HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : Morse’s Revenge Is Swift : Big Game: In the battle between the county’s two top-rated teams, Morse scores a 28-14 victory over Rancho Buena Vista.

Nonleague games usually border on the meaningless, but the Rancho Buena Vista-Morse game Friday night at Mesa College was as big as nonleague games get.

The two teams met last year in the 3-A San Diego Section championship, with RBV taking a 21-7 victory.

Not this time.

Kicking off the prep football season, No. 2 Morse scored an impressive 28-14 victory over the No. 1 ranked Longhorns in front of 3,500.

And since it was a big game, you may as well talk about the guy who had the biggest game of them all, Morse running back Gary Taylor.

Just a junior, Taylor rushed 10 times for 237 yards in the first half alone, scoring three touchdowns on runs of 75, 85 and eight yards.

Taylor was called on just two more times in the second half and finished the night with 241 yards on 12 carries.

It would have been interesting had he been given the opportunity to break the 3-A single-game rushing record of 366 set two years ago by Rancho’s Scott Garcia.

“I just do what the coach tells me,” he said afterward.

His coach, John Shacklett, explained his reasoning.

“We knew they were going to make an adjustment in the second half to control the outside, so when they shifted outside, that opened things up for the fullback,” he said.

The fullback was Conan Smith, who carried eight times for 80 yards in the second half after running just three times for four yards in the first.

Although Taylor didn’t play in last year’s championship game, he knew the importance of this contest. Morse not only lost the championship to RBV, but lost to the champs earlier in the year too, 35-20, to open the prep season.

“Revenge, that’s what this game was about,” he said. “Rancho’s such a great opponent. We knew this wasn’t a championship game, but we might see them again. I’m pretty sure we’ll see them again.”

This is the second 200-yard game Taylor has had. Two weeks ago, Morse defeated Punahoe, Hawaii, 55-13, and he rushed 11 times for 204 yards.

Taylor scored on the second play of the game when he took a pitch from quarterback Teddy Lawrence, turned the corner and went 75 yards. He scored on Morse’s fifth play of the game, on the next possession, going right on the pitch, then cutting back across the field for 85 yards. At that point, he had three carries for 166 yards.

Morse scored on each of its four first-half possessions. Lawrence passed five yards to Glen Steele to make it 21-0 after Jose Villafana’s third PAT. The drive was set up by the fourth of RBV’s eight fumbles, but it was the only fumble the Longhorns lost.

RBV pulled to 21-7 when Markeith Ross scored on a screen pass that covered 46 yards.

The ensuing kickoff went out of bounds, giving Morse the ball at the Rancho 47. Four plays later, Taylor scored from the eight. The big play on the drive was a 32-yard pass from Lawrence to Tommy Bennett.

Tyrone Cormier scored from one yard out in the fourth quarter to complete the scoring.