Roundup: Merced cruises to Santa Fe Bowl win over Atwater; Hilmar, Le Grand win thrillers
Starting a backup quarterback behind a revamped offensive line is going to be tough against any team.
Atwater had to do it against defending Central California Conference champion Merced and the Bears’ stout defense.
If the scoreboard reading Merced 34, Atwater 0 at halftime didn’t tell the story, the disparity in offensive yards did. Merced had 288 yards yards of offense. The Falcons had 19.
Santa Fe Bowl 51 was a mismatch as the Bears controlled the game from start to finish, winning 40-6 at Dave Honey Stadium in the CCC opener for both teams.
“We won but it wasn’t our cleanest game,” said Merced coach Rob Scheidt, whose team improves to 3-2 overall. “We had a couple touchdowns called back on penalties.Our defense our defense played tremendous and that has to make you feel good.”
The Bears’ defense was posting a shutout until Atwater (0-5) scored a touchdown with 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Falcons starting quarterback Bo Valladao came off the bench and played sparingly. Junior Tyler Parr started as the Falcons tried to feed the ball to running back James Thomas.
However, the Bears limited Thomas to just 25 yards on the ground on 18 carries.
The Falcons really were never able to establish a second options.
Meanwhile, Merced was able to spread the ball around.
Quarterback Seth Scheidt scored two rushing touchdowns and connected with senior receiver Evahn Perez on touchdown passes of 11 and 47 yards.
Running back Ryan Lee rushed for 114 yards on 10 carries despite having a long touchdown run called back in the second half due to a holding penalty.
Merced’s backup quarterback Phoenix Lawrence also had an 88-yard touchdown run nullified by a holding penalty.
Lawrence and Chase Smith both added rushing touchdowns.
“Really our focus all started at the beginning of the week,” Perez said. “Coach Scheidt was telling us about the 2019 Santa Fe Bowl that Merced lost because of their own mistakes.”
After the win, Rob Scheidt explained to his players the importance of making each week’s game the most important game of the year.
“That’s how you win a championship,” Scheidt told his players.
Merced will travel to Patterson (3-2, 1-0 CCC) next week in a key CCC matchup.
Patterson 63, El Capitan 14 — The Gauchos trailed 21-14 with 3:55 left in the first half before the Tigers closed the game with 42 consecutive points.
El Capitan quarterback Carter Haugen threw two touchdowns passes, but the Gauchos fall to 0-5 overall and 0-1 in the CCC.
Hilmar 28, Livingston 24 — The Yellowjackets (5-0) erased a 17-0 deficit to win their Trans-Valley League opener in dramatic fashion on an 85-yard scoring play with less than 2 minutes left.
Livingston quarterback Rocklin Baptista ran in a score from about 32 yards out and connected with Israel Padilla on a short pass to help the Wolves (3-2, 0-1 TVL) build a 17-0 lead in the first half.
Hilmar cut the deficit to 17-14 at the half.
A 35-yard touchdown run by Carlos Baez extended the Wolves lead to 24-14 with 10:38 left in the fourth quarter.
“Credit to Livingston,” said Hilmar coach Frank Marques. “Their coaching staff had a great game plan. We couldn’t stop them. We probably ran 40 offensive plays and they probably ran 100. We couldn’t get them off the field. They did everything right. There’s no reason we should have won the game.”
One big reason was Derek Taylor.
The 6-foot-7 junior receiver came up with a big play on fourth down, hauling in a pass from Cameron Moak. Taylor caught the pass, broke a couple tackles and raced 85 yards for a touchdown to give the Yellowjackets a 28-24 lead with 1:57 left on the clock.
Pacheco 14, Johnasen 7 — Abel Bravo scored on a 3-yard touchdown to ice the game with 1:13 left on the clock as the Panthers won their Western Athletic Conference opener.
Quarterback Jedidiah DelaTorre scored on a 63-yard touchdown run and the two-point conversion gave Pacheco an 8-7 lead midway through the third quarter.
Pacheco improves to 2-2 overall.
Los Banos 42, Beyer 0 — Tigers quarterback David Herrera threw four touchdown passes as Los Banos opened up with a big win to start its WAC campaign.
Herrera connected with junior Mark Carreiro on two touchdown passes.
Victor Perez added a 28-yard touchdown run for Los Banos, which picked up its first win on the season to improve to 1-3 overall.
Le Grand 14, Orestimba 12 — Bulldogs lineman Fermin Villegas blocked three kicks, including a 30-yard attempt in the final seconds that would have won the game for the Warriors.
Villegas’ blocked field goal attempt in the first quarter set up Daniel Buitron’s 80-yard touchdown when he scooped up the ball and raced to the end zone to give the Bulldogs (2-2, 1-0 Southern League) a 7-0 lead.
Alexis Granados hauled in an 11-yard pass from Julian Bucio to give Le Grand a 14-6 lead in the fourth quarter.
Orestimba’s Lazs King scored on a 5-yard touchdown run to pull the Warriors (2-2, 0-1) within 14-12 with just under 3 minutes left in the game. Orestimba’s two-point conversion attempt was stuffed by Villegas.
Emotions ran high in the game just before the final field goal attempt by Orestimba after a hard hit sent a Warriors player to the ground.
The two teams had to be separated after words were exchanged between Le Grand head coach Aaron Martinez and an Orestimba assistant coach.
“I was in the wrong,” Martinez said. “I thought he was talking to one of my players. I told him to go back to his sideline. A referee came in and kind of clipped me with his hip and I fell. That’s when things kind of got crazy, but nothing happened. No flags were thrown or ejections.
“There was no bad blood. We talked and shook hands after the game. I have a ton of respect for those guys.”
Waterford 34, Delhi 0 — Wildcats quarterback Aaron Adams threw four touchdown passes, connecting with receiver Javier Nusom on three of them as Waterford hands Delhi (2-1, 0-1 SL) its first loss of the season.
Dos Palos 35, Chowchilla 28 — The Broncos overcame five turnovers to remain unbeaten at 4-0.
Jesus Ojeda scored three rushing touchdowns for the Tribe (0-5).
Broncos quarterback Trent Calvert rebounded after throwing an early pick-six to score on two rushing touchdowns and one touchdown pass.
This story was originally published September 18, 2021 at 12:20 AM.
