Eldorado takes charge in Northeast

Nick Christensen

Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

What's the best way to beat Las Vegas High?

At the start of the season, it looked like there wouldn't be a very good answer. The Wildcats' offense appeared to be well-balanced enough to keep opposing teams guessing: will phenom Eric Jordan run the ball or will they use any of their other weapons?

Two weeks ago, Cheyenne found an answer, forcing turnovers and making key stops to take a 30-6 win against the Wildcats.

Friday night, the Wildcats presented Eldorado with Plan B.

Las Vegas committed nine penalties on Friday, and failed to stop Eldorado on four consecutive fourth downs to let the Sundevils open up early.

Then, the Wildcats' comeback effort faltered as the Sundevils defense apparently became content to do everything it could to stuff Jordan and let the rest of Vegas' offense stumble forward with an occasional big gain.

Jordan finished with 147 yards in the first half, and another 115 in the third quarter, but just seven in the fourth.

After the game, Vegas coach Chris Faircloth stood alone and exasperated on Frank Nails Field.

"We're just not doing the things good teams should do," Faircloth said. "We're losing ballgames instead of winning them."

The key was Eldorado's dogged defense of Jordan, especially in the second half. Faircloth was noncommittal about what the breakdown was.

"We need to look and see if we had the blocking or of Eldorado made adjustments on him," he said.

Eldorado coach Frank DeSantis said he made it a point for his team to shut down Jordan.

"That was the number one thing we gotta stop him," DeSantis said. "He broke a couple plays, but we were doing all right."

Now, Eldorado is in the catbird's seat in the Northeast Division, with one real test remaining in a vastly improved Valley team, which beat Rancho 49-2 on Saturday.

Once around the town

They probably wish they had kept that arrangement. Coach Gary Maki said that the field was so wet at Canyon Springs, his shoes were soaked in mud by the time it was over.

"We put a few wrinkles in for that game against Valley, but had to back off because the field was so saturated with water," Maki said. The Rams host rival Las Vegas this Saturday at what he hopes will be a less saturated field at Canyon Springs. The winner of that game gets Sir Herkimer's Bone trophy, a game that Maki doesn't expect much from judging by Las Vegas' result.

"Timing hasn't been in our favor," Maki said, adding that at least "(Faircloth) won't make it ugly."

One thing that Maki is changing this week will be Ariece Perkins' position. Perkins started the year at quarterback, but was moved to tailback.

The second-year Green Valley coach has watched his team's 4-1 nonleague record melt into an 0-2 start to Southeast Divison play, with a 40-12 loss to 7-0 Foothill.

But despite the loss last week and Coronado's comeback at the Gators' expense two weeks ago, Murphy said he's not too concerned with Green Valley's start to the second half.

"We're concerned about getting better," Murphy said. "I mean, that Coronado game was just, two minutes. We played well for 46 minutes. Against Foothill, they basically beat us up front."

In the Coronado game, Green Valley led 10-0 when the Gators punted from their own end zone with two minutes remaining, and Coronado scored from the Gators' 20-yard-line. The Cougars then recovered the onside kick, scored again, and won 13-10.

"We've got to play as a team, and that's the key," Murphy said. "We've got to have more guys step up and meet the challenge."

Green Valley will get the chance to right the ship this week at Basic.

Bonanza got their first win of the season last week with a 66-point shutout of Clark.

"We're going to do everything we can to get through Sierra Vista," Bengals coach Jay Weinman said. "If we can get some confidence with a win there, we've got a good shot at the last two. Sierra Vista's clearly a very solid team."

The Bengals went most of the season without their key player, running back Nigel Moore. Weinman's slowly been working Moore back, and even though he didn't have much of a night against Clark, he still had impressive numbers to start the year.

The Bengals, although virtually locks for the playoffs, are in the unenviable position of having to face the Northwest in the first round of the playoffs.

"In conference play in the playoffs, there's not an easy seed in the last two years," he said. "I think one through four our side has lost in the first round."

The game at Sierra Vista is at 7 p.m. Friday.

"I knew if we could get one of our first three, and then Mojave and Centennial, we'd be all right, especially for a second-year school." Mustangs coach J.D. Johnson said. "I tell the kids, nobody expects us to beat Palo Verde, so there's no pressure on us."

Johnson said he's working on some special defensive assignments for Palo Verde and their confusing double-wing offense. And if they don't work, he said, his team will be no worse for the wear, considering nobody else has been able to slow the Panthers.

It has been a different story for Cheyenne, who Johnson said was able to hold off his team just long enough

"It took us a little longer to adjust to the speed of the game," Johnson said. "Cheyenne is a team that survives off turnovers. In the second half, they didn't move the ball past our 40."

The loss bumped the Mustangs down to the third seed in the Northwest, although that figures to change with three league games remaining.