Bishop Gorman finding ways to survive

Adam Candee

Monday, Oct. 14, 2002 | 8:41 a.m.

Pass the Tums to Bishop Gorman coach Kevin Kent.

Over the past two weeks, Kent watched his Gaels scratch out a 2-0 start in division play by overcoming 10-point deficits in the fourth quarter against both Durango and Bonanza. Ulcers fall under the occupational hazards of football coaching, but this is certainly stretching things a bit.

"Being able to sneak the wins out is fun, but the way we're going about it isn't," Kent said Sunday.

Of course, any wins look good to Gorman after struggling out of the gate to a 1-3 mark in non-league action. The Gaels' offense sputtered as turnovers killed any chance of scraping out early-season victories.

"So much of it has just been a question of us trying to find ourselves offensively," Kent said.

Lately, the Gaels have unearthed their offense with about five minutes left in the game. The Gaels trailed 13-3 in the fourth quarter of their league opener against the Blazers, only to come up with a safety, a touchdown and a two-point conversion to send the game to overtime. A Jon Tigani field goal in the extra session saved that one by a 16-13 final, but the antacids came right back out at Bonanza.

A 31-21 deficit with about four minutes to play? No sweat. A touchdown pass by Blake Sartini, an onside kick recovery and a Sartini plunge into the end zone added up to a second cliffhanger win for the Gaels, 35-31 over the Bengals. In the wide-open Southwest division, they all count.

"Before this thing's over, it's going to come down to about five tiebreakers for all four (playoff) spots," Kent said.

The Gold Coast Award will be shared by Las Vegas (6-0, 2-0 Northeast) and Desert Pines (6-0, 2-0 Northeast). The two best teams in the city are doing their best not to put it on cruise control until their matchup to end the regular season. Have we mentioned how great that game will be?

Rancho claims the New York, New York Award, based solely upon its giant roller coaster of a season. After putting together a couple of wins, the Rams (3-3, 1-1 Northeast) became Eldorado's first victim of the season. It has gone up and down like that all season for the boys at Rancho.

With apologies to a defense that is standing tall right now, the Circus Circus Award goes to Palo Verde. It almost sounds like a riddle: The Panthers (4-2, 1-1 Northwest) have outscored opponents 8-7 over the past two weeks, and to break that down into a win and a loss is an interesting mental exercise. This week's non-conference tilt with Coronado comes at the best possible time for Palo Verde.

The Mirage Award goes to the entire Southwest division. We have no idea what our eyes will see from week to week, as (turn off the cliche alarm for a minute, because this is true) any team can beat any other team in any week.

Green Valley and Eldorado share the Golden Nugget Award, as both teams found their first win on Friday. The Gators (1-5, 1-1 Southeast), after showing signs of breaking through against Foothill a week earlier, unleashed a 42-6 mauling on a Coronado team in search of some answers. The Sundevils (1-5, 1-1 Northeast) finally broke through, 26-14, over Rancho.

Finally, we'll divide the High Roller Award between Durango and Cheyenne. The chips were down last week for both the Blazers (3-3, 1-1 Southwest) and Desert Shields (4-2, 1-1 Northwest), as both came off losses facing the prospect of starting 0-2 in division and being out of the race for the top seed.

Durango manhandled Western, 41-6, with a healthy Allen McIntyre in the backfield, while Cheyenne got a huge performance out of tailback David Peeples and survived a 7-6 dogfight with Palo Verde when a Panther field goal attempt dropped short as time expired.