Eldorado aiming for home edge

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Oct. 15, 1999 | 10:34 a.m.

Friday

All games 7 p.m.

Western at Bonanza

Mojave at Cheyenne

Durango at Palo Verde

Silverado at Eldorado

Basic at Green Valley

Chaparral at Valley

Rancho at Las Vegas

Desert Pines at Foothill

Centennial at Clark

Boulder City at White Pine

Meadows at Lincoln

Saturday's Game

Cimarron-Memorial at Bishop Gorman, 7 p.m.

Five weeks ago, Eldorado's football team was all but left for dead, battered and demoralized after an embarrassing 47-point home loss to Las Vegas High.

To be sure, a win against the Wildcats would have been an upset. But Sundevils coach Ken Trujillo expected his squad to put up a better fight at the very least.

Suddenly, just qualifying for the playoffs looked like a tall order for a largely inexperienced Eldorado team with two losses in its first three games.

But since that lopsided loss to the Wildcats, the Sundevils (5-2, 4-1) have done the area's sharpest about-face, reeling off four consecutive Sunrise Division victories to clinch a spot in the postseason.

Another win tonight against visiting Silverado (6-1, 4-1) would give Trujillo's club the division's No. 2 seed, along with home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

"Everybody wrote us off after that Vegas game, but the kids have worked hard and rallied around each other," Trujillo said. "Every game we've played since that game, the other team has scored first and we've bounced back to win."

The Friday after falling to the Wildcats, the Sundevils started their streak with a 22-point win over playoff hopeful Valley on the road. The following week, Eldorado blew out perennial division power Chaparral, 53-37, and suddenly the postseason looked like a strong possibility again.

After pulling out a 17-14 win over Rancho on a last-minute field goal in week six, the Sundevils got back on track with an easy 30-0 shutout at Basic last Friday.

"If the good team shows up we can beat anybody," Trujillo said. "If we play like we did in the Rancho game, we can lose to anybody."

Trujillo knows that to win tonight, his club will have to play one of its best games of the year. The Skyhawks' only loss this season came against Las Vegas, and the Henderson-area club has been among the most dominant teams in town all year.

"We saw Silverado this past summer at the Robinson football camp, and we knew then that they had a new complexion," Trujillo said. "In the offseason, they were all in the weight room working hard, and you can tell it's paid off."

The Skyhawks' offseason work has been particularly evident on the defensive side of the ball, where the team has allowed fewer than 10 points per game in its six victories.

Tonight, that defense will go up against an Eldorado offense that features one of the area's most experienced quarterbacks in senior Arlie Daniel (43-of-80 for 715 yards, 10 touchdowns), along with speedy running back Stephen Jackson (644 yards, eight TDs).

"They can do a lot of different things on offense, so we've got to defense quite a bit," Silverado coach John DeNardin said. "They have an awful lot of team speed."

Like the Sundevils, the Skyhawks can wrap up the division's No. 2 seed with a win, giving them a home game in the first round of the playoffs. That would mark their first postseason appearance.

"First of all, we'd like to keep the momentum going into the playoffs," DeNardin said. "Plus, a first-round host is great to have."