Merced College football bowl hopes are on the line against West Hills

Don’t expect any big speeches from Merced College football coach Bob Casey this week.

His squad is more than aware of what’s at stake on Saturday.

The NorCal No. 20 Blue Devils (4-4, 3-1 GCC) and NorCal No. 8 West Hills (8-0, 4-0 GCC) have appeared to be on a collision course since Golden Coast Conference play opened. Last week’s last-second loss to Reedley has just added a little more desperation to the plot.

Merced College must win if it wants to grab a share of the conference crown, keep its bowl games hopes alive and finish with the school’s first winning record in 16 years.

“We know it’s all or nothing now,” freshman safety Earl Chambers said. “Everybody was hurting when we lost on Saturday, but we have to put that behind us. We just have to work harder than West Hills every day in practice this week and leave it all on the table.”

Casey said the team suffered a bit of a hangover from the loss during Monday’s practice, but had picked things back up by Tuesday. The Blue Devils got an instant boost with most of its missing secondary returning to practice Tuesday. There’s hope that entire unit will be intact by Saturday.

Merced College may need all hands on deck against a Falcons team whose average margin of victory has been 30 points.

“They don’t turn the ball over, but are very good at forcing turnovers,” Casey said. “They’ve done some things really well to get up early in games and not really let teams back in it.

“They’ve got some receivers that always seem to get open and two big backs that can pound you. We’ve certainly got our work cut out for us, but we think we match up pretty well.”

Quarterback Freddy Taliulu has been the model of efficiency, passing for 1,803 yards, 23 touchdowns and just three interceptions. The team’s ground game has been effective as well, averaging 247 yards per game behind freshman running back Tyron Jones (735 yards, seven touchdowns).

Casey said for the Blue Devils to be successful on the road, they’re going to need a similar offensive balance. The team hopes to follow a blueprint similar to the one in the Reedley game where it passed for 281 yards and rushed for another 239.

This story was originally published November 6, 2014 at 9:39 PM with the headline "Merced College football bowl hopes are on the line against West Hills."