Merced Union High School District

The start of Central California Conference play begins with rivalry week with the Bloss Bowl and the Battle for the Mayor’s Cup taking place on Friday night. Buhach Colony (2-3) will play host to Atwater (3-2) in the 20th Bloss Bowl at Dave Honey Stadium. The Thunder hold a 12-7 advantage in the all-time series. Meanwhile, Merced (5-0) will look to extend its streak over Golden Valley (0-5) to 20 consecutive wins at home at Cathie Hostetler Stadium. The Bears hold a 23-8 all-time record against the Cougars.

 

In other MUHSD action, El Capitan (3-2) begins CCC with a home game against Los Banos (2-3) and Livingston (2-3, 2-0 Western Athletic Conference) will host Grace Davis (2-3, 1-1 WAC). All games are scheduled to kickoff at 7:15 p.m.

 

The challenge for the Thunder will be to slow down the potent Falcons offense, which is led by quarterback A.J. Banks, who has thrown for 1,165 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. Banks’ favorite target has been senior receiver Sylas Austin, who has hauled in 25 catches for 678 yards and nine touchdowns. Running back Durrell Morrison has also rushed for 549 yards and five touchdowns.  “I think their offense has been super explosive this year and they’ve been super tested in some close games,” said Buhach Colony co-head coach Kevin Navarra. “I think if we can stay with our blueprint of playing good defense, we want to keep it close in the fourth, and give us an opportunity.”

The Thunder are hoping to counter with a strong round attack, led by Blake O’Brien, who has rushed for 337 yards and three touchdowns. Buhach Colony is averaging close to 200 yards rushing per game. 

 

Both Buhach Colony and Atwater are coming off bye weeks, which has given both teams two weeks to prepare for their crosstown rival. “I think anytime you get an opportunity to do some trial and error with some things that you may want to do offensively, defensively or with special teams, and put it to work a little bit, and then be able to fine tune it,” Navarra said. “There's really no excuses on our end as a coaching staff or players in preparation for this game.”

 

Merced is off to its first 5-0 start since 2018 and are averaging over 46 points per game in its last four games. The Bears are averaging almost 250 yards per game on the ground with 20 rushing touchdowns. The running back trio of Dougie Andrews, Cammarri Jackson and Anthony Tachiera have all been effective out of the backfield with Jackson scoring four touchdowns in last week’s 56-12 victory over Enochs. Quarterback Vincente Cortez has also rushed for 284 yards and eight touchdowns to go along with 791 passing yards and 10 touchdown passes.

“It's been a great non-conference schedule for us,” said Merced coach Rob Scheidt. “We haven't done this since 2018, but everything that we want to do as a program and as a team, in terms of our goals, start this week. So these are the ones that count.”

 

Scheidt says one thing his teams have been able to do during this rivalry is keep the game about football and not get caught up in everything surrounding the crosstown rivalry. “I think one of the things that our team has done really well – which early on in this rivalry we didn't do really well – is we've kept it about football. We haven't made it bigger than that. So I think our group this year really gets that message. Yes, it's going to be an exciting atmosphere. Yes, there's going to be a lot of people there. Yes, they are our cross-town rivals and a lot of these guys grew up as friends. But it still comes down to can you play football the way it's supposed to be played? If we can do that, I think it should be a great contest.”

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