While Greg Raby is still looking for his first win as the head coach of the Bonita Vista Barons football team, he’ll take last Friday’s 28-28 tie against the host Grossmont Foothillers as a welcome milestone in his varsity coaching career.
“I’m really proud of the kids,” he said. “They could have folded when we went down by 14 points but they battled and fought back. The 28 points is the most we’ve scored this year, so that’s a sign that we’re getting better. Hopefully, we can pick up a ‘W’ against San Marcos this week.”
After a less than spectacular debut with back-to-back non-league losses to La Serna (32-10) and Steele Canyon (31-10), the Barons scored their breakout showing against a previously undefeated Foothiller squad.
The game was tied at 14 at halftime but host Grossmont (2-0-1) dominated the third quarter to lead 28-14. Bonita Vista (0-2-1) scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie the game.
Quarterback John Magarrez scored on a one-yard sneak with 1:06 left in regulation play to enable the Barons to finally close the gap. Prior to Mangarrez’s TD, Chris Moore caught a 35-yard touchdown pass.
Bonita Vista mounted an 80-yard scoring drive to tie the game.
The Baron rushing game was minimal against one of the better defenses in the San Diego Section by collecting 63 yards on 23 rushing attempts. The BV passing game, however, got untracked with 181 yards.
Moore caught seven passes for 85 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown catch went for 16 yards.
John Matranga recovered a fumble and returned it 35 yards for a touchdown in the first half as the visitors took a 14-7 lead. He finished the game with seven rushes for a modest 20 yards but helped key the Barons’ defensive effort with an interception in the end zone to negate a potential Grossmont scoring drive.
Devon Roncoroni kicked four PAT conversions for the Barons.
The Foothillers, who received a boost from middle linebacker-turned-running back Ryan Davis-Tucker’s 149 rushing yards and two touchdowns, had a chance to win the game with a handful of seconds left. However, Grossmont kicker J.T. Barnes’ 46-yard field goal attempt sailed wide.
Foothiller quarterback Anthony Lawrence completed 18 of 25 passing attempts for 188 yards. Ryan Green caught six of those passes for 62 yards.
Grossmont tied the game at 14 when Lawson Medeiros pulled off a double pass play with a 47-yard TD completion to Trent Galkoski.
Bonita Vista travels to San Marcos (1-2) on Friday while Grossmont visits Mar Vista (2-0) in a pair of non-league match-ups.
San Marcos is coming off its first win of the season — 30-0 at Montgomery last Friday.
