Silverado’s middle school football caps stellar season with title

Stephen R. Sylvanie / Special to the Home News

Silverado Junior Skyhawks running back Cody Mucino (9) takes the ball upfield behind some good blocking in the first half of the Middle School Football Championship game against the Patriots at Ed Fountain Park on Dec. 6.

By Jared Harmon (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 | 3:48 p.m.

The Southern Nevada Youth Sports Association's Middle School Football League championship

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Southern Nevada's top middle school football teams met Saturday to decide the Southern Nevada Youth Sports Association's Middle School Football League championship.

While it was the Liberty Patriots that took the regular season meeting, it was the Silverado Skyhawks who came away with the city championship.

Liberty was undefeated in the regular season and handed the Silverado its only loss. But the Skyhawks got their revenge with a 26-7 victory in the championship game at Ed Fountain Park.

"Our boys came prepared tonight and they had a good feel for what they needed to do to win," Skyhawks coach Steve Farmer said. "Our offense found some weak spots and exploited them. They didn't have the speed to keep up with our backs or receivers."

Silverado's Cody Mucino, who saw time at running back, quarterback, wide receiver and cornerback, put the Hawks on the board early with a 60-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

Quarterback Stevie Farmer, the coach's son, completed a pass to KJ Otuafi in the second quarter to put the Hawks up 13-0 at halftime. Mucino broke another big run for a 69-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

Liberty bounced back in the fourth with a 53-yard touchdown run from tailback Braiden Cabais, but the game was put out of reach shortly after on a two-yard touchdown run by Mucino.

"We just came out and played as hard as we could," Mucino said. "We wanted this game real bad so we were all fired up. We were excited because we really wanted to play them again and show we could beat them."

Liberty coach Johnny Alapai said a few missed tackles proved to be the deciding factor, but felt his team performed well and had a season to be proud of.

"The kids did awesome as a whole, we just made a couple mistakes that cost us," Alapai said. "We went undefeated this year in the regular season and these kids worked very hard to get this far. It was a good season."

Jared Harmon can be reached at 990-8922 or jared.harmon@hbcpub.com.

Discussion: 12 comments so far…

By dxyl

12/11/08 at 11:20 p.m.

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Great game Saturday the Skyhawks came to play. No excuses from the Jr. Patriot side good game and good luck to the 4 players going to the youth all-american bowl in San Antonio. If you don't know 4 players from this championship game will be representing the 702, Niko Kapeli, Jarrett Solomon and Albert Tai from the Jr. Patriots and Cody Mucino from the Skyhawks will be attending the bowl game on Jan. 4. Big congratulations to these outstanding athletes and to their families. Good luck and play hard...
By VegasVegas

12/12/08 at 3:19 p.m.

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This league is a complete fraud. Only about 13 schools are even represented in this league, and Liberty basically was handed the semi-final game by the league and its officials due to strong bias against Gorman.

Played in a neutral environment with legitimate officiating, Bishop Gorman's squad would have easily beaten either of these teams.

There are other leagues in this town, and none of them are very good. This one claims to be a great league with great football, but the costs are high and your child could very well work his tail off all season only to have the officials steal it from them. Avoid this league and get your kids ready for high school with conditioning and training, don't let them end up like Skyler Ferman.

And how did those four end up going to the bowl game? Gorman had some of the top players in the league at several positions.
By dxyl

12/12/08 at 4:02 p.m.

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Well vegasvegas there is no doubt that Gorman has a lot of talent and I see your point with the refs, but every team in the league had troubles with the officiating this year not just Gorman.

If you know any history with the kids from Liberty you would know that the team played together for the past 3 years in the NYFL league. They took 3 championship trophies for each year that they were there each year in a different division, they were the Island Warriors. Now all the Island Warrior fans know and strongly feel that everyone is against them including the league officials so saying that Liberty was handed the game is not true, more like far from it.

Second don't hate on these kids that are going to the youth all-american bowl game, I think Gorman's running back should have gone too but that falls on Gorman's head coach and parents to do some leg work so these young men have a shot to show the country what they can do. Instead of hating on these kids try and be happy for them, I mean they are representing las vegas don't you have any pride in that. Shoot if a bunch of Gorman kids made it I would be stoked just because they're local and doing the dayum thing for Las Vegas.

That Gorman vs. Liberty series was the best two games this season. Both games were nail biters and to the last minute how can you not appreciate that. Both teams played their hearts out and left everything on the field. I mean come on if you love football for what it is than you had to have loved watching those two teams go at it.

Talking about being biased why did Gorman play Liberty in the semi-finals anyway. If you take a look at all the teams that made the playoffs and look at their record Liberty and Gorman should not have met in the semi's. If it was done right than Silverado would have to play Gorman and Liberty would play Centennial. So with that in mind now who do you think got away with one.

The way its stands now is that the Skyhawks are the champs and there's no taking that away from them. So stop being bitter and taking it out on these kids and be happy that I agree with you that Gorman has some awesome talent. I'm just saying....
By VegasVegas

12/12/08 at 5:38 p.m.

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You obviously don't know how seeding works. Liberty went in as the #1, Gorman went in as #5.

Liberty went in as #1, Silverado as #2, Centennial went in as #3, Gorman went in as #4.

If you view the rules at http://www.hometeamsonline.com/photos/fo..., scroll
to the bottom and view the playoff format. #1 always gets #4 in a bracket, this is pretty basic stuff that you're trying to argue against. Nothing suspicious there.

I'm not hating on anyone, the league ripped our kids off. Liberty was awarded free downs, the refs didn't understand that 7 men MUST be on the line, Liberty's kids were blatantly offsides on most of their on-side kicks, and two of their PAT conversions were ruled TDs when in fact they were nowhere near over.

The integrity of this league was compromised and as far as many parents are concerned, there was no champion in this league. Gorman could have easily beaten Liberty had it been called by unbiased officials, and Gorman would have steamrolled Silverado.

But like everything else in this town, the league was corrupt. All these kids worked hard only to be stolen from in 48 minutes. And not only Gorman was stolen from, because Liberty AND Silverado will never really know if they could have been in the same scenario in a fair league, which I highly doubt.

Gorman's kids and parents have pretty much laughed it off and will move onto a successful high school. They know what really happened that night, and they'll be laughing in high school when they're still playing in the post-season.
By VegasVegas

12/12/08 at 5:39 p.m.

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Correction on that first line up there, Gorman went in as #4. Read the rules, that might help you understand why Gorman played Liberty in the semi-finals.
By dxyl

12/12/08 at 6:51 p.m.

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Well first of all vegasvegas lets not get in to a shouting match go ahead and speak your fustrations and let out all your anger it's quite fine I assure you. I know Gorman has a good team and they have a wonderful coaching staff, but it seems like your taking away from the hard work that Liberty and the Skyhawks have put in. Hey on any given Sunday a team can lose, Liberty went undefeated the whole season and lost the big dance, kind of funny that it happened to the NFL patriots as well. lol.
I see and understand your argument but you are still blaming the patriots for your lost when your beef is with the reefs. You're right what if they called this or they should've of called that, who knows what could of happen. All I'm saying is that the Liberty vs. Gorman was a good game do you agree with that. Its the best game i've seen in a long time.

Now to go on to the playoff discussion. I fully understand the playoff rules sir, but if you go to the league website and click the playoff schedule Gorman went into the playoffs as the number two seed and the skyhawks went in as the #3 seed. Now I know my math is not that great and my eyes are pretty good. But didn't the skyhawks have the second best record in the league followed by Centennial than Gorman in the 4th seed.
Now if you just play along with me here don't you think thats kind of weird. Here me out i think the league didn't want Liberty in the big dance so they matched up they only team (which turned out not true) that had the best chance of getting them out which happens to be Gorman.

Now you take it anyway you want it, but i'm saying that you have a good argument but don't take away the hard work the other teams put in as well. I'll tell you every year in what ever league you play in there will be issues with the refs even in high school. Shoot i got a beef with how the all-region was picked and if you look there are hardly any Gorman players on the 1st team why is that i do not know there are a handful of players from Gorman's high school team that i would have selected as 1st team all-region. But its gonna be like that and it wont change.

Good fun having this debate with you vegasvegas good luck to your Gorman kids and just be happy for all the kids no matter what school they go to. Shoot i gots to do what i preach...lol...I'm just saying....
By dxyl

12/12/08 at 10:07 p.m.

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oh vegasvegas i had to think for a while and this is how the playoffs should have gone....
Bracket A.
Liberty #1............
vs.
Chapparral #8.....

Centennial #3......
vs.
Coronado #6......

Bracket B
Cheyenne #5.....
vs.
Gorman #4.......

Palo Verde #8...
vs.
Silverado #2.....

Now I know you have to agree with me that this is the right model for the playoff picture. Now tell me again how Gorman is suppose to play Liberty in the semi-final game for bracket A when they are in bracket B. Now if you look at the league web site they list Gorman as the #2 seed. Now in any playoff system you would never have the #1 and #2 seed in the same bracket so they can play in the semi-finals. The playoff brackets always goes odd teams on top going in numerical order going down, even seeds start from the bottom going in numerical order from 1-10 going upward. And thats how you get #1 vs. #8, #3 vs. #6, #5 vs. #4, #7 vs. #2.
So if Gorman was #4 or #2(as stated on the league website) there is no way that Gorman should have played Liberty in the semi-final game. That tells me either the league doesn't like Gorman or they don't like Liberty. Which ever way you look at it they didn't want both of our teams in the bid dance.....I'm just saying....
By FB9

12/13/08 at 7:56 a.m.

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I am so proud of all our Vegas boys!

Good luck in the future!
Keep you heads held high and represent our State of Nevada well.

Peace to all......
By VegasVegas

12/16/08 at 11:06 a.m.

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The seed bracketing was set before the season ever started, and the seeding was correct, Gorman went in as #4 because they lost to the equal-record Centennial thus giving up the tiebreaker.

The #1 seed will get the easier bracket to the playoffs. The bracket system they have set is pretty much the standard, #1 enters the semi-finals and gets to play the winner of #4/#5 while #2 gets the winner of #3/#6 - which expects #3 to have the chance to move on giving #1 an easier path.

You are absolutely correct about the having a hidden agenda, but it was against Gorman. Gorman had won the past three seasons and even during certifications, you could tell something was up (they were trying to deny completely legitimate kids). After the game, I caught up with one of the refs who were quickly getting out of the complex, and basically told them they just robbed every kid on the Gorman squad with their "mistakes". The very-overweight sideline ref responded to me and stated "I had no control over what happened, sorry."

Silverado, Gorman, Centennial and Liberty were all really good teams. It is just a shame we couldn't have all played in a more credible league.

See ya in high school. Hopefully it'll get better!
By Anon

12/17/08 at 12:46 p.m.

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If you want to see why Cody Mucino is going to the All-American Bowl then go to www.codymucino.com, and watch his videos; they are awesome.

Hey DXYL, are the kids from Liberty actually playing in the bowl, or are they just attending the camp? The reason I ask is because you have to be invited to the both, but only 40 kids in the nation get to play in the game.
By spen1

5/30/09 at 11:13 a.m.

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If it is one thing that ruins youth sports accross the nation, it is disgrunteled parents. It is sad to see vegasvegas not letting these kids enjoy their victory. For what reason would anyone in this league setup this game and force Gorman out? I could see if there was money involved but there isn't so what would be the benifit? Both of these teams are first year teams to this league and a lot of people were pulling for Gorman because they didn't want teams to come into the league and win one the first year. Gorman has won the championship 3 years in a row so what more do you want. A city counselman's son plays for Gorman and is on the league board so how do you think this feat that you are suggesting was pulled off. Sounds like a bitter parent. You can't keep everyone happy and you will alway have your share of complainers like vegasvegas. I would suggest that you join any other league in this city and you will have second thoughts about the comments that you have made towards this league. I do agree that refs made a lot of bad calls this season. This has been the worst officiating that I have seem over the past 14 years. every coach in this league and the NYS has complained about refs this season. I have been in youth football for 15 years and this is a good program. Cost is only $160 to play and $35 to cheer, now if Gorman is charging you more then you need to take this up with the team because we only charge $160 and that's it. Parets are paying upwards of $500 during the season in other leagues. I am not going to bash the other leagues because my opinion only matters to me and you must form your own. We all must remember that this is youth sports, so let the youth have their glory and not ruin it with such comments. Adults like vegasvegas need to get over it because this is what the youth see, pick up on and follow, making an excuse and complaining when things don't go right in life. So how many football players have read this? Especially the Liberity and Silverado players. can you imagine how they now feel vegasvegas. I teach my kids that life isn't fair and you should always find the postive learning experience from negitive events. VegasVegas you should do the same.
By spen1

5/30/09 at 11:20 a.m.

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BTW, it is the coaches job to send players to the All-American Bowl. This is by invite only and it just so happens that a Goarman coach was invited to be a part of the Las Vegas selection board but decided not to. I know this because I was on the invite just as a select number of coaches from this league were.