Merced turns Santa Fe Bowl tide with two-minute run

Rob Schedit said his Merced High football team has become a ball-control offense.

It wasn’t necessarily the plan entering 2015, but running back Ulonzo Gilliam and the Bear ground game have provided steady consistency, allowing quarterback Jacob Foss and the Merced passing attack to take chances when they present themselves.

While it’s become the formula for success so far, the Bears still possess the ability to kick up the tempo when the timing is right. It was on Friday night as the 46th Santa Fe Bowl completely turned in a 2-minute, 6-second span to close second quarter and start the third.

Merced scored 17 points during the wild run and never looked back in a 39-14 victory over Atwater.

“That’s us right now,” Scheidt said. “We feel like we’re a run first team, that’s going to play action you when we see opportunities. Atwater decided they were going to blitz a lot, so we needed to make some adjustments.

“When they bring that many people, you kind of just have to trust your scheme. We got our blocking assignments figured out and that started opening up the passing game for us. We did a good job of capitalizing on their mistakes, and fortunately, our defense made some stops when we made ours.”

The Bears (3-3, 1-0 Central California Conference) used the energy of just their third ever on campus football game to jump out to quick lead in the opening quarter.

A.J. Stewart drilled a 24-yard field goal on the game’s opening possession and Paul Scoggins followed with a 1-yard touchdown run to give Merced a 9-0 lead.

Atwater answered back, controlling the bulk of the second quarter.

The Falcons (1-5, 0-1 CCC) endured some bad luck, when what looked like a 16-yard touchdown pass from Frank Cocio to Josh Wilson was ruled incomplete. The ensuing field goal try was blocked, preserving Merced’s lead, but Atwater marched right back down on its next series.

Starting at their on 13-yard line, the Falcons got on the board with an 11-play drive. Nathaniel Gilmore broke free from 17 yards out to trim the lead to 9-7. Atwater got the ball right back on a Merced three-and-out and had a chance to go into intermission with the momentum, but a Rayveon Slaton interception sparked a wild two minutes.

Foss opened the game just 4 of 12 passing for 51 yards, but something clicked on Merced’s ensuing drive. He hit 6 of 7 passes on the heels of the Slaton pick and found Tim Miranda with an 11-yard TD strike to push the Bear lead to 16-7 with 18 seconds left in the half.

It was apparently time enough to get another score.

Stewart recovered his own onside kick and, two plays later, nailed a 31-yard field goal as time expired later to make it 19-7 at the break.

“That was a huge momentum swing,” said Foss who finished the game 18 of 29 passing for 250 yards and three touchdowns. “I came in pretty excited with all the energy from actually playing at home, but they’re pressure had me off early. We made our adjustments and I finally settled down on that last drive of the half.

“Once our passing game got in a rhythm, we never got out of it.”

Merced’s run wasn’t done as Atwater fumbled on its opening play of the second half. Brandon McKinney took a wide receiver screen 26 yards four a score four plays later to all but put the game out of reach.

“I thought our defense played great, we just made some mistakes and put them in bad spots,” Atwater coach Bob Valladao said. “We gave them the ball back with too much time just before the half and then got the bad luck with the onside kick.

“The guys are playing hard. I appreciate the effort, we just need to clean some things up.”

The partnership of Cocio (12 of 20, 200 yards) and Wilson (6 catches, 156 yards) was a bright spot on a disappointing evening for Atwater, including a 74-yard touchdown connection in the fourth quarter that helped make it a more reasonable 39-14 final.

This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 1:27 AM with the headline "Merced turns Santa Fe Bowl tide with two-minute run."