MC grinds out Stadium ’76 Bowl victory

The Merced College football team’s defense has been its one consistency all season.

When big plays have been needed in crucial spots, it’s almost always been the ‘Crazy Blues’ that have provided it. And with each failed conversion, turnover and squandered red-zone opportunity the Blue Devil offense turned in on Friday night, it became more and more clear that the defense might have to take matters into it’s own hands.

Kalauga Laloulu and Kamilo Tongamoa combined to do just that early in the fourth quarter. With the game tied after three quarters of offensive futility, Laloulu sat in wait as a Hartnell wide receiver screen cut back into the middle of the field. The freshman defensive tackle unloaded on Deairus Spencer, popping the ball free at the Panther 4-yard line. Tongamoa won the mad scramble for the fumble, falling on it in the end zone to put the Blue Devils up for good in a 14-13 victory in the Stadium ’76 Bowl.

Merced College finishes the year 8-3, its highest win total since 1997.

“Those guys came to play, but our guys have given me 60 minutes all season,” Blue Devils coach Bob Casey said. “They come out and play every down. We turned the ball over a ton. Our guys fought through a lot of mistakes. The defense played phenomenally. Eight and three is a fantastic season and bowl champion is even better.”

Neither came easily for Merced.

Quarterback Frank Cocio (13 of 31 passing, 203 yards) was clearly still bothered by his bruised ribs that cost him the second half of MC’s regular-season finale. He missed on a number of deep balls that could have made it a very different game. The Blue Devils had an obvious advantage with its receiving corps against the Panther secondary, but many of Cocio’s deep throws that were accurate were dropped. Another handful of times, the freshman just never saw receivers running free down the field.

Even with Cocio fighting through an off evening, Merced College moved the ball. Jaques Buchannon racked up 130 rushing yards on 21 carries and opened the scoring early in the second quarter when he broke a 21-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0.

Despite hitting only one play for more than 15 yards in the opening half, Hartnell (6-5) needed just three plays to even things. J’uan Campbell hauled in a wide receiver screen and took it 51 yards for a score to make it 7-7 at intermission.

Merced had numerous chances to break the game open in the second half, but went 0 for 3 in the red zone and committed turnovers in three straight possessions in the third quarter.

The first turnover such turnover was harsh as W.R. Sanders took a handoff at the Panther 8-yard line and powered his way to the 1. Sanders was stuffed there with both sides shoving at him in an apparent stalemate. He went about five seconds with no forward progress, but the officials never blew the whistle and eventually the ball was stripped into the end zone with the Panthers recovering.

Nathan Duran put the Blue Devils right back into scoring position with his team-high fifth interception of the year, but a miscommunication between Cocio and Sanders ended with a fumble at the Panther 4. MC turned the ball over five times on the night, negating any positive momentum the offense could build.

The Blue Devil defense rose to the challenge with Tongamoa recovering the fumble for a score four plays later to take a 14-7 lead.

“I was under the pile,” Tongamoa said. “I dove on top of the fumble and then someone kicked it back into me. Then after they kicked back it into me, I grabbed the ball and extended it out and it was right across the goal line for a touchdown. I was pretty lit after”

Hartnell answered in just two plays. Running back Sherrod Hawkes was bottled up in the Panther back field on a sweep to the left, but had the presence of mind to lateral back to quarterback Randy Ivey before he was brought down. Ivey didn’t hesitate, running the ball 44 yards for the score.

The extra point was doinked off of the upright to preserve the lead. The one-point difference was all the Blue Devil defense would need. Hartnell moved the ball just 46 total yards in its last two possessions with an Avion Warmsley interception sealing the victory with 22 seconds left.

“A defensive score is what we needed,” Casey said. “We obviously blew many opportunities in the red zone. Our guys moved the ball well between the 20s, but we got down in the red zone and we choked.

“But the defense, hey, they’ve done that all year. Kamilo has done that all year. Troy Lowe has done that all year. Avion with the interception at the end. All those guys are sophomores playing huge roles for us and they’ve given me everything they could possibly give me.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 11:58 PM with the headline "MC grinds out Stadium ’76 Bowl victory."