EL DORADO HILLS — For the third consecutive season, and the fifth time in the last six full seasons, Turlock High’s championship dreams came to a crushing end at the hands of Oak Ridge, which cruised to a 23-0 victory over the Bulldogs on Friday in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division I semifinal.
The second-seeded Trojans (8-4) advance to take on No. 1 Folsom, a 45-0 winner over Inderkum (Sacramento) in Friday’s other semifinal. It’s the fourth year in a row the Sierra Foothill League rivals have met for the section’s D-1 crown, with the Bulldogs winning the past three matchups.
Folsom defeated Oak Ridge 35-7 in league play on Oct. 4.
Playing in a heavy downpour, with whipping winds the entire contest, the Bulldogs (9-4) were never able to establish any rhythm offensively.
Turlock went three-and-out on its first two possessions, then gave up a safety on the first play of its third possession to fall behind 9-0. Oak Ridge had scored on its opening possession of the contest, capping an 11-play 68-yard drive on Jasen Womack’s 2-yard burst into the end zone.
The safety was doubly painful, as it came just after a 76-yard TD run by quarterback Scout Silva was nullified by a penalty.
The Bulldogs, starting at their own 1, went three-and-out the next time they had the ball, and Oak Ridge took advantage of a short field to make it 16-0 on Joaquin Graves-Mercado’s 22-yard TD pass to Isaac Pierce.
After yet another three-and-out by Turlock, Oak Ridge turned the ball over on downs and the Bulldogs took over on their own 39 with 1:25 to play in the first half. They picked up their initial first down of the game with about a minute remaining, and moved the chains again with about 40 seconds to play. However, the drive stalled at the Trojans’ 33 after three straight incompletions by Silva, and the Bulldogs took a knee on fourth down, retreating into the warmth of the visitor’s locker room.
In the first half, the Trojans outgained Turlock 158-28, with all of the Bulldogs’ yardage coming on the ground. The 5-7, 150-pound Silva, who appeared to have difficulty gripping and throwing the wet ball, was 0-for-7 in the first half. His first completion of the game came with about a minute to play in the third quarter — a 13-yard pickup that produced the team’s third first down of the night.
Russell Spaulding relieved Silva for the final drive of the night. He completed a 24-yarder on his first attempt of the game, but misfired on his next three.
Turlock totaled just 112 yards of offense, completed only two of 15 passes, and went three-and-out — or worse — six times.
Oak Ridge’s final score of the game came when Graves-Mercado hit 6-foot-6, 240-pound tight end Kaleb Edwards from the 5 with 4:35 remaining.
Turlock and Oak Ridge also met in the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. There were no playoffs during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve met in postseason every year since 2022. That season also featured a semifinal clash between the teams, coming on the heels of the Bulldogs’ 51-50 upset over top-seeded St. Mary’s (Stockton).
In five postseason encounters with the Trojans, Turlock has been outscored 143-20.
