Football Preview: Rio Americano Raiders vs. Merced Bears
The Rio Americano Raiders will head out to square off against the Merced Bears at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both come into the game bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Rio Americano will bounce into Friday's matchup after beating Christian Brothers, who they had gone 1-8 against in their nine prior meetings. Rio Americano secured a 7-3 W over Christian Brothers on Friday.
Raymar Griffith went supernova for Rio Americano, rushing for 87 yards and a touchdown on only eight carries. Those 87 rushing yards gave Griffith a new career-high.
Meanwhile, Merced came tearing into Friday's contest with five straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 25.8 points) and they left with even more momentum. They blew past the Thunder 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.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Merced to victory, but perhaps none more so than Quintell Dupree, who threw for 183 yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 56 yards. Jordan Dupree also helped with two 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 managed all season.
Merced's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 7-3. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 52.5 points per game. As for Rio Americano, they are on a roll lately: they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-5 record this season.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
