Sessions-to-Ensley Combo Lifts RB to 16-6 Win Over Escondido

Rancho Bernardo High quarterback Trent Sessions threw two touchdown passes to wide receiver Charles Ensley on Friday night to lead the Broncos to a 16-6 victory over host Escondido High School.

Sessions’ first TD pass to Ensley came with 4:30 to go in the first quarter and the score knotted 3-3. The pass play, called 70 Idaho, is one the Broncos practice over and over, Sessions said.

“My eyes lit up when I saw the defense they were in, “said Sessions, the Broncos’ senior signal-caller. “I thought that I had thrown it too far, but Charlie had the speed to run under it.”

Fifty-six yards later Ensley was in the end zone. A.J. Bunn booted the point after touchdown and Rancho Bernardo moved ahead for good at 10-3.

“The light bulb came on when I got to the line of scrimmage and saw the defense they were in,” said Ensley, a junior. “They were in man coverage. That’s a look we like.”

Ensley said the big strike was set up by another pass in the Broncos playbook.

“We like to run a screen pass out of the same look,” Ensley said. “It sets up a double move where we fake the screen and then go downfield.”

With the nonleague victory before an estimated 4,500 fans, Rancho Bernardo improved to 3-1 on the season. The homecoming loss dropped Escondido to 2-2.

With 5:53 left in the second quarter, Escondido cut the Broncos’ lead to 10-6 on Reggie Wilson’s second field goal of the game, this one a 30-yarder. Jacob Clayton set up the Cougars score when he recovered a muffed punt at the Broncos 18-yard line.

But on their next possession the Broncos nullified any momentum the Cougars had built with the field goal. RB marched 80 yards in 12 plays, capped by Session’s 13-yard scoring strike to Ensley with 2:06 left in the second quarter.

From that point on, the game turned into a defensive struggle. Neither team scored in the second half.

“Escondido has a really good defense,” said RB coach Tristan McCoy. “I’m not surprised by how well they played. We saw in the film this week that they fly around and make tackles.”

The Broncos defense matched Escondido tackle for tackle. While the Cougars drove twice into the Broncos end of the field in the second half, both times McCoy’s boys forced Escondido to turn the ball over on downs.

Rancho Bernardo mounted its best second-half scoring threat in the third quarter. The Broncos marched from their own 23-yard line to set up a first-and-goal at the Escondido 5-yard line. But the Cougars stuffed three straight RB runs. On fourth-and-goal from the 5, McCoy decided his team should go for the touchdown. But the Cougars’ Nate Dana sacked Sessions for a 7-yard loss to quell the threat.

“We had put together a good drive,” McCoy said of his decision not to attempt a field goal on fourth down. “Sometimes you have to reward the guys for their hard work and go for it.”

Sessions ended up with 289 yards passing, hitting on 20 of 29 attempts. Ensley had 10 recptions in all for 142 yards and his two TD catches.