Football Recap: Anthony Estrada's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Madera over Merced

The home team had won the previous three meetings between Madera and Merced, and Merced kept the tradition alive. The Coyotes took a 43-34 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Bears on Friday. The contest marked the Coyotes' lowest-scoring game so far this season.

Anthony Estrada

Rushing Yards

09/19/25 @ Merced	169
09/12/25 @ Madera South	190
09/05/25 vs Paso Robles	182
08/29/25 vs Torres	242
08/22/25 @ Sunnyside	192

Madera lost despite a true team effort on offense. The best among them was Anthony Estrada, who rushed for 169 yards and a pair of scores. Estrada is crushing it when it comes to rushing yards: he's rushed for at least 169 every time he's taken the field this season. Another player making a difference was Jayden Martinez, who gained 81 total yards and two touchdowns.

Leading Merced to victory were Vicente Cortez and Dougie Andrews. Cortez threw for 172 yards and three TDs while completing 76.5% of his passes, while Andrews rushed for 149 yards and a pair of touchdowns while picking up 7.8 yards per carry. The dominant performance also gave Cortez a new career-high in passer rating (147.5).

Having lost for the first time this season, Madera fell to 4-1. As for Merced, the victory keeps them at an undefeated 4-0.

Looking ahead, after each having a week off, Madera and Edison will shake off the rust and duke it out at 7:00 p.m. on October 3. The Coyotes are facing the Tigers at the right time seeing as the Tigers are stuck on a four-game losing streak. Merced has already played their next matchup (against Enochs), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.