Prep Football: Rancho Bernardo High routs San Marcos, headed to section title game
By Michael Bower
The Rancho Bernardo High football team is headed to its first San Diego Section championship game since 2001.
The Broncos raced to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and smothered the high-powered offense of host San Marcos en route to a surprising 42-10 rout Friday in a San Diego Section Division II semifinal game.
Third-seeded Rancho Bernardo will have a chance to capture its first section championship since 1995 when it faces top-seeded and undefeated El Capitan Dec. 6 at Southwestern College.
“It’s crazy,” said offensive lineman Austin Lucht, who helped pave the way for a Broncos ground attack that finished with 299 yards and three touchdowns. “Who would have thought we would be going to the title game, especially after going 2-19 the last two seasons.”
The Broncos led 28-3 at the half after reaching the end zone on four of their five first-half possessions. Meanwhile, the second-seeded Knight’s punted four times and had a pass intercepted at the Rancho Bernardo goal line by Nathan Powell.
“This was not how I expected the game to go,” said Broncos coach Tristan McCoy, who was a star linebacker the last time the program won a section title (1995). “I was worried about their offense. They have a lot of dynamic players and I was worried they would move the ball on us.”
Instead, it was the Broncos showing off their array of weapons. Quarterback Tucker Reed tossed touchdown passes to Kameron Calhoun, Devin Goodloe and Dylan Cabrera. Running back Anthony Barnum rushed for 175 yards and two TDs on 16 carries.
“I know with the athletes we have on this team we can go out and score a lot of points like that,” said Reed, who turned in a fantastic performance after struggling in the quarterfinal win over Scripps Ranch. “We have a lot of weapons on both sides of the ball.”
The only negative about Rancho Bernardo’s win Friday was all the injuries. The Broncos lost two offensive linemen in the first quarter and neither returned (Victor Parra and Corbin Grenowich). Sophomore running back Milan Grice, who finished with 73 yards and had a 22 yard TD run, left the game in the third quarter and was on crutches by the end.
Still, Rancho Bernardo’s ground game never slowed down. Barnum rushed for 144 of his 175 yards in the second half. The offensive line helped him power his way into the end zone on a 7-yard TD run to make it 35-3 in the third quarter.
“We had a few lineman get hurt, but no matter who is in there we feel like we can do a great job,” Lucht said.
Rancho Bernardo capitalized on great field position early to take a 21-0 first-quarter lead behind a 22-yard run by Grice, a 30-yard TD pass from Reed to Calhoun and an 18-yard pass from Reed to Devin Goodloe. All three of the drives started inside the 37 of San Marcos thanks to solid defense and three bad punts.
The Knights got a 38-yard field goal with 9:45 to go before half and looked on their way to cutting the deficit to 21-10 before Powell made a one-handed interception at the goal line for the Broncos. Seven plays later, Barnum scored on a 35-yard run to make it 28-3 and the rout was on.