Jordan finds little room against former team

Nick Christensen

Monday, Sept. 19, 2005 | 8:56 a.m.

Weekend scoreboard

No. 1 McQueen 19, Galena 14 Next Week: at No. 4 Spanish Springs (3-0)

Las Vegas 27, No. 2 Shadow Ridge 12

Next Week: at Galena (2-1)

No. 3 Spanish Springs, Idle

Next Week: vs. No. 1 McQueen (3-0)

No. 4 Foothill 37, Lynwood (Calif.) 7

Next Week: vs. Del Sol (3-1)

No. 5 Las Vegas 27, Shadow Ridge 12

Next Week: at Eldorado (1-3)

No. 6 Cheyenne 28, Moapa Valley 16

Next Week: Idle

No. 7 Bishop Gorman 22, Palo Verde 21

Next Week: at Durango (1-3)

No. 8 Douglas 53, Carson 19

Next Week: Idle

Bishop Gorman 22, No. 9 Palo Verde 21)

Next Week: Idle

Bishop Manogue 40, No. 10 Reed 14

Next Week: vs. Elko (1-3)

4A Scoreboard

Northeast Division

Canyon Springs 19, Chaparral 18 (2-OT)

Valley 42, Desert Pines 0

Eldorado 36, Rancho 30

Southeast Division

Silverado 25, Basic 0

Coronado 20, Green Valley 14 (1-OT)

Del Sol 18, Liberty 14

Southwest Division

Western 19, Durango 13 (1-OT)

Sierra Vista 35, Clark 22

Spring Valley 27, Bonanza 3

Non-league

Cimarron-Memorial 37, Verbum Dei (Los Angeles) 8

Snow Canyon (St. George, Utah) 30, Mojave 14

Centennial 41, Arbor View 7

Northern Region

Wooster 6, Reno 3

South Tahoe 52, Foresthill (Calif.) 0

Hug 35, North Valleys 13

Elko 29, Churchill County 8

3A South

Boulder City: Idle

Faith Lutheran: Defeated White Pine 41-7

Moapa Valley: Lost to Cheyenne 28-16

Pahrump Valley: Lost at La Jolla (Calif.) Country Day 31-14

Virgin Valley: Defeated Lincoln County 14-8

2A South

Lincoln County: Lost at Virgin Valley 14-8

Needles: Lost at The Meadows 34-7

The Meadows: Defeated Needles 34-7

West Wendover: Lost to Filer (Idaho) 35-0

White Pine: Lost at Faith Lutheran 41-7

1A South

Keystone Academy: Defeated Baker (Calif.) 52-7

Indian Springs: Lost at Laughlin 32-18

Lake Mead: Idle

Laughlin: Defeated Indian Springs 32-18

Lund: Cancelled vs. Pahranagat Valley

Mountain View: Lost to Spring Mountain 16-12

Pahranagat Valley: Defeated Eureka 52-16

Round Mountain: Idle

Spring Mountain: Won at Mountain View 16-12

Tonopah: Defeated Smith Valley 26-0

Warren-Walker: Lost to Virgin Valley freshmen 30-6

Las Vegas High's defense said last week they couldn't wait to see what they could do against former Wildcats prodigy Eric Jordan.

Friday night, the Vegas defense had its way with him.

Take away four plays in the fourth quarter worth 83 yards and a touchdown, and Jordan totalled 4 yards on 15 carries as Shadow Ridge lost its second in a row at home, a humbling 27-12 defeat to the Wildcats.

"Our defense was very focused," Vegas coach Chris Faircloth said. "It was my fault (Jordan) got the one run he did. I made a very bad call. The kids were doing a good job doing what they were doing. I just outcoached myself."

For Faircloth, the familiarity with Jordan, who had 5,008 total rushing yards in his three years at Vegas, definitely played a factor in his team's ability to shut down the all-time leading rusher for 4A schools.

"We understand how he works and where he runs and how he runs and we know we can't let him get rolling out of the backfield or we're in a lot of trouble," Faircloth said. "We put as many people in the box as we could possibly spare to make sure he didn't get out."

Not only did Jordan not get out, he seldom went forward. Even more than in the Sept. 9 loss to J.K. Mullen, Shadow Ridge's lack of size up front was a glaring deficiency.

Jordan declined to comment after Friday's loss.

"We're going to have to do better up front," Mustangs coach J.D. Johnson said. "We graduated a lot of those guys off the line and we knew that would be a weak link that we're going to have to shore up."

Jordan's replacement at Vegas, Jamal Lomax, finished with 218 rushing yards on 31 carries and two touchdowns. Quarterback O'Ryan Bradley went 9-for-18 for 168 yards and a touchdown. He also had one rushing touchdown and 67 yards on the ground.

It was an uncharacteristic night for Shadow Ridge's defense, which had given up 37 points in the three games leading to Friday night's matchup.

"We didn't play as disciplined as we normally do on defense but they did a great job taking away what we do best," Johnson said. "I don't think we tackled very well. We hit that kid (Lomax) a number of times, but we overpursued in the backfield and ran right past him."

On offense, William Pope, making his first start at quarterback, completing 5 of 9 passes for 61 yards, but he only connected with second-team all-state receiver Troy Cummings twice, both times for 20 yards or more. Pope spent much of the game under pressure, again, because of the size differential of the two sets of linemen.

Most importantly, though, Friday's game was clean and under control, with little acrimony playing out between the teams despite the preseason hype and weeklong buildup.

"Both sides stayed real focused," Faircloth said. "There wasn't anything on either side, and that's a testament to the kids for keeping their emotions in check."

Vegas opens Northeast Division play at Eldorado next week. Shadow Ridge travels to Reno to take on Galena, which lost to No. 1 McQueen 19-14 in both teams' High Desert League opener on Friday.

Once Around Town

The Pioneers' first-ever Northeast League game was tied at six, and instead of looking at escaping with a win, they were faced with the prospect of overtime against a much more experienced Chaparral team.

But what was looking like a gaffe turned out to be a blessing, said Canyon Springs coach Matt Jenkins.

"The kids haven't gelled together," Jenkins said. "The situation the kids were put into Friday, they had to. They had no choice. Down 6-nothing with eight minutes to go in the game, they hadn't done much offensively at all... All of the sudden, there was momentum and the kids started to play together."

Players started stepping up, particularly after D.J. Turner called to his coach.

"He said 'Coach, run the ball behind me,' " Jenkins said of Turner. "That's the first time that's happened all year, that somebody's going to step up and say 'I'm going to be held accountable.' Now other kids are going 'I want to be held accountable.' I haven't had that until now. Nobody wanted to be accountable for anything, on or off the field."

It took them two overtimes, but Canyon Springs defeated Chaparral 19-18. Next week, the Pioneers play at Valley, another young team with a fairly impressive record. The Vikings defeated Desert Pines 42-0 on Friday.

No problem.

Jones, sidelined for reasons coach Marty Redmond would not disclose, upended Lynwood (Calif.) 37-7 in Henderson to continue their perfect season.

"It was our best game so far. We've been trying to improve, and we finally saw some of that improvement," Redmond said.

The Falcons kept the game plan much the same, he said, despite the absence of the city's leading rusher in Jones.

"It was good to see other kids step up in crucial times," Redmond said.

With Foothill's league opener next week at Del Sol, the time for improvements are over. Still, Redmond is looking for some growth going into the games that count.

"We have to get better with blocking assignments," he said. "Defensively, we have to stay aggressive."

Del Sol, led by former Foothill assistant Preston Goroff, won its first-ever league game last week with a 18-14 victory at Liberty.

It pretty much went the other way around this week.

After Corey White's kickoff return for a touchdown in the first quarter, the Gaels were held scoreless until the fourth quarter, when they scored two touchdowns and a pair of 2-point conversions to land a 22-21 win in their last home opener at Valley High School.

"Palo came out and got after us early, and we didn't really come out ready to play at that level," coach David White said.

Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost pointed out two plays which he thought hurt more than any other. One was a red-zone charge by the Palo Verde offense that everyone on his sideline thought made it across the goal line, but not in the eyes of the officials. The other was a dropped ball by Ryan Ricafrente returned by Bishop Gorman to the Panthers' 7.

"One thing that kind of hurt us was Ricafrente fumbling at the 50 and getting facemasked on the play," Rost said. "They didn't have any offense again. My hat's off to (defensive coordinator Charlie) Jarvis, he did a great job defensively. They did catch the big balls down the stretch and you have to give them credit for that."

Particularly DeMarco Murray, who was held up on the ground but had a key touchdown and a two point conversion.

"We've still got DeMarco and Corey, and they really stepped up," David White said. "We still pass-protected better than we ran-blocked. As DeMarco knows, they're going to be after him. (Quarterback) Craig (Sedoris) did a good job."

Bishop Gorman opens up league play next week at Durango. Palo Verde has a bye before hosting Centennial on September 30.

The Pirates were outscored 109-13.

So when sixth-ranked Cheyenne rolled into Overton on Friday night, it was a little surprising to see that the Pirates had any game left in them.

But in front of a raucous crowd, the Silver State's 3A runners-up kept the game interesting, losing 28-16 but still playing closer than they have any team all year.

Mental errors by the Desert Shield didn't help as they played their last non-league game of 2005. "We had a lot of turnovers, a lot of penalties. That was our deal," coach Charles Anthony said. "They played pretty good. They prepared well and we played a lot of people. I think we had 600 yards of total offense. We shot ourselves in the foot -- but a win's a win."

Anthony said his Desert Shield will be back to basics for the two-week break before their Northwest Division opener. He added that it's also a good time for some banged up players, like quarterbacks Quinton Carter and D.J. Campbell and tight end Richard Young, to heal up.

"We're going to have to work on the fundamentals, get back to blocking, that kind of thing," he said. "This is a good time for a bye. Several guys can't play banged up."

The Desert Shield will host 3-1 Mojave on September 30. The Rattlers lost 30-14 at Snow Canyon in St. George on Friday night.

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