Defense shines as Merced edges Atwater with late stop to earn spot in section title game.
The ultimate goal for the Merced High girls flag football team all season is to play for a section championship. The Bears reached that goal with a late-game defensive stand, stopping Atwater on fourth-and-goal from their two-yard line as Merced emerged with a 13-7 victory over the Falcons in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II semifinals on Wednesday night at Cathie Hostetler Stadium.
The No. 1 seeded Bears (24-4) will play No. 3 Ponderosa (18-6) in the section title game on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento. The Bruins defeated No. 15 Vista Del Lago 6-0 in the other semifinal game on Wednesday. “It feels great,” said Merced quarterback Antonia Lejarde, whose team swept Atwater in three games this season. “We’re finally getting to where we've been trying to get to since the beginning. This was our end goal. We knew we wanted to get to the section championship game. We knew we had a team with the skill, it was just a matter of playing our game, executing and just controlling what we could control.”
Lejarde and the offense did just enough, putting together two scoring drives in the second quarter. Lejarde connected with her star receiver Averie Steverson for a 53-yard touchdown pass to give the Bears a 6-0 lead with 6:55 left in the second quarter. “My quarterback saw me and saw that it would be open,” Steverson said. “Their safety was too deep, and their linebacker was playing too far outside.”
The second scoring opportunity came after Bears rusher Aniayah Barron recorded a fourth-down sack to set the Merced offense at the Atwater 30-yard line with 37 seconds left in the first half. Shortly after, Lejarde side-stepped a Falcons rusher and then darted into the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown run to extend the Bears’ lead to 13-0 with 5 seconds left in the half.
The Bears defense did the heavy lifting in the semifinal matchup, limiting a high-powered Falcons offense that had scored 99 points in their first two playoff games to just one second-half touchdown. Atwater quarterback Madi Hiler fired a deep pass to Payton Caudillo for a 31-yard touchdown pass to pull the Falcons within 13-7 with 2:54 left in the third quarter.
The Merced defense came up with the big plays to get stops when needed. Barron was relentless, putting constant pressure on Hiler all night. The Merced defensive backs made it tough for Atwater’s receivers to get open and the defense twice came up with big stops on fourth down to stop drives. “After the game we told the girls we need to give the defense the first props,” said Merced head coach Vic Nazario. “The defense kept us in this game. Our offense wasn't clicking. We were moving the ball, but we just weren't finishing. Without the defense, we wouldn't have been in this game.”
Still the Falcons had opportunities, but on both fourth down plays, Atwater couldn’t haul in a pass for a key first down and a tying touchdown. The Falcons coaches couldn’t help but reflect on the success the program has with this senior class that has won three consecutive Central California Conference championships.
“I'm proud of their effort,” said Atwater co-head coach Nathan Ramirez. “We just missed some opportunities. A lot of these girls set the foundation for the program from the inception. You look at Madi being the two time league MVP and being here all three years. It's just a great feeling to know that they set the bar and the standard high for Lady Falcons flag football.”
The Bears can now turn their attention to playing for a blue banner on Saturday. “It’s just exciting, especially because there’s just a lot of emotion,” Nazario said. “It's hard to beat a team three times, especially a team like Atwater. We knew today was going to be a dogfight. That first year we got to the semifinals and now we’ve got past that hump. Now we want to keep rolling with it.”
Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.