‘It was a wild week.’ Oakdale outlasts Merced in matchup scheduled one day ago
The scoreboard at The Corral didn’t work on Friday night so fans couldn’t read the final score.
It would have read Oakdale 35, Merced 14.
The public address announcer would periodically inform the referees, the teams and the crowd how much time was remaining in the quarters throughout the game.
Chalk it up to COVID.
“It was a wild week,” said Oakdale coach Trent Merzon, whose team finished the shortened spring season with a 4-1 record. “COVID has been tough. It’s been five games but it feels like 15. Every coach I’ve talked to has said the same thing, ‘It’s hard., really hard.’ ”
Both Merzon and Merced coach Rob Scheidt felt fortunate to have five games this spring, They had to scramble to schedule Friday’s matchup on Thursday when both of their opponents had COVID-19 issues.
Oakdale’s original opponent, Ripon, had a delay in getting their test results back and Merced’s opponent, Atwater, had multiple positive tests.
“We lost that Ripon game but we picked up a monster,” Merzon said. “I told our kids, it’s true what you’ve heard. We’ve lost our Ripon game but bear with me, I’m working on it. I went back on our group meeting an hour later and said we’re playing Merced and they lit up.”
That left both coaches trying to prepare their teams to play an opponent in one day. Preparing for Oakdale’s wing-T offense in 24 hours isn’t easy.
“If you ask someone, ‘Hey, you get called on Thursday and you have to go to Oakdale, to The Corral, and play a game, is that a good choice?’ But we didn’t have a choice, right. It’s not ideal for us, but I’m not complaining,” Scheidt said. “I’m so happy that we got to play.”
The lack of preparation showed in the first half as the Mustangs shredded the Bears for 167 rushing yards as Zeke Saffarr broke free for a 39-yard touchdown run and Yahir Ayala added a 50-yard touchdown run that helped Oakdale build a 21-7 lead at the half.
Merced attacked through the air as junior quarterback Seth Scheidt completed 18 of 32 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns. Seth Scheidt connected with Enochs Evans for a 13-yard touchdown in the second quarter and added a 2-yard touchdown to Jack Collins in the second half that pulled Merced within 28-14 late in the third quarter.
The second half was basically played to a 7-7 draw, until Oakdale tacked on a late touchdown with 5 seconds left.
“We ran out of gas, man. It was funny, about half way through the third quarter, I’m like, ‘Hey, we’re out of gas. We’re literally out of gas,’ ” Merzon said. “Same thing with them. The only thing that saved us was they were out of gas. That last quarter neither team had anything in the tank. You could just see it. There was just no juice.”
Ayala finished with 111 rushing yards on 16 carries and Saffarr added 91 yards on 15 carries.
The exhaustion could be seen on both coaches’ faces after the game.
“It’s crazy. I don’t think people understand the anxiety,” said Rob Scheidt, whose team won a Central California Conference championship, going 3-0 in conference and finishing with a 3-2 overall. “What Atwater just went through, those are your biggest fears. As a coach, you’re just kind of waiting for testing day, you’re waiting for the results, and it’s kind of just 48 hours of on edge.”
Merzon said his team had to practice at 5:30 a.m. because he had too many players who were working jobs and wouldn’t have been able to play if they didn’t practice early.
“From the hybrid learning, to the 15-month hiatus with these kids not doing anything, then getting to play,” Merzon said. “It’s been hard on coaches but our kids love it. Every coach says the same thing. We’re dead, we’re exhausted, we’re frustrated, but the kids love it. and that’s what it’s all about.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2021 at 12:41 AM with the headline "‘It was a wild week.’ Oakdale outlasts Merced in matchup scheduled one day ago."
