Merced, Foss air it out in win over Modesto

The Modesto High School football team entered its matchup against Merced wanting to force the Bears to throw the ball.

It’s no secret Merced quarterback Jake Foss has been nursing an injured shoulder.

The Panthers sent blitzes up the middle all night to stop the run, but that left their defensive backs one-on-one with the Bears’ receivers and the trio of A.J. Stewart, Brandon McKinney and Tim Miranda made Modesto pay.

The trio combined for six touchdown catches – five coming from Foss – as the No. 7 seed Bears (8-3) dispatched the No. 10 Panthers 41-14 in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs on Friday night at Veterans Stadium.

“We knew going in we had to do that,” said Modesto coach Donnie Wallace. “They got us a couple times, especially in the first half.”

Modesto held Merced to just 83 yards on 31 carries.

However, the Panthers (7-4) had a tough time matching up with Stewart. The Bears star finished with six catches for 194 yards and three touchdowns. Stewart also made an impact on defense, forcing a fumble and recovering it to set up a Merced touchdown before the half. He also batted a pass in the air that fell into the arms of Quenton Terry for an interception in the second half.

Merced’s first offensive play was a trick play as Foss pitched to running back Paul Scoggins, who then fired the ball deep downfield to Stewart for a 74-yard touchdown that gave the Bears a 7-0 lead with 8:14 left in the first quarter.

“We’ve been running toss out of that look the last few weeks, so we thought it would be there,” said Merced coach Rob Scheidt. “As soon as we lined up, we could hear them yelling toss, toss, toss. A.J. was worried because his guy didn’t bite right away, but he got behind him. We wanted to get on top early.”

The Bears wanted to get on top early because they weren’t sure how long Foss would be able to go. The junior quarterback injured his shoulder two weeks ago against Turlock and didn’t play in the second half against Golden Valley last week.

“It’s still not good,” Scheidt said.

Foss gutted his way through the game on Friday night, completing 15 of 27 passes for 269 yards and five touchdowns.

“I trusted the O-line, they wouldn’t let me get hurt,” Foss said. “We have great receivers in A.J., Brandon, Tim and Kaiser Fink. They all run great routes.

“I feel great. This was a good victory for us as a team. This is a playoff game for us. It’s a big game for us and I wanted to play for my teammates.”

The Panthers tied the score at 7-7 midway through the first quarter on a 13-yard touchdown run by quarterback Max McCabe. Modesto had some success on the ground with McCabe rushing for 72 yards on 10 carries and Kendall McNair adding 81 yards on 15 carries.

However, McCabe struggled throwing the ball, completing just 11 of 27 passes for 114 yards.

The Bears closed out the first half with 21 consecutive points as Foss connected on a 12-yard touchdown pass to Stewart, a 14-yard scoring strike to Miranda and a 10-yard touchdown pass to McKinney to give the Bears a 28-7 lead at the half.

The score stayed that way until the fourth quarter when Stewart hauled in a 26-yard touchdown from Foss to extend the lead to 34-7 with 8:34 remaining.

Modesto’s Markus Brady answered by returning the ensuing kickoff 62 yards for a touchdown, but Merced recovered an onside kick and marched 52 yards on five plays with McKinney scoring his second touchdown on a 17-yard pass from Foss.

With the win, Merced advances to the quarterfinals next week at No. 2 Elk Grove (11-0), which routed No. 15 Gregori 55-0 on Friday.

“We were really fortunate that we were able to throw the ball tonight,” Scheidt said. “We came in counting on running the football and (Modesto) said you’re not going to run the football tonight.”

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 12:06 AM with the headline "Merced, Foss air it out in win over Modesto."