Football Recap: Merced Picks Up Eighth Straight Win at Home

Bears

Previous Games (Home)

09/19/25 vs Madera	43-34
08/29/25 vs Gregori	45-13
08/22/25 vs Patterson	30-23
11/08/24 vs Rio Americano	41-35
11/01/24 vs Buhach Colony	55-13
+ 3 more games

Merced had won eight straight at home dating back to last season, but on Friday they bumped up to 4-0 to make it nine. They walked away with a 43-34 victory over the Madera Coyotes. For the Bears, this counts as revenge for the 48-35 win the Coyotes walked away with the last time they faced one another back in September of 2024.

Merced was led to victory by Vicente Cortez and Dougie Andrews. Cortez threw for 172 yards and three touchdowns while completing 76.5% of his passes, while Andrews rushed for 149 yards and a pair of scores 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. The game marked their lowest-scoring contest so far this season.

Madera lost despite a true team effort on offense. The best among them was Anthony Estrada, who rushed for 169 yards and two TDs. 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.

Merced has already played their next matchup (against Enochs), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. As for Madera, they will get a bit of extra time to process the defeat as their next game is a ways off. They'll take on Edison 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.