Murray turns in big night to lead way for Gorman

Nick Christensen

Friday, Sept. 26, 2003 | 10:47 a.m.

Bishop Gorman sophomore DeMarco Murray ran for 77 yards, caught passes for 75 yards, scored three touchdowns, and gave his coach a scare with a third quarter backflip into the end zone.

"He jumped out of the gym. It was awesome," Gaels coach David White said. "It was so exciting for the kids to see that, so it was good."

Murray's acrobatic maneuver came on a 20-yard strike from Gorman quarterback Steve Harris. As a Blazers defender tried to cut off the corner of the end zone that Murray was running toward, Murray leapt into a flip and into the end zone, helping the Gaels (3-2, 0-1) to a 31-14 win Thursday night at Durango (2-3, 0-1).

In a just world, Murray would have been given extra points for style. But he'll take whatever credit he can get -- and spread it around a bit, too.

"I looked at it, and dove above it. I didn't try to trick him or anything, I just wanted to get in," Murray said. "My line did a great job. I give all three of my touchdowns to the line. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have scored."

The one flaw in Murray's game was two early fumbles. White said adjustments at the half helped the Gaels focus on keeping the ball.

"In the first half, we put ourselves in a hole in our red zone, we go down there three running plays in a row and fumble," White said. "We can't do that, especially against Durango. We don't want to give them any opportunity to get fired up."

Harris, who was 15-for-21 for 210 yards, led Gorman's passing attack. The Gaels' David Fry had 70 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Durango quarterback Emilio Gonzalez had a forgettable night, completing 6 of 17 passes for 93 yards. He threw one interception and shanked a punt that gave Gorman great field position, although the Gaels could not capitalize.

The star of the night though was the young Murray, whose quick rise from freshman to JV and now to varsity has come with marked improvement.

"His game can get a whole lot better," White said. "What he has to understand is to secure the ball, take it a little bit out wide, see the holes a little bit. In JV, he ran it on the outside. This year, he's starting to hit the gaps."

Murray is humble about his progress.

"My teammates help me," he said. "I'm nervous before every game. My teammates just tell me to go out and suck it up. I just come out and run, do my part, and everybody on my team does their part."

It's the team effort that White hopes will help extend Gorman's three-game winning streak next week against Bonanza.

"They're really starting to buy into the philosophy," Gorman's first-year coach said. "We should have beaten Green Valley -- they had a good team, but we had some mistakes -- but right now, we're in the driver's seat. We have to take control."