Ball-hogging Otay Ranch dominates Rancho Bernardo

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Otay Ranch scored the first four times it possessed the football and rolled to a 35-14 win over host Rancho Bernardo in a nonleague game Friday.

The Mustangs (2-1) opened the game with an 80-yard, 18-play drive that took all but 16 seconds of the first quarter and culminated in a touchdown. Rancho Bernardo ran just one play in the period, and by halftime Otay Ranch led 28-7.

“The offense performed exceptionally well tonight,” Mustangs coach Lance Christensen said. “They set the tone right away. I couldn’t be happier with what the offense did.

“Rancho Bernardo is a good football team. They have lots of athletes, so our offense keeping them off the field was a big part of our defensive success.”

Otay Ranch quarterbacks Puka Stewart and Alfredo Garcia combined to complete nine of 12 passes for 134 yards and three touchdowns, and senior Zeek Cruz caught two TD passes and ran for another score.

Mustangs senior Sammy Paranada ran for 62 of his game-high 79 yards in the fourth quarter.

“It was just our O-Line blocking for us and our receivers blocking downfield,” Stewart said, explaining the team’s offensive success. “And the conditioning in practice helped us because we weren’t getting tired.”

Rancho Bernardo (0-3), a state champion in 2015 and a San Diego Section finalist last year, has now lost as many games this season as it did in the past two seasons combined.

Junior Jean Morgan led the Broncos with 37 rushing yards on seven carries, all on their final drive of the game.

Wehde is a freelance writer.

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