New quarterback Adams, strong offensive line could equal success for Broncos.

When Dominic Gamboni transferred to Bakersfield Christian this winter, the Dos Palos coaching staff knew they had to find another quarterback.

Enter Isaac Adams.

The senior makes the transition from running back and it gives the Broncos a different type of signal caller this year. Adams rushed for 405 yards and six touchdowns last year.

“He’s a third-year varsity player,” Dos Palos coach Kevin Jones said. “He’ll play both sides of the ball for us. He was a tailback last year. He’s very, very athletic. He’s very fast. He’s inexperienced at the quarterback spot, but he’s an athlete. He’s caught on a lot in the last month.”

Adams stands out during the Broncos practices. His running back instincts take over when things break down, and when he gets into the open field he’s hard to bring down.

“I like the transition,” Adams said. “There’s more room to run. I feel I showed my arm power over the summer doing seven-on-seven. We’ve got the biggest O-line in our division in front of me to protect me. We’ve got a lot of talent, speed, skill and strength around me.”

The Broncos have the tools to play old-school, Dos Palos smash-mouth football.

Dos Palos averages about 260 pounds across the offensive line. The line is led by a trio of junior who return as starters in Herbert Sanders (6-foot-0, 315 pounds), Isaac Carnell (6-1, 260) and Juan Carlos Orozco (5-9, 255).

The Broncos also return two senior running backs in Maximus Gaona and Ronald Johnson and a very promising sophomore in Ryan Ramirez, who may be the biggest and fastest back at 6-feet and 200 pounds.

“Ryan has never played varsity,” Jones said. “I haven’t seen him run in pads. Time will tell, he could be the guy, but I don’t want to just throw him into the fire.”

In all, the Broncos return 23 players.

“It’s a hard-working group,” Jones said. “It’s a very athletic group.”

“We all want the same thing at the end of the season,” said senior linebacker Carlos Iniguez. “We all have one goal. We want a Valley Championship. We’ve wanted it since we were playing Pop Warner football.”

Linebackers Iniguez, Nathan Jordan and Tim Souza help anchor the Broncos defense along with Carnell and Sanders up front.

The Broncos are gearing up for the season with a sense of urgency. That’s because Dos Palos opens the season with the West Side War against Los Banos. The Broncos have lost their last seven games against the Tigers.

“It’s Los Banos,” Iniguez said. “That gets everybody at the school, coaches and players amped to play. We especially want to beat Los Banos. We’ve been talking about it all summer.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2018 at 8:54 PM with the headline "New quarterback Adams, strong offensive line could equal success for Broncos.."