Everything that led to  the success the Merced High girls flag football team enjoyed this season was on full display on Saturday afternoon. There was the combination of speed, skill and athleticism that made the Bears a formidable team on both sides of the ball.

 

That’s why the Bears left Cosumnes River College with a new decoration for the Merced High gymnasium in the form of a blue banner as top-seeded Merced crushed No. 3 Ponderosa 33-6 in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship game. 

 

The Bruins (18-7) were able to keep the Bears scoreless in the first two quarters as they stopped Merced’s two first drives. However, it was all Bears the rest of the way. Merced just had too many weapons.

 

There was quarterback Antonia Lejarde throwing for four touchdowns and running for another score. There was senior receiver Ryann Perez running around Ponderosa defensive backs on her way to three touchdown catches. There was junior receiver Averie Steverson scoring on a 71-yard touchdown catch and pulling down an interception on defense. Samantha Barragan added two interceptions, Leanna Amado came away with an interception at the goal line and Aniayah Barron recorded two sacks.

 

The Bears jumped out to a 33-0 lead in the third quarter and if they wanted they could have scored 50 if they didn’t throttle down the offense in the fourth quarter. “Our defense can shut down teams really quickly,” said Merced head coach Vic Nazario, whose team improved to 25-4 this season. “And that was kind of on display here, (Ponderosa) has come back against different teams so we knew that was a possibility. Our defense stepped up and our offense was clicking. When we’re clicking we’re very hard to stop.”

Lejarde caught fire in the second quarter connecting with Perez on touchdown passes of 66 yards and a shorter four-yard scoring strike to give the Bears an early 13-0 lead with 3:11 left in the first half.

 

The Bears then hit the Bruins with a flurry of points in the third quarter. Lejarde started with a 5-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 20-0 with 8:30 left in the third quarter. Barragan then intercepted a pass to give the ball right back to the Bears offense and Lejarde and Perez teamed up for a 23-yard touchdown pass to give Merced a 27-0 lead with 7:42 left in the third quarter.

 

Amado then picked off a pass near the goal line and two plays later, Lejarde hit a streaking Steverson for a 71-yard  touchdown pass and a 33-0 lead with 4:25 left in the third quarter.”It was just about getting to the right spots and figuring out their defense a little better,” Lejarde said. “Once we knew where the open spots were we knew how to read them better.”

 

Perez picked her final game to have one of her best games. “I don't think it's hit me that this is my last year and last game,” Perez said. “I'm just super proud of these girls, and I'm just so happy that we made it  this far. It took us three years but we did it.”

After receiving the blue banner the players went over and celebrated with their fans and family. They posed for photos and made sure to soak in the moment. “From the beginning of the year we knew we wanted to get here,” Lejarde said. “To get here and actually put everything we’ve worked on and learned into play and to actually achieve our goal, feels amazing.”

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