Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Past vs. present

Kris Cinkovich remembers the glory days of Green Valley High School football. Greg Murphy just hopes he can restore them again.

The two coaches will get a taste of both past and present when Cinkovich's Las Vegas team visits Murphy's Gators Friday night.

For Cinkovich, it will be a bittersweet homecoming. He left Green Valley after the 1994 season to take over the Las Vegas program, leaving behind a highly successful Gators team for the chance to build a new tradition with the Wildcats.

Almost nine years later, Las Vegas -- the 2001 state champion -- is one of the city's most highly regarded programs, the kind of perennial contender that Green Valley once was. Since Cinkovich went to Las Vegas, the Wildcats have not won on the Gators' field, including a pair of losses at Green Valley in his first year at the helm of LVHS.

"I don't know if it means much to the kids," Cinkovich said. "But it means something to us (coaches)."

As Cinkovich took over at Las Vegas, Murphy was preparing to leave Bishop Gorman to take on the rebuilding project at Valley. Murphy resurrected the Vikings and then left for Centennial, where he built a solid program from the ground up.

Now in his first year at Green Valley, Murphy is finding it much harder to recreate both his personal success and the tradition of past Gators teams. Green Valley finished 2-8 last year and quickly fell to Desert Pines in the Sunrise Region quarterfinals.

"We're still trying to teach them how to play football," Murphy said. "We can play a pretty good half of football, but we've got to improve our practice habits to get even better. We're hit and miss."

Las Vegas (2-0) comes in off a strange 56-40 triumph over Bonanza. The Wildcats opened a 37-point lead in the second half, only to watch its reserves give back most of the cushion.

The brightest spot for Las Vegas was the emergence of sophomore running back Eric Jordan, who ran for 293 yards and six scores in place of injured starter Ryan Meuir. Even though Meuir will likely play this week, Jordan is going to be the featured back for a Wildcats offense more reliant on the run than last season's team.

"Eric's going to go early and he's going to get the ball," Cinkovich said. "He deserves it."

The Gators came crashing down last week in a 38-7 loss at Snow Canyon (Utah). Green Valley outlasted Bishop Gorman, 7-0, to open the season, in a dreadfully slow game decided by a fourth-quarter defensive touchdown.

Murphy said to expect more of the same slow-and-go game from Green Valley this week, as the Gators look for anything to combat Las Vegas' powerful offensive and defensive lines.

"We're going to try to make the game as boring as possible," Murphy said with a laugh.

The Gators suffered a blow against Gorman when senior wideout Josh Soriano broke his collarbone and the offense is sputtering on the whole. Standout senior quarterback Lance Patonai has not yet thrown a touchdown and that may not change this week. The Wildcats' defensive backfield of Stanley Copeland and Meuir is one of the city's best.

Still, after surrendering most of a huge lead to Bonanza, Cinkovich feels his defense needs work after shining in the opener against Cimarron-Memorial, a 20-6 victory.

"We've got to get all three phases of the game together if we're going to do anything special this year," Cinkovich said.

Cinkovich is letting his kids know about his own special feeling about this game, making it a pride issue for the Wildcats to claim a victory on Green Valley's field. There is a challenge in front of them, Cinkovich stresses.

"When our kids are backed up a little bit, they play pretty well," Cinkovich said.

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