Central Catholic starts strong, escapes with three-point win over Merced in opener
It didn’t look by halftime that Friday’s Central Catholic-Merced football game would live up to their spring thriller.
The Raiders carried a 31-7 lead in the second half in a game that was nothing like their 14-13 victory over Merced.
However, late in the fourth quarter, the teams found themselves in familiar territory – within a field goal of each other.
However, needing a first down to seal the game on fourth-and-one, Central’s Aiden Taylor took a handoff from quarterback Dominic Perino and charged through the hole to move the chains as the Raiders came away with a 31-28 victory.
“The first half I was happy. I thought we executed,” Central Catholic coach Roger Canepa said. “The second half we went through the motions.”
Central Catholic scored its first points of the season on a 21-yard field goal in the first quarter after recovering a muffed punt.
After the Bears failed to answer, Taylor bounced a run to the outside and stretched the ball over the goal as he jogged into the end zone for the first of his three touchdowns to give the Raiders a 10-0 lead.
Merced answered with a touchdown after a double pass left a receiver wide open behind the collapsed secondary to get to within 10-7 with 6 minutes, 4 seconds left in the half.
The Raiders’ ground game dominated the rest of the half.
Senior Julian Lopez broke out a 60-yard run and Taylor pounded in two more touchdowns, the first set up after two long pass plays and the second on an interception returned to inside the 5 yard line.
Lopez finished with 164 yards on 13 carries and Taylor rushed 17 times for 69 yards.
“We try to run but we got some play action, both of them can catch the ball,” Canepa said. “We just found some gaps early on and hit them.”
The Raiders took a 31-7 over the Bears lead into halftime but Merced head coach Rob Scheidt rallied his team.
Losing players to injury and COVID-19 contact tracing, Scheidt had a conversation with his team on Wednesday, urging some to step up and fill the roles of those missing.
“We got back in the locker room at halftime and I reminded them of that talk,” Scheidt said.
Jaiden Davis started the Merced scoring in the second half off with a red zone grab to close in on the Central Catholic lead, 31-14. Merced rode the momentum of a third quarter interception in the end zone for a touchback.
Seth Scheidt finished with 22 completions on 30 attempts for 220 yards and most of those went to Evahn Perez. The two connected 11 times in the second half, including two back-shoulder touchdown grabs, the second a 24-yarder that closed the gap to 31-28.
“We felt like we had a good matchup. I think back shoulder throws are really difficult and back shoulder catches are just as difficult,” Scheidt said “Evahn did a great job of not only pushing the route but his alignment on the numbers pre-snap was key to those plays.”
Though Merced lost the game, Scheidt was happy with the way his team composed itself during halftime.
“Not always do 15-, 16-, 17-year-olds respond correctly but they did tonight and I’m very proud of them,” he said.
Canepa praised Merced on its comeback, and knows his team has work to do ahead of next week’s home game against St. Francis of Mountain View.
“We got to get better, but we won,” Canepa added. “It’s a win, you always want to win, but you can’t be satisfied when you’re not doing things right.”
This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 5:51 AM.
