HIGH SCHOOLS : Football Playoffs : Punishing Running Attack Key to RBV’s Plan

It is no accident that the Rancho Buena Vista High School football team has become one of the county’s most dominant in just its second year.

The combination of talented coaches, experienced and talented players, a disciplined approach and a steady, no-nonsense offensive scheme are behind RBV’s 12-0 season.

“We’re on a 2-year project we feel,” Coach Craig Bell said. “We opened the school 2 years ago and tried to work very hard and very diligently toward winning the (San Diego Section) championship for 2 years.”

San Pasqual is the final barrier. RBV, which won the Avocado League meeting between the schools, 35-13, on Nov. 11, can claim the section 2-A championship with a victory in the rematch at 5 p.m. Saturday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

“They are the biggest, strongest, fastest, well-coached team that I’ve seen around here; they don’t have a weakness,” San Pasqual Coach Mike Dolan said. “Usually maybe the coaching is lacking, the scheme is lacking, the personnel is lacking--somewhere you find a weakness in a team. The only weakness we found is that their film man misses a play every once in a while.”

If RBV has a real weakness, it’s the kicking game; kicker Able Lopez has been inconsistent. He missed 4 of 7 extra point attempts in RBV’s 45-7 semifinal victory over Oceanside, which also blocked a field-goal try.

Bell entered this season with almost every player back from the first season in which the Longhorns were 4-5-1, automatically making them a 2-A contender. They rushed through the regular season 10-0, leading the county with a 42-point scoring average, and were only seriously challenged once.

In the process, Bell and offensive line coach Bob Woodhouse constructed a running game that dominated the county unlike any before it, currently averaging 416.2 yards per game and 8.1 yards per carry.

“Offensively, they are just extraordinary,” Oceanside Coach Roy Scaffidi said. “They are relentless, they never stop coming at you, and they are so well coached. They are just a tremendous football team.”

RBV has set the section team record for most yards rushing in a season with 4,994 through 12 games, breaking the 1979 mark of 3,972 by Imperial.

Scott Garcia led the state in rushing, setting section records for rushing yards in a game (361 vs. San Pasqual), yards for a season (now 2,356 yards, breaking the 1986 record of 2,124 set by Vista’s Tommy Booker) and rushing touchdowns in a season (34, ahead of the 32 by Sweetwater’s Terry Rodgers in 1985). But Garcia wasn’t the only one running the ball. Junior O.J. Hall, has rushed for 1,614 yards and 14 touchdowns, and sophomore MarKeith Ross has 758 yards (10.1 per carry) and 11 TDs.

“(It’s) probably because I hate to pass (331 yards all season),” Bell said. “We are conservative by nature. We just try to line up and play football and mush the ball up 2 or 3 yards here, 2 or 3 yards there. We are blessed with some very good running backs and some very good offensive lineman.”

RBV will run counters, reverses and sweeps, but what it loves to do most is pull its guards and trap. When Garcia, Hall or Ross are running through holes big enough to drive a motor home through, there’s a good chance either guards Jack Harrington or Jon Robirds did the plowing.

“We feel (the run) is a very efficient method,” Bell said. “We feel that defense wins football games, not offense.”

While Bell’s offense has received most of the attention, its defense has gotten better and better. Slender defensive lineman David Navadel (6-1, 190 pounds) was an all-Avocado League choice, as was linebacker Al Aliipule, and stand-up end Junior Moi was the league’s top defensive player.

“Probably our No. 1 strength this year has been the work ethic of the football players,” Bell said, “their overall coachability and overall desire to set goals and work hard.

“If you’re looking for a secret, it’s just hard work. That’s the only way we know how to coach it.”