Sloppy Devils fall to Contra Costa

Bob Casey applauded the effort.

His Merced College football team fought until the last whistle, going toe-to-toe with state No. 22 Contra Costa on Saturday night.

The only problem was the constant extra effort required of the Blue Devils to compensate for their mistakes. Self-inflicted wounds were the norm at Stadium ’76 as bad snaps, dropped passes, missed blocks, red-zone inefficiency and mindless penalties undermined all of MC’s positives.

In the end, the mistakes proved too much to overcome as Contra Costa held on for a 33-28 victory.

“It’s just a frustrating night,” said Casey, whose team committed 15 penalties for 142 yards. “The kids are frustrated. The coaches are frustrated. We’ve just got to learn to throw and catch and tackle when it matters.

“We’ve shown we can play with every single team on our schedule. You can’t make the mistakes we have the last two weeks and expect to beat good teams.”

It looked like it was going to be a shootout early as both teams’ athletes shined in a quick four-touchdown exchange.

Contra Costa (4-0) marched its opening possession 91 yards for a score. The 16-play drive culminated with a six-yard touchdown pass from Cameron Burston to Sterling Taylor.

Merced’s Jeffery Richardson answered immediately, taking the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown.

The Comets barely batted an eye, going 61 yards on their second drive with Frank Stephens catching a 25-yard touchdown pass.

Richardson provided the response again for the Blue Devils (2-2), taking a Randy Jones pass 79 yards for a touchdown and tying the score 14-14. After being banged up for most of the first three weeks, the speedy Richardson had a breakout performance, catching eight passes for 168 yards.

“There was a lot of trash talk being thrown, a lot of emotion and physicality on the field,” Richardson said. “We were just doing our best to stay focused and make plays.

“It’s nice to be healthy and to finally contribute, but I’d have rather had the ‘W.’ ”

The Comets retook the lead with big plays on either side of halftime.

Stephens (five catches, 89 yards) took a screen pass 45 yards for a score with under two minutes to play to give CC a 20-14 lead at intermission. Austin Harper opened the second half with a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to push the lead to 26-14.

Despite the special-teams miscue, MC began to dominate the third quarter. CC produced just 23 yards on its first three possessions of the second half and Josh Stevens (13 carries for 111 yards) scored on a 54-yard run to trim the lead to 26-21 with just over 19 minutes to play.

The Blue Devils had two opportunities to take the lead, but turned it over on downs at the CC 31-yard line. MC was driving again on the next series when Jones suffered an abdominal injury while picking up a first down on a keeper. Nathaniel Nelson entered and was immediately intercepted while trying to throw a shovel pass.

The Comets seized the sudden momentum change, putting the game away with another touchdown pass to Taylor.

Nelson led one final drive, scoring on a three-yard run with 1:55 to play. Merced failed to get the ensuing onside kick, and Contra Costa ran out the clock.

“We left a lot of points on the field,” Casey said. “That game was there to be won. Hopefully this leaves a bad taste in the guys’ mouths and they come to practice refocused for the start of conference.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2015 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Sloppy Devils fall to Contra Costa."