Bishop Broncos varsity football dominate Fernley Vaqueros, 41-12

As season openers go, you can’t really ask for much more.

In a dominating performance in which they excelled in all three phases of the game, the varsity Bishop Broncos defeated the Fernley High School Vaqueros of Nevada, 41-12, at John Schwab Field in Bishop this past Friday night, Aug. 23. 

This was the first game of the season and the Broncos looked to be in midseason form. The scoring started early with a 35-yard touchdown run by Elijah Reynolds. The Broncos quickly made it 14-0 with a 47-yard house call punt return by Elliott Douda, and then they just never looked back. 

“It was a really strong opener,” said BUHS Head Coach Arnie Palu in a phone interview Sunday afternoon. “I was really proud of the way we played in all three phases. Overall, we’re happy with that first game…we’re really pleased with the effort and intensity.”

Junior quarterback Emory Dondero was electric on Friday, throwing two touchdowns to last year’s favorite target, Richie Talavera, who finished the game with an impressive 122 yards receiving. Dondero was effective from the pocket and on the run, hitting receivers all over the field accurately in the long and short game. At the junior varsity level Dondero was primarily a runner, and he showed off those skills here, running for a pair of touchdowns to accompany the two through the air. 

“You don’t know how a first time varsity starter will handle the pressure, and [Emory] handled it perfectly,” said Coach Palu. “The accuracy that he threw with … you couldn’t ask for a better performance.”

Dondero finished an impressive 8-of-10 for 189 yards, an astonishingly efficient game, especially given that the two incompletions weren’t his fault. The Broncos run a fair amount of option where the quarterback has to decide whether to pitch the ball or keep it and run–Coach Palu was particularly pleased with Dondero’s excellent decision making in that phase of their offense. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of how Emory played,” said Coach Palu. 

The Broncos are legitimately four-deep at running back, which bodes well for their fortunes later in league play. During a long sequence in the third quarter where they controlled the pace and held the ball for several minutes, the running game saw contributions from Elijah Reynolds, Garren Pritchard, Nelo Dondero, and Carlos Sualez. 

Palu cited the play of the entire starting offensive line–Joe Lent, Layton Rossi, Weston Dondero, Derek Cortez, and Dre Gardner–for keeping Dondero clean and opening up good-sized holes in the running game all night. 

It was one of those nights for the Broncos where even if things didn’t go right the first time, they would soon. In the second quarter they had one sequence where a long pass completion was erased by a penalty, and then a receiver dropped a wide-open ball just a couple plays later that would have been a touchdown. “We have several things we say to our boys that are part of the bedrock DNA of our program,” said Coach Palu. “One of those is ‘next play.’ It’s great in year nine where we’ve been saying it for years, now the kids are saying it back to us. If something goes wrong you flip the page and attack the next one.” 

A few plays later, the Broncos punted, got a fumble recovery on the punt return, and scored again the next drive. 

The week before, Fernley running back Keyshawn Love went for more than 200 yards against a perennial Nevada contender in Douglas High School. The Broncos bottled him up, rendering him a non-factor thanks to a strong performance from their defensive line, Malachi Orrick, Layton Rossi, and Joe Lent. “We knew he had a big game last week,” said Coach Palu. “Any time you play the triple option, [the fullback] is the first option, so we have to tackle that dive. [Orrick, Rossi and Lent] took the option away … you do your job defensively, they have no room to breathe.”

Orrick was the defensive anchor on Friday night, notching six tackles including two for a loss. Garin Pritchard added five solo tackles and a sack, while Dom Dondero contributed seven total tackles including one for a loss. Coach Palu noted that he was extremely pleased with the Broncos’ physicality on Friday, particularly given that they don’t live-tackle much in practice. 

Given that the Fernley offense was essentially Keyshawn Love last week, the Bronco defense did not come into this game expecting the Vaqueros to pass much. But the Broncos put them in a big hole early, forcing them to throw the ball more than they’d typically prefer. Bronco cornerbacks Nik Calderon and Elliot Douda kept the outside receivers locked up all night, in spite of not coming in expecting to see the ball in the air much. “With the mindset of this game, coming in having to stop the run, they did a great job changing their mindset on the fly,” Coach Palu said. “To play as sharp as we did was encouraging.”

The Broncos are on a bye this week, and then host Juneau-Douglas on Friday, Sept. 6, at John Schwab Field in Bishop.

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Kevin McCormick