GARDEN GROVE – For a moment Thursday night, it appeared Garden Grove’s reign atop the Garden Grove League might be in danger.
Not so fast.
The Argonauts turned the ball over on downs on their first drive and visiting Rancho Alamitos went down the field in a hurry – 71 yards on six plays – to take a seven-point lead, but that was the end of that.
Garden Grove responded with 35 consecutive points on the strength of a bruising running game and cruised to a 35-7 victory in the league opener for both teams.
The Argonauts (5-1, 1-0), who have won 13 straight league games dating back to 2011, rushed for 475 yards, led by sophomore running back Jordan Antunez, who finished with 209 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries. Senior quarterback Alex Ceja added 139 yards on 14 carries and senior tailback Tim Cao contributed 96 yards on 18 carries.
Garden Grove averaged more than seven yards per carry behind a dominant performance from offensive linemen Matthew Goldowski, Ricardo Aguilar, Marcos Horduno, Gerardo Rodarte and Juan Ossa.
“Our linemen came to play,” Garden Grove coach Ricardo Cepeda said. “I’ve told everybody all year, we’re pretty good up front and we wear on teams.”
The Argonauts also stiffened defensively, holding the Vaqueros (4-2, 0-1) scoreless after Rancho quarterback Nick Brown connected with Joe Navar for a 5-yard touchdown pass with 7:04 remaining in the first quarter.
Rancho’s no-huddle, spread offense averaged 43 points per game in five nonleague contests.
“We knew it was going to take a little bit of time to adjust to their offense,” Cepeda said. “They’re running no-huddle and we tried to simulate that in practice. We knew they were going to get some yards.”
Rancho moved the ball well in the first half, but had two crucial turnovers in Garden Grove territory. The Argonauts took a 21-7 lead into the halftime break and Rancho only gained 48 yards on 15 plays in the second half.
“Those two turnovers on our second and third drives were huge,” Rancho coach Mike Enright said. “They’re a good team and you can’t turn the ball over against a team that has been in the (CIF-SS) finals the last two years and hasn’t lost a league game since 2011. You can’t make mistakes against a good team like that.”
Brown threw for 168 yards on 12-of-25 passing and also led the Vaqueros in rushing with 42 yards on five carries.
Contact the writer: jbalan@ocregister.com
