After Mater Dei beat St. John Bosco last year in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 football championship game, Mater Dei coach Frank McManus said: “We’ll lace ’em up in the middle of Bristol and take ’em on!”
He was talking about Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, which finished last season as the No. 1 team in the nation in rankings by MaxPreps and several others.
Mater Dei and Bishop Gorman are playing each other this week, not in the street outside of the Mater Dei campus, but a few blocks away.
They will play at Santa Ana Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m. The teams played each other in 2022 when Mater Dei beat the Gaels 24-21 in Las Vegas. The Monarchs scored 10 points in the fourth quarter for a comeback win.
Mater Dei, now coached by ex-Long Beach Poly coach Raul Lara, is No. 1 in the MaxPreps national rankings. The Monarchs won CIF-SS and CIF State championships last season.
Bishop Gorman is No. 2 in the Maxpreps rankings. The Gaels won a Nevada state championship last season and take a 27-game winning streak into this week.
Both teams are coming off of a bye week. Between them the teams have 21 players committed to NCAA Division I football schools.
Mater Dei opened its season with a 42-25 win over Centennial of Corona which began the season as a national Top 10 team. Centennial was without standout quarterback Husan Longstreet.
Bishop Gorman started with a 33-7 home victory over Kahuku of Hawaii and followed with a 29-21 win at St. Thomas Aquinas of Florida, the No. 8 team in the Maxpreps rankings.
The Monarchs and Gaels have what you’d expect from the nation’s Nos. 1 and 2 teams: humongous-for-high-school linemen, speed and talent at the skill positions and coaches who have championship rings and college-sized coaching staffs.
Jaden Carey and Cedric Wyche of Bishop Gorman celebrate a touchdown reception over St. Thomas Aquinas at St. Thomas Aquinas High School on Saturday, August 24, 2024. (Keira Arimenta, Sun Sentinel Contributor)
Bishop Gorman is averaging 236 yards a game passing and 224 yards a game rushing. That’s good balance, and certainly a challenge for the Mater Dei defense.
Another challenge Gorman presents is its defense’s ability to attack. Edge rusher Prince Williams (6-3, 255) had 10 sacks in 11 games last year as a sophomore and has one sack and seven quarterback hurries in two games this year.
The prediction here is that Mater Dei wins a close one.
Why? Since you asked …
Mater Dei quarterback Dash Beirely. In the Centennial game he overthrew a couple of open receivers on deep balls. That’s OK – he could have been over-amped given the situation, which was his first game for Mater Dei after transferring from Chaparral of Temecula and a home game against a nationally ranked opponent. He will be far more settled down, and accurate, against Bishop Gorman.
Mater Dei wide receiver Chris Henry, left, pulls in a pass to make the touchdown catch against Centennial in the second quarter in Santa Ana on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. Centennial defensive back Augus Saunders defends. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)
Mater Dei receiver Chris Henry Jr. He is 6-foot-6 with speed. That makes him practically unrecoverable although the Gaels might have a good matchup for Henry if they put 6-3 sophomore cornerback Hayden Stepp on him with some assistance from 6-3 junior safety Jett Washington, a nephew of Kobe Bryant. Henry had two receptions for eight yards against Centennial; expect to see him more involved in the offense Friday.
Mater Dei tight end Mark Bowman. He had a team-high three catches for 43 yards and a touchdown against Centennial. Bowman looks and plays like the sort of tight end that seems to exist at San Clemente High every year. He’s got the right size for the position at 6-4 and 220, he finds the open spaces on the field and he has great hands. Get him a half-dozen catches to open things up for the wideouts Henry, Marcus Harris, Gavin Honore and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt.
Mater Dei linebacker Nasir Wyatt. He is going to spend some rewarding moments in the Bishop Gorman backfield, and he will be important to keeping Gaels quarterback Melvin Spicer from escaping for big-gain runs. Move Wyatt around as much as possible to make the Gaels offense unsteady.
If all of those things happen, it’s a Mater Dei win.
Of course, this is quite the opponent for the Monarchs. Bishop Gorman is capable of making whatever it wants to happen, happen. And the Gaels might be a tad more fired up than usual if they interpreted McManus’ challenge as a suggestion that Bishop Gorman was ducking the Monarchs.
We shall see.
Related Articles
Orange County football Top 25: Santa Margarita rises, Yorba Linda enters Top 10
Orange County football season stat leaders through Aug. 31
Orange County boys athlete of the week: Trent Mosley, Santa Margarita
High school football: First glance at the Mater Dei vs. Bishop Gorman matchup
OCVarsity Football Blitz: Starting Week 2 with reactions, predictions and favorites
Leave a Reply