Merced racks up over 300 yards rushing as they pull away from Gregori in second half
With Merced High struggling to find rhythm in the passing game in the first half, the Bears turned to their ground game to pull away from Gregori in the second half.
The Bears leaned on the big offensive line and it’s stable of ball carriers, rushing for 162 yards three second-half rushing touchdowns for a 33-13 win over the Jaguars on Monday night at Veterans Stadium.
“I told our guys we could pound them and wear them out and that’s kind of what happened,” said Merced coach Rob Scheidt, whose team improved to 1-1.
It was the high school version of Monday Night Football after this matchup was postponed on Friday night due to the poor air quality because of the smoke coming from several wild fires in Northern California.
Merced racked up 317 yards on the ground and five touchdowns in the game.
Quarterback Seth Scheidt led the way with 135 yards rushing on 16, carries, including some big third-down runs that moved the chains and kept drives going.
Running back Ryan Lee added 106 rushing yard and two touchdowns and sophomore running back Chase Lee rushed for 42 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior lineman Jaylen Thao-Booth said the offensive line likes it when it is asked to lead the way.
“We knew from watching film that they come off the line slow so we came off powerful, we got good strikes,” Thao-Booth said.
Thao-Booth was even more impressive on defense, finishing with three sacks and destroying plays in the backfield.
The Bears defense twice stopped the Jaguars (1-1) on downs inside the Merced 10-yard line. The Merced defense limited Gregori quarterback Cruz Marines to just 5 yards rushing on 14 carries.
“They all looked good but (Thao-Booth) is special,” Rob Scheidt. “The only guys I can compare him to are David Perales, who is playing big-time football at Fresno State right now, and probably the guy who played next to him John Becerra. Guys who just had high motors. He’s phenomenal and he’s not big. He just has unbelievable strength. I mean he literally throws O-lineman out of the way.”
Gregori had its chances.
Marines connected with running back Jayden Miller on a 21-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-7 with 2:53 left in the first quarter.
Trailing 19-7 in the third quarter, the Jaguars drove inside the Bears’ 5-yard line, however Gregori’s Dylan Zador dropped a wide-open pass in the end zone and the Jaguars eventually turned the ball over on downs at the Bears’ 8-yard line.
“We knew their quarterback was really elusive so we knew we had to contain and work hard to get pressure on his throwing,” Thao-Booth said. “He’s a good quarterback, he can run and he can throw off his back foot so we had to keep him in the pocket.”
With the Gregori game getting pushed back to Monday, it sets up Merced with a tough challenge of playing three games in 10 games with a Friday matchup at Downey and a game next Thursday against Madera.
Scheidt said it limits what they can do at practice this week.
“I told our guys I’m not going to kill you the next three days,” he said. “I’m going to get you ready to play your next game. There has to be a lot of trust in that.”
Other area scores:
Hilmar 23, Los Banos 6
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 11:34 PM with the headline "Merced racks up over 300 yards rushing as they pull away from Gregori in second half."
