Amid the rain, slow and steady wins the battle

When Merced High head coach Rob Scheidt calls plays, he’s usually trying to find ways to take the Ferraris on his roster out for a spin.

Players like Jabar Bryd, A.J. Stewart, Ulonzo Gilliam and Nick Camper can race down the field and strike for big plays.

Friday night Scheidt looked like he was driving a minivan, carefully navigating his way through a school zone on a rainy day.

Merced’s 10-7 win over Turlock wasn’t about looks. This was “let’s grind-it-out go home” with a Central California Conference championship.

“This was an old guys, classical football game,” Scheidt said. “That’s good, it’s just awkward for us. It’s hard for me to call plays. So early on, everyone just wants to go, but you got to say, ‘Hey, we just have to trust each other.’

“All this stuff (pointing to his play sheet) got thrown out and we had to grind the football, make plays, block people, possess the football, play field position and I kind of lost sight of that early on and our defense was able to bail us out.”

Scheidt was a little slow to adjust to the rainy conditions. He was passing in the red zone instead of trusting his offensive line and the running game.

It’s easy to understand why. For most of the season the Bears offense has been a blur on the field, scoring points at ease.

However, Merced’s high-octane spread attack was stalling on the wet turf. Quarterback Tyrone Williams had a hard time gripping the ball in the steady downpour.

So Merced had to find a different way.

This win was about the Bears defense shutting down a potent Turlock offense, and getting back turnovers when needed like Jamar Turner recovering a fumble to end a Turlock drive inside the Merced 10-yard line at the end of the third quarter.

After limiting the Bulldogs to just seven points on Friday, Merced has given up just 40 points in its four CCC wins.

The offense came through with the big plays when needed, like Byrd’s 40-yard dash to the end zone right before the half that tied the game.

Gilliam broke off a big run on third and long in the third quarter. A few plays later, Williams found Brandon McKinney for a key first-down conversion to set up Favian Prado’s 27-yard field goal that proved to be the difference.

When the Bears were jumping around after the game, chanting “CCC! CCC!” they didn’t care that they won ugly. All they cared about was winning.

“It’s just one of those games where our kids will never forget it,” Scheidt said. “I’m really excited that they have that memory.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2014 at 2:49 AM with the headline "Amid the rain, slow and steady wins the battle."