High School football teams should welcome the pressure to perform. There’s a certain edge that surrounds teams expected to contend for conference championships and who expect to play late into the season. That’s the goal for any program. “Expectations are a privilege,” said Atwater High head coach Seneca Ybarra. 

 

The six Merced Union High School District teams start building toward those goals on Friday night with the kickoff of the 2025 season. Last week, teams had the opportunity to scrimmage. It was one last dress rehearsal to fix the mistakes. “Now, it's real,” said Merced High head coach Rob Scheidt. “There’s been a lot of hype, a lot of talk, and so now you go into week one, and hopefully you’re prepared. I think as a coach, your concern is are your guys going to take care of the football, tackle well, and do all those things when things go awry? We just want to play well and kind of limit the hype and all the wasted energy that comes with week one. Hopefully we're focused on executing and doing well.”

 

The Bears open the season with a tough challenge as Patterson, which is ranked No. 15 in the Sac-Joaquin Section by MaxPreps, comes to Cathie Hostettler Stadium. Kickoff has been pushed back to 8 p.m. due to the expected heat. In other MUHSD action, Atwater travels to No. 18 Vacaville, Golden Valley opens at Ripon, El Capitan hosts Hoover, Buhach Colony hosts Gregori at Dave Honey Stadium and Livingston travels to Le Grand.

 

Scheidt says he enjoys the challenges of playing a difficult schedule. “Patterson is ranked 15th in the section, and we go to Downey in a couple weeks and they're 25th,” he said. “So we're just happy that we're going to be challenged. I think it's tough if you have a really weak non-league schedule, and you're not sure about guys, and you have success despite making mistakes. It can slow down your development. When you play up, and you're challenged, I think it brings out the best in terms of who you are as a player and as a team. Then you can really focus on what you need to improve on.”

 

Scheidt’s squad will face a Tigers team that reached the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV championship game last season. Patterson will be led by 6-foot-6 offensive lineman Daniel Mataele, who has already verbally committed to Sacramento State. 

 

The Bears hope to contend for a third consecutive Central California Conference championship and will be led by returning all-CCC offensive linemen Koy Wicker and Kaleb Caudillo, senior quarterback Vicente Cortez and running back Cammarri Jackson. 

 

Meanwhile, the Falcons will face a perennial power in Vacaville that defeated Atwater 35-21 in the playoffs last season. The Falcons return many skill players, including quarterback A.J. Banks, receiver Sylas Austin and tight end Vinny Valladao. Atwater will have many new faces on the offensive line and on defense with just one returning starter on that side of the ball.

 

“We’re not really young, we're inexperienced,” said Ybarra. “So we were a really senior heavy team last year and those guys played a lot of those minutes. So we got a lot of guys that just need more game reps. I think we’re still a solid squad. We're hoping those guys catch up to speed pretty fast.”

In other action:

Golden Valley at Ripon – The Cougars are coming off a 4-6 campaign and will lean on returning juniors Isaiah Welch at running back and Gabriel Richards at quarterback. Golden Valley also has some talented receivers in Jaren Bell, Jaden Smith, Damian Solorio and Ayden Moreno.

 

Gregori at Buhach Colony – The Thunder are trying to turn the page after two tough seasons. Buhach Colony returns Isaiah Reed and Charles Peterson as ball carriers and quarterback Dayton Fitzgerald. The offensive line will be anchored by Pedro Ramirez and Michael Hernandez.

 

Hoover at El Capitan – The Gauchos are coming off their best season in school history after finishing 5-5 in Xavier Ramirez’s first season as head coach. El Capitan hopes the program takes the next step and will have senior quarterback Gio Mendoza and senior running back Lorenzo Peters leading the way.

 

Livingston at Le Grand – These two teams have appeared on each other’s schedules for 19 consecutive years with the Wolves holding an 11-8 advantage in the rivalry since 2006 It’s been a good test for both teams with a lot of competitive games. The Wolves will try to pound the ball on the ground with wingbacks Mathias Valencia, Christian Partida and Jeff Meneses behind an offensive line anchored by Julian Chavez and Rishav Jairath.

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.