Eldorado will try to stay cool and get hot again

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004 | 10:38 a.m.

Desert Pines (4-5, 2-3 NE)

at Foothill (10-0, 5-0 SE)

7 p.m. Friday, Foothill High School

College Drive at I-515

Henderson

Mutual opponents: Eldorado (7-3) -- Foothill won 23-20, Desert Pines lost 39-40 (2OT); Cimarron-Memorial (5-4) -- Foothill won 20-7, Desert Pines lost 14-44.

Key for Foothill: Keep scoring. Foothill's offense stumbled at the start of the year, but started to fire up as conference play got under way.

Key for Desert Pines: Let Donte Minton go crazy. Foothill is susceptible to losing in a shootout.

Eldorado (7-3, 4-1 NE)

at Silverado (7-2, 4-1 SE)

7 p.m. Friday, Silverado High School

Spencer north of Serene

Paradise Valley

Mutual opponents: Chaparral (2-8) -- Eldorado won 39-6, Silverado won 32-7; Foothill (10-0) -- Eldorado lost 23-20, Silverado lost 23-20; Coronado (5-3) -- Eldorado won 54-21, Silverado won 14-6.

Key for Silverado: Get turnovers. Eldorado struggled against Desert Pines and lost at Valley because of turnovers.

Key for Eldorado: Balance. The rushing attack is almost as good, if not as good, as Brandon Godfrey's arm.

Eldorado football has had some difficult challenges this year. With arguably the toughest schedule in Southern Nevada, the Sundevils still pulled off a 7-3 record, but a late-season stumble at Valley put them on the road Friday at Southeast second seed Silverado in a Sunrise Region quarterfinal.

Now Eldorado not only will be looking to win against a tough Skyhawks team, but also to get back on the right track after committing costly turnovers against Desert Pines and Valley.

"You try to work on it from a passing standpoint, and make your reads and then we fumble a couple of times. It was just a matter of getting sloppy," Eldorado coach Frank DeSantis said.

"We got turnovers because the kids were trying hard ... kids were trying to make 40-yard plays when it's 20 yards away. It's not a lack of effort, which is a good sign."

Eldorado did get things back on track for last week's 39-6 win against Chaparral. DeSantis said that he thinks cooler heads have prevailed since quarterback Brandon Godfrey threw four interceptions in the loss at Valley.

"We have some drills to work on to calm things down," DeSantis said. "Things are going all right. This is our 11th week. We've played 10 games. These kids have been going for the last 10 weeks ... hopefully they'll be ready."

Silverado's defense ended the year as the best in the city, with the Skyhawks giving up just 11.3 points per game. But four of the Skyhawks' opponents this year were in the bottom six in scoring in Southern Nevada.

DeSantis isn't convinced.

"They're a very good defensive team, and offensively they do a nice job and only turn the ball over a couple of times," he said. "If you control the ball and don't turn it over, anything can happen in the end if you have good defense."

Desert Pines at Foothill

Silverado's Southeast Division counterpart Foothill also won with defense, going 10-0 and allowing just 14.4 points per game -- a number that skyrocketed after Foothill's starters played just one quarter in last week's 68-34 win against Basic. The Falcons face Desert Pines in their playoff opener.

"They're playing their best football as of late," Foothill coach Ray Fenton said. "They're scary. They're very capable of going all the way back to state. That's where they were last year."

If high school football were an election, Desert Pines would be the October Surprise. The Jaguars came alive in league play after stumbling through the first half of the season, losing by one in that double-overtime game at Eldorado and then playing Las Vegas tough in a 28-36 loss in Week 9.

Desert Pines coach Leon Evans said the midseason switch to Shawn Tatum at quarterback was the spark that brought his team back into contention. But he sounded skeptical when asked of the upset potential for Friday night.

"Foothill is a good, solid football team," Evans said. "They do different things, get different looks. They have different threats each week."

The Falcons' tandem of running back D'Angelo Jones and quarterback Arthur Mayville has been in the top 10 in rushing yards this year. Desert Pines is led by running back Donte Minton, who has generally been in the top five.

"We tell our kids it's a new season," Evans said. "It's a one-game season."

Fenton said he doesn't think there was an easy opponent in the Northeast.

"There's no difference between 1 and 4," he said. "They played Vegas extremely tough, and they took Eldorado into overtime. They're not a typical No. 4 seed. They could very easily be a No. 1."