Central Catholic pulls away in second half to spoil Merced’s first game at new stadium
Trace Hernandez made just two catches on Friday night, but the Central Catholic High School junior made the most of them.
Hernandez turned both receptions into touchdowns on plays covering 58 and 62 yards in a third quarter that saw the Raiders score on all four possessions as they pulled away for a 42-20 win over Merced in the first-ever game played at Merced High’s new Cathie Hostetler Stadium on Friday night.
“This is a big win,” said Central Catholic coach Roger Canepa. “They’re opening a new stadium, a lot of pride, a great coach and we got a win though.”
This was a matchup of two teams ranked in the top 20 in the Sac-Joaquin Section by MaxPreps. Central Catholic was ranked No. 2 and Merced was ranked No. 19.
The two teams played to a 14-14 tie in the first half.
The Raiders’ two scores came on the ground from running back Tyler Jacklich and quarterback Tyler Wentworth.
Merced scored on a nice catch by receiver Enoch Evans in the corner of the end zone and a a 24-yard run by running back Chase Smith.
However, the Raiders took control in the second half.
Hernandez got behind the Bears’ secondary on a play-action play and scored on a 58-yard touchdown catch to give Central Catholic a 20-14 lead with 11:05 left in the third quarter.
After the Merced offense went three-and-out, the Raiders took advantage of a short field, marching 52 yards on four plays as Tiago Armstrong scored on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Wentworth to extend the Raiders’ lead to 28-14.
“Our guys got a little fatigued,” said Merced coach Rob Scheidt. “We kind of told our guys that they’re going to come out, they’re going to be upset that the game is as close as it was in the first half. That fatigue hit us kind of in the wrong way.”
The Bears answered with a 57-yard scoring drive as Smith scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to pull Merced within 28-20 with 5:15 left in the third quarter. Smith showed his explosiveness all night, rushing for 135 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
The Bears just didn’t have any answers for Central Catholic in the third quarter.
Jacklich broke free for a 46-yard touchdown run and Wentworth connected with Hernandez again for a 62-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 42-20 with 50 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We did a good job against the run early on and in the second half we gave up some big runs, which opened up play-action pass,” Scheidt said. “We didn’t do a good job of containing the quarterback all night. Those are things we hopefully will work on moving forward.”
Wentworth completed 7 of 13 passes for 194 yards and three touchdowns to go along with a rushing touchdown.
Jacklich led the Raiders ground attack with 162 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries.
“In the second half we got a little more physical,” Canepa said. “We made plays and we shut them down.”
Central Catholic travels to face Saint Francis in Mountain View next week. Merced will travel to Modesto to play Gregori.
This story was originally published August 20, 2022 at 12:09 AM with the headline "Central Catholic pulls away in second half to spoil Merced’s first game at new stadium."
