Merced dominates Golden Valley to keep the Mayor’s Cup for the 16th straight year
The chant from the Merced High student section came in the fourth quarter: “This is our town! This is our town!”
City bragging rights belong to the Bears once again as Merced extended its winning streak to 16 consecutive games over Golden Valley in emphatic fashion with a 58-26 win over the Cougars on Friday night at Veterans Stadium.
Merced (7-3 overall, 5-1 Central California Conference) ran away from Golden Valley (4-5, 3-2) with 30 second-quarter points to open up a 37-12 lead at the half.
The Bears hurt the Cougars defense over the top, taking advantage of one-on-one matchups in the secondary that the Merced receivers dominated.
The Bears scored on touchdown passes of 74, 43, 68 and 40 yards as senior quarterback Seth Scheidt passed for 325 yards in the first half alone.
“We just stuck to what we knew,” said Merced receiver Jack Collins. “We just threw the ball up and we made plays. That’s what Merced does.”
Collins got the ball rolling for the Bears with a 74-yard touchdown catch from Scheidt with 3 minutes and 35 seconds left in the first quarter that gave Merced a 7-0 lead.
Ryan Lee tacked on a 25-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter and Scheidt added a 43-yard touchdown pass to Evahn Perez to give the Bears a 21-0 lead with 8:29 left in the first half.
“We were clicking on all cylinders and our O-line was doing a good job,” said Merced coach Rob Scheidt. “We were able to mix in a little bit of run, but our tempo changed how they were covering us. I thought Seth did a great job of finding the right guys.”
Rob Scheidt said going at a fast tempo was a big theme in practice this week and he felt it paid off in the game.
Seth Scheidt completed 14 of 21 passes for 341 yards and the four touchdowns. He also rushed for 122 yards, including a 55-yard touchdown.
Collins hauled in four catches for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Enoch Evans caught six passes for 163 yards, including touchdown catches of 65 and 60 yards.
“For me as a coach, when you move into the 16th year (of the streak), you don’t win that many games in a row,” Rob Scheidt said. “It’s football, it’s hard to win football games, so my level of anxiety was high this week.”
The Merced defense had its moments as well with Jaylen Thao-Booth recording two sacks and the secondary coming up with four interceptions, including two from Cyrus Amos.
Golden Valley had some bright spots.
Cougars Eleazar Garza was pressured all night, but got off some amazing passes where he was jumping or about to go down to the turf.
Garza was falling down when he was able to get off a pass to Dammarrius Hammonds that went for a 54-yard touchdown that pulled the Cougars within 21-6 with 7:33 left in the first half.
Garza also made a tough pass into the corner of the end zone to find Hammonds again for a 9-yard touchdown pass that pulled the Cougars within 35-12 with 4:47 left in the second quarter.
Golden Valley running back Jabari Phillips finished with eight carries for 91 yards, including a 14-yard touchdown run.
Merced now leads the all-time series with Golden Valley 20-8.
“It feels amazing, 16 years in a row,” Collins said. “We didn’t want to be that team to lose the cup, but we got it. We did the job.”
Both teams now will have to wait to hear their playoff fate.
Golden Valley has to hope its four wins are good enough to earn a spot in the postseason. Merced may earn a top four seed in Division IV and that would come with an important first-round bye.
The Sac-Joaquin Section will announce the playoff brackets on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
It’s a waiting game,” Rob Scheidt said. “I’m a little nervous. It’s out of our control. If it’s in a week we got to get ready to go and if it’s two weeks that would be good for us to get healthy.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 12:25 AM.
