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Mustangs Throttle Bulldogs For Homecoming
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After a one-sided win over Central Valley, Oakdale High football coach Trent Merzon said that Homecoming would be a funny week, and he mentioned the difficult task of keeping his team focused on Ceres in a week full of distractions.Mission accomplished.Oakdale exploded for 49 first half points and rumbled to a 56-6 blowout of visiting Ceres on Friday inside the Corral.The team picked up 313 total offensive yards and managed touchdowns on the ground, through the air, on defense and even special teams.“I think we accomplished every one of our team goals, offensively and defensively,” Merzon said. “I think we are hard to defend. We have three good backs who can run the ball and we can throw the ball too.”Oakdale led 28-0 with four minutes to play in the second quarter, but Blake Raham extended the lead on a 26-yard burst to pay dirt with 3:45 remaining in the half.Three plays later Braydon Stephens corralled a Ceres fumble and returned it 18 yards for an easy score. Ceres repeated the same miscue just four snaps later and this time Nate Madsen delivered the scoop-and-score from 37 yards out for the huge lead with just over a minute remaining on the first half clock.“Defensively, we flew around,” Merzon said. “Our defense did a heck of a job.”Oakdale struck first on a 4-yard dive into the end zone from Tim House. Devin Brooks ran in touchdowns from 13 and 12 yards out and Robert Trout made his first pass a good one by tossing a 46-yard scoring strike to Raham on the first play of the second quarter. Daniel Linder returned a kickoff 90 yards for the Mustangs’ only score of the second half.Brooks finished with 12 carries for 69 yards while House (eight carries) and Jeff Donnally (nine) each ran for 57 yards. Stout was 3-for-4 for 71 yards while Raham scored twice on just four rushes and one reception. Oakdale’s third option on the ground ended with 42 yards on the ground.“We were just having a lot of fun out there and everyone was blocking the right guys,” Raham said. “Tim’s a great fullback and Brooks is doing really good too. I’m just the third guy who can take it to the outside and get a couple yards.”The Oakdale defense held Ceres to just 54 yards of rushing on 37 carries, and intercepted Ceres quarterback George Borden twice in the opening quarter.The Mustang defense will look to stay in high gear when Oakdale (2-0 Valley Oak League, 5-0 overall) takes on host East Union next week. The Lancers (0-2, 2-3) were handed a surprising 27-7 defeat by Weston Ranch last week, and will be hungry to get back on track at home.East Union is led by hard-hitting quarterback Dennis Johnson, running back Teejay Gordon and receivers Ricky Inderbitzin and Jared Carden. Carden has scored in back-to-back weeks and will be looked upon for big plays against a stubborn Mustang defense.Kickoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. GAME STATISTICS                                                OAK                      CERFIRST DOWNS                    14                           10TOTAL YARDS                   313                         135RUSHING YARDS               242                         54COM-ATT- INT                   3-5-0                      9-19-2PASSING YARDS                71                           81