Merced and El Capitan are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2020, but likely not for long. The Merced Bears will be playing at home against the El Capitan Gauchos at 5:15 p.m. on Friday. Merced is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 2.7 goals per game this season.
El Capitan better have a healthy lead at halftime, because if last week is any indication, that's when Merced really get things going. Merced's defense stepped up to hand Buhach Colony a 5-0 shutout on Wednesday. Given the Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' California soccer rankings (they are ranked 370th, while the Thunder are ranked 1036th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Merced hit Buhach Colony with a three-pronged attack, as the team got scores from Alexander Castaneda (2), Santiago Santiago-Hernandez (2), and Jomei Montes.
Meanwhile, El Capitan didn't have quite enough to beat Golden Valley on Friday and fell 2-1.
Merced pushed their record up to 11-7-2 with the win, which was their fourth straight on the road. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they scored 14 goals over those four contests. As for El Capitan, their loss dropped their record down to 6-6-6.
Merced was able to grind out a solid victory over El Capitan in their previous matchup two weeks ago, winning 3-1. Does Merced have another victory up their sleeve, or will El Capitan turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
