Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Bishop Gorman football players Marquis Hunkin, Tajon Allen and Jamir Tillman Thursday, July 26, 2012.
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012 | 2:05 a.m.
Prep Sports Now
Thoughts on realignment, Centennial's challenge and Green Valley's latest romp
-
You need to upgrade your Flash Player
Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer touch on every high school football team in the valley and more on this week's episode. The topics, rants and disagreements are at an all-time high, so brace your ears and get ready to take sides.
Related coverage
The Bishop Gorman High football team hasn’t lost a regular season league game since the 2006 season, when it was defeated by Sierra Vista and Spring Valley.
Thanks to realignment, the three-time defending state champions and nationally respected Gaels will face a new challenge this week at Centennial.
You can easily argue that Gorman, which has been the No. 1-ranked team each week for the past three years in the Sun’s top-10 rankings, hasn’t played a team of No. 4 Centennial’s caliber in conference games in the past five years.
That’s mainly because the Southwest — with struggling programs such as Clark, Pahrump Valley and Western — widely was regarded as the state’s worst league in the large-school classification.
This year, with those schools realigned to the newly formed Division I-A, the Southwest League has a new look — highlighted by Centennial, which has reached the Sunset Regional semifinals the past two years.
Gorman has received minor resistance in the playoffs in the past two seasons against Arbor View and Palo Verde, two programs to which Centennial — it beat Palo Verde and lost to Arbor View this year — can be compared.
While Gorman, which has outscored three league opponents 180-3, is considered a heavy favorite to beat Centennial, the challenge of facing a new local team for the first time is definitely intriguing.
Here are the rest of the rankings, which are compiled each week by the Sun’s Ray Brewer.
1. Bishop Gorman (6-1): In its past 16 quarters, Gorman has surrendered just three points.
2. Liberty (5-1): Liberty, which has won 18 straight Southeast Division games, likely will run the table again this fall in conference games. This week, the Patriots play Southeast newcomer Eldorado.
3. Arbor View (7-0): Arbor View is the lone undefeated team in Nevada. The Aggies will risk that streak Friday against Sierra Vista.
4. Centennial (6-1): Centennial has played three of Las Vegas’ top five teams at home this season, concluding Friday against three-time defending state champion Bishop Gorman. The Bulldogs are 1-1 against the trio, beating Palo Verde and losing to Arbor View.
5. Palo Verde (5-3): Palo Verde, which has won four straight games, faces a tough Durango squad this week. The Panthers can’t afford to overlook the Trailblazers in favor of next week’s highly anticipated showdown with Arbor View.
6. Canyon Springs (4-2): The defending Northeast League champion Pioneers, who blanked Rancho last week, take on Valley this week.
7. Green Valley (5-1): Green Valley seems to get better each week, stretching its win streak to five games last week with a convincing win against Las Vegas High. The Gators won’t be challenged this week against Rancho.
8. Moapa Valley (8-1): Moapa Valley has beaten every team in its path with limited resistance against local competition. This week, the Pirates face a different challenge against an athletic Desert Pines squad. Until this year, Desert Pines competed in a higher classification and typically has several athletic players at the skilled positions.
9. Basic (5-1): With the exception of struggling against Green Valley in Basic's lone loss of the season, the Basic offense has produced points with relative ease this fall. The Wolves have scored more than 40 points in all five of their victories and more than 50 points three times. This week, they face Del Sol.
10. Coronado (4-2): Coronado has scored 108 points in its past three games, including almost knocking off No. 2 Liberty on Oct. 5 in a six-point loss. The Cougars, who haven’t been the playoffs since 2005, control their own destiny this year in reaching the postseason. This week, they’ll face respected Southeast League foe Foothill.
Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.
"This week, they'll face respected Southeast League foe Foothill." C'mon Ray I love the SE as much as you but that should read *formally respected. I was really bummed out to see Foothill fall so hard, I had them ranked #5 pre-season but this year, they are not a respected SE opponent. IMHO.
1 Gorman
2 Liberty
3 Arbor View
4 Centennial
5 Palo Verde
6 Canyon Springs
7 Moapa Valley
8 Green Valley
9 Basic
10 Coronado
Alright, now your top ten looks like mine has for the last few weeks. Credit to GV and Moapa for producing results to warrant those rankings. Been saying it all year that Vegas was grossly over ranked. No changes in my top ten.
State
1 Gorman
2 Liberty
3 Arbor View
4 Centennial
5 Palo Verde
6 Canyon Springs
7 Moapa Valley
8 Green Valley
9 Basic
10 Coronado
*Reed, Reno, Spanish Springs, Galena
Nothing changes in the north this week, nothing significant enough to put any of them over a very good Coronado team, although I really would put Reed tied with #8/9/10 if those three weren't so close. My prediction is if Coronado and Liberty both beat Basic then Basic will be out and Reed jumps in unless the north keeps having unpredictable results.
No one is fooled by realignment or any other pleasing definition of the masterful terminology for cheating. In the furture the governing bodies should let the parochial schools begin 'claiming''their palyers in grade school,allow out of county,out of state students to pledge in the sixth grade and be done with it. And when that is accomplished Notre Dame shall have a first right of refusal on all of these 'claimers' from the sixth grade until high school graduation and be done with it. And Notre Dame's boosters shall be given full accessability to any of these students and their parents from the very beginning thus freeing up the Catholic priests to do their real work, which is..... .
Byhomer, very interesting comment.
Haters gonna hate....LMAO It's the fuel we need to continue to crush opponents...