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Bulldogs drop finale
• Ceres High closes out 2018 campaign with 42-7 loss to Grace Davis
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Ceres High varsity football all-purpose player Fernando Sosa avoids a would-be tackler while returning a kickoff against Grace Davis last Thursday at Modesto Junior College. - photo by Dale Butler

Ceres High’s varsity football team ended the 2018 season in disappointing fashion last week.

The Bulldogs lost 42-7 to the Grace Davis Spartans in Western Athletic Conference Thursday evening at Modesto Junior College.

“It wasn’t a positive sight looking at the scoreboard,” Ceres High senior running back Felipe Martinez said.

“I feel bad for our seniors . Things didn’t end right for them.”
Bulldogs’ coach Matt Chachere

“I feel bad for our seniors,” Bulldogs’ first-year head coach Matt Chachere said. “Things didn’t end right for them.”

Ceres High posted a 1-9 overall record and finished fifth in the Western Athletic Conference standings (1-6)

The Spartans went 5-5 and 4-3 (second place)

Grace Davis won its final three games.

The Bulldogs ended the season on a five-game skid.

“We should have done a lot better against West, Lathrop, Johansen and Davis,” Chachere said. “We shot ourselves in the foot with penalties, turnovers and not doing assignments correctly.”

 “The program is at the lowest it could be,” Martinez said. “There is no way to go but up. Hopefully, they have a more positive season next year.”

Martinez accounted for the Bulldogs’ lone touchdown.

He scored on a 1-yard run.

 “We’ve faced better teams before,” Martinez said. “I wouldn’t put them as one of the top three teams we’ve played. They were beatable. They capitalized on our mistakes.”

Ceres High never recovered after Grace Davis stormed out to a 21-0 lead.

 “We thought we had a good shot at making it competitive,” Chachere said. “But we knew we had to play the time-of-possession game to keep Davis’ offense off the field.  We weren’t able to do that. We couldn’t run the ball.”

“In the beginning, I thought it was going to be a good game on both sides of the ball,” Martinez said. “The more mistakes we made, and the more they capitalized on them, we became defeated mentally and physically. The coaches can’t play for us. It was up to the players to execute the game plan. We didn’t succeed.”

Ceres High suffered its 14th straight non-winning season.

The Bulldogs last participated in the playoffs in 2004.

“We (the seniors) had a vision of what could happen,” Martinez said.  “We really thought we were going to be the group to turn around the program. We didn’t do it. It’s frustrating.”

“It’s disappointing,” Chachere said. “You want to have success. I still had a fun time going through the process. The seniors made the coaching experience enjoyable.”