Bishop Gorman Gaels high school football team has dominated the competition this year in Nevada. The most points they have allowed to a team from Nevada. 14 points to Arbor View two weeks ago.
Lead by Quarterback Jarrett Solomon the Gaels have beaten teams by 18 points or more from the competition they have played against here. Running Back Shaquille Powell is playing a lot better since being sidelined with a nagging injury. With his speed he can break a long run but he will hit the defender just as hard or harder when being tackled.
McQueen is beat up from last weeks game against the physical and big Liberty Patriots team. They will need a lot more than 7 points if they want to beat the Gaels. Two big physical teams back to back weeks will be hard to overcome for McQueen. However, there has been some big upsets in big championship games such as the New York Giants beating the then 18-0 New England Patriots. Most likely will not happen.
If the Gorman Gaels win the State Championship it will be back to back and their 3rd in 4 years. This team has dominated all the competition here in Nevada. Their only 2 losses came to teams from California and Arizona.
Most their players are sophomores and juniors, pretty scary for the rest of the nevada schools next season.
LAS VEGAS — When Liberty High School Coach Rich Muraco first started coaching the football team eight years ago, he had many rough games. Now the team is the Henderson city champ, and that has been because of players such as Sam Tai.
There were many college programs, such as Arkansas, UNR, Colorado, and UNLV offering Sam a full-ride scholarship. His last offer from UCLA was the one he was waiting for. During a game against Foothill he said, “Time to show UCLA what’s up!”
With many quarterback pressures and a sack, it convinced them he could play football for them. Not only has Sam played defensive end, he has played quarterback, tight end, and even some tackle.
“I chose UCLA not only for football but for the academics as well,” he said at his announcement Wednesday.
This has been a tough year for the Tai family. His dad Taani, who helps coach the defense at Liberty, works construction. But with the economy, work is scarce. His Mom cannot return to work as an airline stewardess because of a bad shoulder. Like many other homeowners in Las Vegas, they lost their home that they had lived in for almost 10 years.
This is some great news for a great family, and for a great person such as Sam Tai it is well deserved. Coach Muraco is also happy that such a great player fell into his hands and he used him every way he could.
As the Liberty Patriots lined up to kick an extra point in overtime the Del Sol defense was eager to block that kick. Jumping offsides twice giving the Patriots the ball at the one yard line. Coach Muraco decided to roll the dice, and his gamble paid off.
Just like a gambler that comes to Las Vegas looking for a little luck the Patriots fought back from a 21-7 deficit in the middle of the third quarter. With the ball inside the 10 yard line Del Sol had a chance to take a three touchdown lead. As Chris Marshall turned upfield to go into the endzone, Patriot linebacker Albert Tai stripped the football and Liberty recovered.
Liberty drove 95 yards running back Teu Tai touchdown made the score 21-14. Del Sol went ahead with a field goal to go ahead 24-14 with just under three minutes to play. The kickoff was mishandled leaving Liberty at the 19 yard line. Two plays later an 81 yard touchdown pass made the score 24-21.
Del Sol’s had to punt on the next series, Chris Marshall fumbled the snap which lead to Liberty recovering at midfield. Liberty tied the score with a field goal leading to overtime.
In overtime Liberty scored first on a quarterback sneak, then as they set up for the extra point Del Sol was flagged twice for offsides leading to Coach Muraco to go for the two point conversion. Tai converted the two point play with a run off left tackle. Del Sol scored on a wild play where Chris Marshall bobbled the snap from center picked it up and ran it in for a 10 yard score. Their two point conversion play was stuffed at the line of scrimmage and the Liberty team went wild.
In other action the Basic Wolves’ defense intercepted Silverado’s quarterback three times to defeat them 24-21. Both teams played sloppy and had many penalties.
Palo Verde High School proved to have an unstoppable running attack this past week in their season opener at Green Valley. Senior running back Brandon Wright, rushed for 292 yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries. Palo Verde ended up winning the game 62-20 only passing the ball one time.
The Del Sol Dragons led 14-0 at the end of the first half on friday night but the Durango Trailblazers came out and stuffed the Dragons offense in the second half. The Dragons came out on fire lead by Chris Marshall’s 124 yards and a touchdown.
The second half was a different story, quarterback Chase Roberts of Durango led the offense with 158 yards passing, and throwing two touchdown passes. Senior Donovan Smith was the the offensive spark for the Trailblazers.
Donovan Smith played quarterback, running back, and wide receiver in all rushing 10 times for 87 yards and five receptions for 70 yards. The Trailblazers scored 21 unanswered points in the second half, winning on the Dragons home turf.
Leaders of week one Passing: Carducci-Basic-232 yards; Portaro-Faith Lutheran-296 Rushing: Wright-Palo Verde-292; Shaquille Powell- Bishop Gorman-296; Catching: Lubbe-Faith Lutheran-110 yards; D. Pearson 117 yards: Scoring: White-Centennial-4; White-Palo Verde-4.
BYU is forcing the Mountain West Conference to make a move. Many are up in arms saying that they should get out.
The MWC added Boise State after Utah bolted for the Pac 10, however had not done anything until BYU announced their move Wednesday. Soon after, Nevada-Reno and Fresno State received invites from the MWC.
I believe a strategic move by BYU, knowing that without them the MWC, will lose out on millions of dollars. Also, watching closely is the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl. With BYU participating, the bowl game has sold out the last four years.
Whatever happens, this has been very exciting to watch all this movement in college sports. Hopefully the MWC will end up getting an automatic bid someday.
Las Vegas native Bryce Harper just signed a five year $9.9 million deal with the Washington Nationals baseball team. In the city of Las Vegas arose a hard working young man who started with a dream playing baseball.
Many will look at him as overconfident, cocky and brash because he left his high school two years early to pursue a once in a lifetime opportunity.
What many should realize is that he has the talent to be great and is working hard to become the best. It is also nice to see Harper’s family support him all the way through this.
Many should realize the great sacrifice it takes to become a great ball player. Harper has shown that there are good young men and women in the Las Vegas area.
Harper and his family have shown that there are good things that come out of Vegas and that what happened here was a lot of hard work and dedication to help fulfill a dream.
There should be many other youth that look at his example and follow.
Reporter Jim Gray recently told golfer Corey Pavin that he is “going down” after Pavin told the press that Jim Gray misquoted him about whether or not Tiger Woods is on the Ryder Cup team.
Does this mean that Gray wants to challenge Pavin to a fight? Would people like to see them battle it out in an octagon like the UFC fighters?
Now Jim Gray gets a taste of what it is like when he puts many on the spot on national TV. This is great drama and deep down, the PGA loves it because it brings viewers to watch.
Well the time has arrived. UNLV playing its biggest game of the year. I like the emotion of Coach Sanford after last week’s win at Arizona State, why? is showed true emotion. He’s gotta be feeling pressure to win. Finally the fruits of their labor paying off. It was fun to see.
I don’t think the Rebels will be looking ahead to next week. UNLV is favored against a Big-12 team. We spoke with five players for a story earlier this week, and not one knew they were favored, but that’s probably a good thing.
Next weeks’ game against Reno (or the team up north, as Coach Sanford calls em) will be big regardless of what happens tomorrow, but with a win, it’ll be huge, really huge. Sold out huge.
I expect the Rebels to come out firing, but remember this is the Big 12, so they’ll have confidence and a bunch of fans. Still my prediction: UNLV 17 Iowa State 14
As for the rest of the league games: BYU 38 Wyoming 10
Houston 24 Colo. State 10, Utah 28 AFA 17, New Mexico 17 Tulsa 27, TCU 35 SMU 10
There ya have it. Now take that to the Bank, Oh that’s right the banks are closing.
How great is it talking about the Runnin’ Rebels all summer? First their trip to Australia, and now recruiting.
I’ve been covering the Rebels for 11 years – I know, I know I missed the glory years — but during that time, I’ve never seen so much excitement about the upcoming season and beyond. So this is how it felt, year after year in the 80′s and early 90′s.
A lot of fans are talking about the recruits. I’m impressed with Anthony Marshall the kid. Talking with him Thursday, he seems like a real good guy with a solid family. How important is that?
His AAU coach, Anthony Brown, told me Marshall is an ideal student, not just a basketball player, but a student. He’s well spoken and smiles. No ego, agenda, no posse — a good kid.
Getting back to this year, the other MTN West teams are gotta be scratching their heads saying, “What is Lon Kruger doing at UNLV?” Wink Adams will be the preseason player of the year and UNLV should be the preseason number one team. If it’s BYU, I’m calling for an investigation. We will then know that the media in the rest of the conference is clueless.
I’d go UNLV, BYU (I know I hate to put the Cougs here), then Utah, San Diego State and New Mexico as my top five. Flip a coin for the rest.
Anyway, it’s exciting to have Lon Kruger on Channel 8. Can’t wait to talk about the upcomng season.
LAS VEGAS — When Liberty High School Coach Rich Muraco first started coaching the football team eight years ago, he had many rough games. Now the team is the Henderson city champ, and that has been because of players such as Sam Tai.
