Vista Murrieta High defensive end Jon Sanchez has given an oral commitment to San Diego State, he said Monday.

The 6-foot-4, 240-pound rising senior is the second football player from Southwest Riverside County to commit to the Aztecs in the last week.

"I wanted to stay in California to play college ball, and San Diego is close," said Sanchez, who follows Chaparral's Darius Guillory in committing to SDSU. "My family wanted me to go there so they can see my games. The campus is great, and it's a great school. I felt at home when I visited there."

Sanchez visited the campus in May, about the time when he was also fielding offers from Arizona and Colorado State. The interest in Sanchez comes on the heels of a season in which he collected 83 tackles and five sacks for a Vista Murrieta team that rode its defense to the CIF Southern Section Inland Division championship game, where it lost 13-7 to Chaparral.

"He was huge," Eric Peterson, Vista Murrieta's former defensive coordinator, said of Sanchez. "If you ran at him ... you weren't going anywhere. (Sanchez) is a very technical player and he's really explosive."

Sanchez is the first Bronco to sign from a class that's expected to draw heavy interest. Already, quarterback Derrick Brown is sitting on three offers (Colorado State, San Diego State and Arizona), while running back/track star Jovonte Slater and wide receiver Michael Mazur are being pursued by Division I schools.

Sanchez, though, is happy to have the process behind him.

"That's why I committed so early -- to focus on the season ahead," Sanchez said. "We got so close last year. To lose to Chaparral, that was pretty hard. ... Hopefully we can win the whole thing this year."

-- Jeff Sanders