Prep Football: Broncos win season opener

A suffocating defense and a dominant ground game led the Rancho Bernardo High football team to a runner-up finish in the San Diego Section Division II playoffs last season.

The Broncos showed on Friday night they haven’t dropped off in either department.

Anthony Barnum and Milan Grice combined for 172 yards rushing and the Rancho Bernardo defense smothered visiting San Pasqual in a 32-6 non-league victory.

“I think we played well,” said Grice, a 5-foot-8, 175-pound junior. “We went out there and executed and got the result that we wanted.”

The Broncos (1-0) built a 20-0 lead by the half and the only thing keeping them from a season-opening shutout was a late 1-yard touchdown run by San Pasqual’s Jerry Shell.

Grice finished with 89 yards on the ground, including a 1-yard touchdown run that put the Broncos up 26-0 with 5:06 to go in the third quarter.

Barnum had 89 yards on 15 carries, as the same one-two punch that led Rancho Bernardo to the Division II title game last year is alive and well.

Not to be outdone was the Broncos’ defense, as it held the Golden Eagles (0-1) to just 196 yards - 47 in the first half - and registered four sacks and a recovered fumble. San Pasqual finished with just nine first downs, seven of those coming in the second half with the game out of reach.

Rancho Bernardo quarterback Mark Salazar had a solid debut. The junior looked poised in the pocket, completing 9 of 14 passes for 136 yards. Leo Wagner hauled in four of those for 74 yards.

The Broncos took a 6-0 lead on a pair of field goals by Matt Araiza in the first quarter. They made it 13-0 after Kaelan Pestano’s 3-yard run in the second quarter. Grice’s 3-yard burst just 29 seconds before the break capped a dominating first half by Rancho Bernardo in which it outgained San Pasqual 255-47.

A 12-yard run by Ramon Colon with 8:10 to go capped the scoring for Rancho Bernardo.