Merced Union High School District

The Livingston High football team displayed their recipe for success in last week’s narrow win over Ceres. For the Wolves, it’s about tackling, blocking and being able to keep the ball from their opponents with a methodical running game. Livingston shut out Ceres in the second half and was able to kick a late field goal to pull off a 24-21 victory in the Western Athletic Conference opener.

 

The Wolves will try to do it again on Friday night as they celebrate homecoming with Beyer (2-2 overall, 0-1 WAC) coming to town. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. “Ceres was the most talented team on the field last week,” said Livingston coach Steven Wine. “They were bigger and more athletic, but it’s not necessarily the best team that wins. It’s the team that plays the best and we played better by three points. That’s how we’re going to have to do it.”

 

There are two other MUHSD teams in action on Friday with Merced (4-0) traveling to Enochs (1-3) and El Capitan (3-1) on the road at Immanuel (4-0). Atwater, Buhach Colony and Golden Valley are on byes this week.

 

Livingston’s early-season schedule had a couple juggernauts in Sonora and Stevenson which resulted in two lopsided losses. Now that WAC play has begun, Wine feels the Wolves can be competitive with any team they see going forward.  “Now that we’ve got into league with teams that are a little more matched up with us, at least athletically, basically the message is that we will not see anything like we saw in Stevenson and Sonora,” Wine said. “The physicality of Sonora or the skill of Stevenson, whatever we see throughout the league, we should have seen it already, at least the speed of the game and things like that.”

 

The Wolves gameplan will be to chew up clock with their ground game. Last week against Ceres, eight different Livingston players were credited with a rushing attempt, including offensive lineman Rishav Jairath, who pounced on a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown. Mathias Valencia led the way with 69 rushing yards and Roberto Rivera added 67 yards on the ground. The Wolves ran the ball 37 times, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. It’s the type of approach that will keep the other offense off the field.

 

Wine says Beyer has the type of athletes who can hurt you if they get the ball in space, especially some of the athletes who also play basketball for the Patriots. “They have two receivers who are 6-foot-3 running out there, the skill guys are all really athletic,” Wine said. “It's going be a matchup again where we have to keep the ball on the ground and keep it away from those guys, because they can hurt you. If you let him throw some jump balls and let them turn this into a basketball game we could be in trouble.”

 

One Livingston weapon that was on display was kicker Alexcite Avila, who kicked the game-winning 33-yard field goal. A kicker you can trust is valuable in high school, especially when you expect to be involved in close games. “I think he also had four touchbacks in the game as well so those are as big as the field goals,” Wine said. “It's really nice to know when we get inside the 30, we have a chance of getting three points, which is big for us.”

 

Merced (4-0) at Enochs (1-3) – The Bears look to remain undefeated with Central California Conference play set to start next week. Merced running back Dougie Andrews ran for 149 yards and two touchdowns in a 43-34 win over previously unbeaten Madera. Bears quarterback Vicente Cortez added three touchdown passes and a touchdown run. Haydez Czirban was a force for Merced on both sides of the ball, catching a touchdown and recording two sacks and 13 tackles.

 

El Capitan (3-1) at Immanuel (4-0) – A win would give the Gauchos their best start through five games in program history. El Capitan quarterback Gio Mendoza is off to a great start, throwing for 661 yards and nine touchdowns with just one interception. Receiver Anthony Jones has hauled in 15 catches for 344 yards and six touchdowns.

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjasnen@muhsd.org.