Football Preview: Merced Bears vs. Rio Americano Raiders
The Merced Bears will be playing in front of their home fans against the Rio Americano Raiders at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Merced will be looking to keep their four-game home win streak alive.
Merced will head into Friday's match hoping to keep the good times rolling: they only won by three when they last took the field, which might have inspired the 42-point they dealt Buhach Colony on Friday. Merced blew past Buhach Colony 55-13. Given the Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 285th, while the Thunder are ranked 846th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Merced's win was the result of several impressive offensive performances. One of the most notable came from Quintell Dupree, who threw for 183 yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 56 yards. Adarias Morales-Saetern also helped with three touchdowns in total.
Merced was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 243 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've posted since back in November of 2023.
Meanwhile, Rio Americano hadn't done well against Christian Brothers recently (they were 1-8 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. Rio Americano managed a 7-3 win over Christian Brothers.
Raymar Griffith went supernova for Rio Americano, rushing for 87 yards and a touchdown on only eight carries. The dominant performance gave Griffith a new career-high in rushing yards.
Merced's record now sits at 7-3. As for Rio Americano, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 5-5 record this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
