Merced College football squanders fourth-quarter chances in loss to Monterey

Little separates football teams in the NorCal American Division from a talent perspective.

No one is blessed with tremendous depth or a plethora of next-level skill players. It’s why so many contests tend to come down to the fourth quarter.

The ability to execute in the fourth quarter is what separates the good from the bad. And it’s unfortunately where Merced College has been lacking. The Blue Devils have been outscored 40-0 in the fourth quarter of their three losses with a negative-six turnover differential.

Those crunch-time struggles reared their ugly head again in Saturday afternoon’s 27-21 loss to Monterey Peninsula. Merced threw two interceptions inside the Lobo 10-yard line in the fourth quarter and was outscored 13-0 in the final 15 minutes.

“We’ve got no one to blame but ourselves,” said wide receiver Nick Cook, who caught a career-high 10 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns in the loss. “The opportunities were there. We moved the ball up and down the field at will, but we didn’t take advantage of those chances as much as we should have. We just needed to execute a little better in the red zone, but those are things we can clean up and keep getting better at.”

Three first-half touchdown passes by Andrew Trahan helped the Blue Devils (2-3, 0-2 Golden Coast Conference) take a 21-14 lead into intermission. Cook caught two and Trahan had an 11-yard lob to Nih-jer Jackson. It remained that way going into the fourth quarter.

Monterey (5-0, 2-0) wasted little time tying the score, taking advantage of a pass interference call on fourth down that extended a drive. Kody Steele (28 of 39 passing for 445 yards and three TDs) hit Matteo D’Alfonso with a 4-yard out route to make it 21-21 with 13:38 to play.

Merced looked poised to immediately answer, marching right back down the field. The Blue Devils rode the power run game of Jaques Buchannon (25 carries, 86 yards) and W.R. Sanders (9-49) to a first and goal at the Lobo 3-yard line.

After an unsuccessful first-down run, Merced coach Bob Casey and company tried to catch Monterey with a play-action roll-out. Trahan saw an open Jackson in the end zone, but Elijah Kirkland came off his man to jump the pass and intercept it for a touchback.

“It’s just a frustrating game,” Casey said. “I told the guys after that we had no shortage of chances. We were able to do the things we thought we’d be able to do. The turnover in the end zone was kind of the game for us. We tried to go fast but got stuffed on first down and they were able to get their ‘Bear’ package on the field. They basically dared us to throw. We had people open on the play-action but didn’t get the throw we needed.”

Monterey seized the momentum, going 80 yards in six plays. Michael Armstead (11 catches, 263 yards, two TDs) set up the go-ahead score by torching the Merced secondary with back-to-back big plays. Despite having no team rushing yards in the game, Akili Jones punched in the score from 3 yards out to give the Lobos their first lead with 6:37 to play.

A missed extra point opened the door for a Merced victory, but the offense went three-and-out, giving Monterey a chance to run out the clock. The Blue Devil defense responded with brilliant individual efforts.

On second and 7 at the Merced 42, defensive coordinator Justin Pinasco sent Soane Vaohea on a blitz. Steele attempted to dump a ball to his running back over Vaohea, but the freshman linebacker leapt and deflected the pass straight into the air. Wendel Sidelier was there to make the interception, giving the Blue Devils one final chance with the ball at midfield.

Trahan (17 of 26, 268 yards) and company marched right down to the Monterey Peninsula 23 with just under a minute to play, but the sophomore put a little too much air on a wheel-route pass and was intercepted by Kirkland again to end it.

“This one definitely hurts,” Cook said. “We know we let it get away. We have a lot of football left to play, though. We have five games left and if we win them all, it’s still a really good season. We still have work to do, but we’ve shown we can compete with anyone.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 7:23 PM with the headline "Merced College football squanders fourth-quarter chances in loss to Monterey."