‘We needed this a lot.’ Merced wins back Governor’s Hat with emphatic victory over Madera
The Governor’s Hat is back in Merced.
The Bears regained possession of the Governor’s Hat after a dominant 41-13 win over Madera on Thursday night at Veterans Stadium.
The hat is awarded to the winner of this longtime rivalry game each year. The Governor’s Hat was donated by former California governor Edwin Knight as a symbol of the tradition between the two schools.
The Bears players celebrated jubilantly as Merced coach Rob Scheidt pulled the hat out of the box after the game.
“We needed this a lot,” said Bears quarterback Seth Scheidt, who ran for three touchdowns and threw for another score. “We’ve gone through a lot with COVID, injuries and the smoke. We needed this feeling tonight.”
The Bears (2-2) took control from the start, jumping out to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter.
The Coyotes (2-1) had no answer for the Merced rushing attack.
Merced sophomore Chase Smith started the scoring with a 14-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter. Merced’s Evahn Perez had set up the offense in good field position when he intercepted a tipped pass from Madera quarterback Beau Green.
Ryan Lee tacked on a 9-yard touchdown run just over 2 minutes later to extend the lead to 13-0.
The Bears defense forced another turnover and on the next play Seth Scheidt connected with Perez with a 33-yard touchdown pass.
For the second consecutive week Merced had jumped out to a 20-0 lead.
Last week against Downey, injuries and fatigue played a factor in the Knights coming back to win 34-20. The Bears weren’t going to make the same mistake two weeks in a row.
“Oh yeah, during halftime our guys kept saying, ‘Think of Downey. Think of Downey,’” Seth Scheidt said. “We didn’t want to lose that way again. We came out with a purpose.”
Merced did surrender a long kickoff return to Madera’s Ramon Ruiz at the end of the first quarter, but it was one of the few blemishes on the night.
The Merced rushing attack produced five touchdowns and 287 yards.
The Bears defense was dominant as senior Jaylen Thao-Booth racked up sacks and tackles for loss all night.
Green was injured after a Thao-Booth sack in the first half and didn’t return to the game.
“It’s been a tough 10 days,” said Rob Scheidt. “It wasn’t just three games. Last week we just ran out of gas on Friday. We had three guys out in the secondary and then we got three other guys hurt. We just couldn’t muster any thing... I’m really proud of our guys. We didn’t lose energy, I thought we had focus the whole time.”
Scheidt and the Bears will get ready for the start of Central California Conference play next week with the Santa Fe Bowl against Atwater.
“We have to get better,” Seth Scheidt said. “We still made mistakes and penalties that we have to clean up. We need to be perfect when we get to league because we want to win CCC back-to-back and go on into playoffs.”
