Football: Berean Christian Crushes Mission San Jose 42-0 to Open Season

Berean Christian 42, Mission San Jose 0

The Star: Luke Miner (141 yards) and Logan Lisle (112 yards) both eclipsed the 100-yard mark on the ground in the season-opening win.

The Turning Point: The Eagles marched the ball down the field with little trouble on their opening drive — capped by a five-yard touchdown strike from Matt Morgan to Lisle which set the tone for a lopsided victory.

The Quote: "I hope we'd be able to come in an execute," Berean coach Mark Barcelon said. "We were able to do that on both sides of the ball, so that was good to see."

What's next? Berean will travel to St. Helena on Sept. 10.

Bottom Line: Mission San Jose was clearly overmatched against a talented Berean Christian team and the Eagles wasted no time building an insurmountable lead. Picking up a win against a Division-I opponent will help Berean come North Coast Section seeding time.

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For Berean Christian High football coach Mark Barcelon, Thursday's season-opener against Mission San Jose was a good chance to see how well his team could execute.

He liked what he saw.

The Eagles piled up 413 yards of offense — 343 on the ground — and allowed the Warriors to cross midfield just twice in a 42-0 win at Tak Fudenna Stadium in Fremont.

"I was pretty pleased with the run attack and pleased with the defense," Barcelon said. "There are some areas we need to work on, but it was a good performance."

Luke Miner's varsity debut couldn't have gone much better. The junior rushed for 141 yards on 12 carries and scored on an eight-yard run to put the Eagles (1-0) up 14-0 early in the second quarter.

"We really owe all our success to (the offensive line)," Miner said. "We wanted to come in and get a lot of runs in and get a lot of reps for all our running backs."

Mission accomplished.

While Miner was able to use a physical brand of running to give the Warriors fits, Logan Lisle showed off his speed by running for 112 yards on seven carries. The junior scored on second-quarter runs of 41 and 22 yards and also caught a five-yard touchdown from quarterback Matt Morgan to cap off Berean's opening drive.

The victory comes on the heels of a 35-0 win against the Warriors (0-1) late last season and fulfils the two-year contract the schools signed in 2009.

Berean will now turn its attention to what Barcelon called an "up-and-coming" St. Helena team which is coming off a 4-6 season. The Eagles will travel to the Napa Valley town for a 7:30 p.m.,  kickoff on Sept. 10. 

"We wanted to play a team from up North," Barcelon said. "I think it should be a pretty competitive game."

After recovering its first of three fumbles on Mission's opening drive, the Eagles (1-0) used a nine-play, 63-yard touchdown drive to take full control. 

After Miner's score made it 14-0, Lisle added his second and third touchdowns of the game as to put the game out of reach. On Lisle's first five touches — four carries, one reception — he scored three times.

The Eagles came out a little sloppy to start the second half — punting and fumbling on their first two possessions — but an 11-play, 85-yard scoring drive followed. Ryan Goetting caught a pass from Morgan and turned it up field for a 33-yard score on fourth-and-18, which invoked the running clock for the nine minutes remaining in the game.  

There was still enough time for David Croft to excite his teammates with a 57-yard touchdown run on his only carry of the game.

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Berean Christian 42, Mission San Jose 0

Berean Christian  7 21 0 14 — 42
Mission San Jose 0 0 0 0 — 0

Scoring summary
6:33, 1st: Lisle 5 pass from Morgan (Lisle kick)

11:44, 2nd: Miner 8 run (Lisle kick)

9:52, 2nd: Lisle 41 run (Lisle kick)

4:31, 2nd: Lisle 22 run (Lisle kick)

8:59, 4th: Goetting 33 pass from Morgan (Lisle kick)

5:53, 4th: Croft 57 run (Lisle kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing (car-yards): BC — Miner 12-141, Lisle 7-112, Croft 1-57, Wilson 1-23, Heisinger 2-9, Temple 1-5, Morgan 9-1, Houseman 2-(-1), Cabral 1-(-4). MSJ — Kim 19-85, Zhao 1-9, Torrence 10-6, Cantrell 4-2.
Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): BC — Morgan 4-7-70-0. MSJ — Torrence 5-12-35-0.
Receiving (rec-yards): BC — Goetting 1-33, Charrette 2-32, Lisle 1-5. MSJ — Cantrell 4-26, Yang 1-9.

Team offense (rush-pass-total)

Berean Christian — 343-70-413

Mission San Jose — 102-35-137

Fumbles/lost: BC — 4/2; MSJ — 3/3.

Records: Berean Christian 1-0; Mission San Jose 0-1.

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