Merced Union High School District

Roberto Rivera scored three touchdowns and the Livingston High defense posted another second-half shutout to propel the Wolves to a second consecutive win with a 31-14 victory over Beyer on homecoming night in Livingston on Friday night. 

 

For the second straight week the Wolves dominated the second half, putting together three scoring drives and shutting down Beyer’s offense. “I don’t know what it is about the second half,” said Livingston head coach Steven Wine, whose team improved to 2-3 overall and 2-0 in the Western Athletic Conference. “We made no adjustments. At halftime I just said we need to play harder. Really in the second half our guys just started winning their blocks and their matchups and that’s all it really was.”

 

It was Beyer (2-3, 0-2 WAC) that kind of set the tone in the first half. The Patriots cashed in on a short field on their first drive, marching 41 yards on six plays with John Mustapha scoring on a 21-yard touchdown run to give Beyer a 7-0 lead with 7:55 left in the first quarter.

 

Despite a bad snap ruining one drive and a fumble on another drive, the Wolves were able to pull even at 7-7  midway through the second quarter as Rivera scored on a 7-yard touchdown run with 8:40 left in the first half.

 

Beyer took the lead once again on a 14-yard touchdown run by Tanner Kulina with 2:50 left in the second quarter. However, the Wolves answered again as Rivera scored on a 1-yard sneak to tie the game at 14-14 with 1:39 left in the half.

 

The Wolves then came out more focused and determined in the second half. Livingston took its first lead of the game when Mathias Valencia scored on a 2-yard run to give the Wolves a 21-14 lead with 8:04 left in the third quarter. The Wolves tacked on a 35-yard field goal by Alexcito Avila early in the fourth quarter that extended the lead to 24-14.

 

Meanwhile, the success the Patriots had on the ground in the first half disappeared. The Wolves defense flew to the ball. The holes were gone and the big plays stopped. “We’re a second half team,” Rivera said. “I think all the guys just wanted to win that bad. I mean, we have a big crowd here and nobody wants to lose on homecoming. We just came out on fire.”

 

Rivera helped put the game away with an 18-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 31-14 with 4:31 left in the game. Rivera finished with 62 yards rushing and the three scores on 10 carries Valencia added 75 yards on the ground on 16 carries. 

 

Wine says the coaching staff is going to try to spend this weekend figuring out how to get the Wolves team he’s seen play in the second half the last two weeks show up in the first half of games the rest of the season. “We’re going to meet this weekend and try to figure that out,” Wine said.

 

Livingston will host Grace Davis next week.

 

Merced 56, Enochs 12 – Bears running back Cammarri Jackson scored four touchdowns to help Merced improve to 5-0 with a rout of the Eagles. Jackson scored on runs of 2, 40, 1 and 5 yards. Bears quarterback Vincent Cortez added two rushing touchdowns and a 57-yard touchdown pass to Nehemiah De La Cruz. The game was played with a running clock in the second half after Merced built a 42-6 lead by halftime. Merced will open Central California Conference play at home next week against Golden Valley in the Battle for the Mayor’s Cup.

 

Immanuel 44, El Capitan 20 – The Gauchos dropped to 3-2 on the season despite two touchdowns from running back Lorenzo Peters. The senior scored on a 3-yard touchdown run to cut the Eagles lead to 15-7 late in the second quarter. Immanuel then opened up a 44-7 lead before Peters scored on a 60-yard touchdown catch midway through the third quarter to cut the lead to 44-14. The Gauchos will open CCC play next week at home against Los Banos.

 

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