Del Sol football looks to break Las Vegas High’s streak

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 | 2:15 a.m.

Week 4: Del Sol vs. Las Vegas Preview

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Greenspun Interactive Sports Editor Ray Brewer gives us his pick for game of the week: Del Sol at Las Vegas.

The Del Sol High football team will be playing for more than themselves Thursday night against perennial Sunrise Region power Las Vegas High.

The Dragons will be playing for the Foothill team of 2001 that lost to Las Vegas in the final minutes of Sunrise finals, the Coronado team of 2005 that nearly upset the Wildcats in the regional quarterfinals and the Silverado team of 2007 that limited Las Vegas to 12 points in the regional semifinals and still lost.

Come the playoffs each November, when Henderson schools are eventually matched against the mighty Wildcats, the outcome has been lopsided.

So lopsided that Las Vegas’ last loss to a Henderson school was in 1998, when it fell to Green Valley High — a streak of easily more than 30 games.

The streak is highlighted by a comeback for the ages against Del Sol last fall.

Las Vegas rallied for 21 points in the final five minutes to erase a 14-point deficit and defeat Del Sol for the third consecutive season in the Sunrise finals.

Some Del Sol players were prematurely celebrating on the sidelines prior to the rally, putting Las Vegas on life support before the Wildcats were ready to roll over and let their reign end.

Del Sol learned the hard way that beating Las Vegas is seemingly impossible. The same can be said for those teams from Foothill, Coronado and Silverado.

“You watch the tape and you still wonder how it turned out the way it did,” Las Vegas coach Chris Faircloth said of the rally against Del Sol.

While there have been a handful of close games, most contests pitting a Henderson school against Las Vegas finishes in a blowout.

Just don’t tell Del Sol’s players they aren’t supposed to be competitive.

Most teams are mentally defeated before kickoff when playing Las Vegas, but Dragons coach Preston Goroff has successfully preached to his players to approach lining up against the Wildcats like any other game.

That is exactly what has happened in the last two regional finals — a pair of contests Del Sol had leads in and could have easily won.

“The kids know they are going to have to match Vegas’ energy,” Goroff said. “The bottom line is that this is just football. It will come down to who blocks well, who tackles well and who makes the least amount of mistakes.”

There is no rhyme or reason as to why Las Vegas has been so dominant.

You could argue it is because of its coaching staff (which has remained virtually the same the last decade), high enrollment figures (it is one of the highest populated schools in the state) and deep stable of talented athletes.

Or, as we learned during last year’s regional finals, it doesn’t hurt to be lucky.

“That type of comeback will only happen one time out of 10,” Faircloth said. “Fortunately for us, it happened in a big game.”

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com.