
Merced College Women’s Water Polo — Merced College sophomore Liberty Hamilton (Golden Valley) was named state Player-of-the-Week for her 16 goals over five-game span, including a pair of five- goal efforts against Diablo Valley.
She currently ranks fifth in the state with 47 goals, added to 44 steals, 83 shots and 73 points. She has scored at least one goal in 10 of the past 11 games and has recorded at least one steal in every game this year. Her freshman teammate, also from Golden Valley, Savonah Ward was nominated for Player-of-the-Week for her 46 saves.
Men’s Soccer —In one of the biggest games of their brief history, the Blue Devils defeated Fresno City College on Tuesday 3-0 at home to take undisputed possession of first place in the Central Valley Conference (3-0-1/9-2-1), a conference in which five of the six teams all have winning records.
Daniel Borges (Pitman) registered a goal and two assists against Fresno. David Mejia (Modesto) scored a goal and rang up an assist. Center back Geo Lopez, a co-captain from Los Banos, excelled on defense.
Volleyball—The Blue Devils sandwiched two conference victories against Columbia and West Hills Lemoore around a loss to top-ranked and league-leading Fresno to stand at .500 (4-4 conference/7-7 overall), and position themselves to overtake West Hills Coalinga, Porterville, and Taft for third place.
The Blue Devils continue to be led by sophomores, middle hitter Hannah Torres (Pachecos), 83 kills; libero Kayla Battles (Pitman) 46 sets; and setter Kianna Becerra (Livingston), 96.6 serve efficiency.
