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Undefeated Bulldogs shut out Broncos in homecoming game

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By Bill Tamburrino

“Ignore the Noise” is the theme of this year’s Ramona Bulldog football team. It is Coach Damon Baldwin’s way of telling the team to ignore the press clippings, ratings, television highlights and play hard.

Ignoring noise is a difficult task especially during Homecoming Week. Ramona had all of the homecoming festivities and the Dawgs were featured twice on the front page of the sports section of the biggest daily paper in San Diego County, the

Union Tribune

.

The Bulldogs headed into their game Friday — their first Palomar League game of the season — ranked sixth in the county with a 5-0 record.

So instead of listening to the noise, the Bulldogs made some noise in beating the Broncos of Rancho Bernardo High School 30-0 before a large homecoming crowd.

The noise started when Garrett Binkley received a lateral from Marco Cobian and then threw a 36-yard pass to Tanner Williams for a first and goal on the Bronco five yard line. Brandon Gansch followed the blocking of what the

U-T

called the horses up front with 9:13 left on the clock and the Dawgs never looked back. Tyler Vargas made the conversion and then added field goals of 23 and 41 yards and the Dawgs led 13-0 after one quarter of play. Vargas would end the game with three field goals, including a 38-yarder in the fourth quarter.

Cobian hit Tanner “T-Bone” Williams (two Bulldogs are named Tanner Williams) with an eight-yard touchdown pass to culminate a 76-yard drive to give the Dawgs a 20-point lead at intermission. Cobian finished the night by hitting 11 of 16 passes for 121 yards. He hit five different receivers. Tanner Williams had six grabs for 63 yards. Keyanis Crichlow had three catches for 71 yards. Matt Lawler and Colton Harris had one reception apiece.

Eight different Bulldogs had carries in the game. T-Bone Williams had the longest run, going 29 yards for a key first down. Gansch had a 22-yard TD jaunt and Cobian had a 21-yard scramble.

Linemen Christian Drews, Ben Barnat, Trae Rodriguez, Raul Briseno, Mike Hoover, William Rieve and Patrick Hastings set the tone of the game as they dominated play at the line of scrimmage as Ramona had 310 yards of total offense.

The loudest noise of all was made by the Bulldog defense. Ramona intercepted four Rancho Bernardo aerials. Binkley had two picks. T-Bone Williams and Travis Kerchner had one interception apiece.

One long time Ramona football fan and a former North County football coach made an observation about the 2013 Dawgs: “What sets this team apart from the other good Bulldog football teams is the defense. They run to the ball, tackle well and present problems for blocking schemes.”

Coach Stephon Pace dialed constant blitzes to confuse the Rancho Bernardo quarterbacks which led to three sacks and four tackles for losses. Kerchner, Justin Villagrana and Barnat all recorded sacks. Christian Dominguez, Villagrana, Keyshaun Crichlow and T-Bone Williams all tackled Bronco ball carriers for losses. In all, 14 Bulldogs made tackles on the night and the secondary deflected five passes. Garrett Dart, Dominguez, T-Bone Williams, Tanner Williams and Keyshaun Crichlow all broke up passes. Kerchner had a game-high 13 tackles to lead the team.

“We had two touchdowns called back: one of offense and one on defense. The film didn’t pick up the penalties that nullified those scores. We can still improve and we will have to eliminate the penalties but I am pleased with our effort. Coming off of a bye week and dealing with the distractions that homecoming brings, we did ignore the noise. Our backs didn’t read their keys well. The O-line made some holes that went unused. Rancho Bernardo has a very good defense and they are well coached. Starting Palomar League with a win is a great start,” said Baldwin.

MaxPreps now ranks the undefeated Ramona Bulldogs second in CIF Division I, second in the San Diego section, and 18th in the state.

Poway travels up the mountain Friday to challenge Ramona. The Titans travel well so one would be wise to arrive for the junior varsity game which starts at 4:30 p.m. The varsity kicks off at 7 p.m.

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