HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : SECTION PLAYOFFS : Winners This Weekend to Play for Championship Next : 3-A Semifinal: It should be a rematch packed with punch when Rancho Buena Vista meets Point Loma. Both know how to move the football; Point Loma won Round 1, 42-35.

The thing about tonight’s San Diego Section 3-A semifinal playoff game between Rancho Buena Vista and Point Loma is this:

Rancho Buena Vista can move the football.

Point Loma can move the football.

So what the Longhorns and Pointers will find out at 7:30 at Mira Mesa High School is which can slow down the other. That will determine who advances to the championship game next Saturday in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Neither coach--Craig Bell of RBV or Bennie Edens of Point Loma--expects his defense to completely shut down its opponent.

Nobody has come close to stopping the RBV running game. The Longhorns averaged 44.6 points a game during the regular season and were not held below 34 points. RBV’s two playoff victories have also been high-scoring affairs--51-27 over Patrick Henry and 48-21 over Southwest.

Markeith Ross was second in the county this season with 1,341 yards behind Oceanside’s Terry Vaughn. O.J. Hall broke the San Diego Section career rushing record by pushing his total to 4,073.

Meanwhile, Point Loma has been able to pass on just about everybody. The Pointers averaged 29 points a game. They defeated Sweetwater, 42-10, in the first round of the playoffs and then Orange Glen last week in overtime, 48-35.

Quarterback Dan White completed 157 of 255 passes (62%) for 2,722 yards and 21 touchdowns this season. Brett Callan caught 65 passes for 1,107 yards (17-yard average), and J.J. Stokes caught 55 for 1,257 yards (22.9).

“I don’t think you’re ever going to stop Point Loma,” Bell said. “You just have to do the best you can to contain them. You have to play as well as you can for as long as you can.”

RBV (9-3) may have the better record, but Point Loma (8-4) defeated the Longhorns, 42-35, in Vista Sept. 22. That is the only time RBV has been defeated on the field in its past 27 games. RBV’s other two losses this season were forfeits when it was discovered the Longhorns had unknowingly used an ineligible player during victories.

“Without a doubt, they’re the most explosive offensive team we’ve faced all year,” Bell said.

Despite the victory, Edens saw enough to know how dangerous RBV can be.

“I don’t look forward to playing them again,” he said. “I think the key will be which one of us can stop the other. It could very easily turn into a game of which one of us has the ball last.”

Edens remembers that in order to beat RBV, everything came together just right for his team.

“I remember our emotion was very good that night,” he said. “The electricity grew on our sidelines all night. I haven’t had many experiences in coaching where everything came together as it did then--the tempo, momentum . . . it was one of those nights where, as soon as a player came out, he couldn’t wait to get back in there.”

Point Loma suffered a setback last week against Orange Glen when defensive end Mondola Wilkins broke a leg.

“We’ll miss him,” Edens said. “We’ve had to revise our thinking.”