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Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
Bishop Gorman football players Marquis Hunkin, Tajon Allen and Jamir Tillman Thursday, July 26, 2012.
Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012 | 1:54 a.m.
Prep Sports Now
Nevada teams hold it down nationally
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Bishop Gorman and Faith Lutheran pulled off upsets against out-of-state opponents last week. Can Liberty follow suit when it travels to Southern California to challenge Crespi Saturday night? Gorman's got another televised contest, too — against Saint Louis in Hawaii. Las Vegas Sun sports reporters Ray Brewer and Case Keefer break down these contests and more on this edition of Prep Sports Now.
The Bishop Gorman High football team didn’t run an offensive play in the initial 10 minutes of the third quarter Saturday night.
They still managed to score two touchdowns.
Justin Sweet had a 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Ryan Smith added a 48-yard punt return for a score, helping Gorman conquer its toughest road game of the season in a 52-40 victory against Hawaii’s St. Louis High at Aloha Stadium on Fox Sports Net.
Gorman showed some signs of jet lag after traveling 2,700 miles to the island but still scored 28 unanswered points to open the game for its second victory against an out-of-state opponent in as many weeks.
The touchdown returns were the lone bright spots of the third quarter for Gorman, which proved to be vulnerable defensively in allowing three St. Louis touchdowns to trim the lead to 42-20.
St. Louis didn't back down in the fourth quarter, but Gorman held off the late charge. Smith hauled in a 19-yard touchdown pass from Anu Solomon seconds into the quarter and Kline Fielden drilled a 39-yard field goal to keep Gorman's lead in the double digits despite being outscored 40-24 in the second half.
“We got a little complacent at the end and gave up too many big plays,” Gorman coach Tony Sanchez said. “(St. Louis) is tough. They kept fighting.”
Although Gorman struggled in the second half, it was dominant in the first. It outgained St. Louis 260-110 in the first half to open a comfortable advantage.
Solomon completed 11-of-17 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns in the first half and added a 6-yard touchdown run to help Gorman build a double-digit lead.
On Gorman’s first drive of the game, Solomon connected with Nate Starks for a 13-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead just four minutes into the game. The drive included Solomon completing an 18-yard pass to Terrance Chambers to extend the drive on a fourth-down play.
Solomon added a 3-yard scoring strike to Jamir Tillman and Starks closed the first-half scoring with a 4-yard touchdown run 31 seconds before halftime. Gorman went 62 yards on three plays in 26 seconds for the final score.
"There were some great individual efforts for some huge plays for us," Sanchez said. "But we have a lot of things to work on to get better. That was a sloppy win."
Gorman, which travels back to Las Vegas on Monday, returns to action Sept. 14 against visiting Bergen Catholic of New Jersey.
Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.
I sure hope the film from last nights game doesn't make it to New Jersey. A well known cornerback is slow and needs some serious footwork help. One of the Safety positions was gased and sloppy late in the game. Two linebackers are trying to fill run gaps standing straight up and were getting beat or run over. Oh, how about 100 yards in penalties. The O-line needs help. Smaller faster guys kept Anu moving all night. What will happen when the big fast guys from Jersey come to town in two weeks? Finally, the cherry on top was the close-up of Coach Sanchez just in time to see him mouth "40 F#@$%*& Points". Usually Gorman will out discipline another team. Not last night. Athletes trumped discipline. Thank God Gorman had more.
Another Sanchez classic was "That was f@#@ing bull$@#(" lol I would have been pissed too. Even with all those penalties we owned that team then got sloppy,although credit their soph qb and rb they showed up big in second half and took advantage of our sloppiness. It's funny how we did so well last week with penalties and that was game 1 and now we gave up a lot of dumb penalties. Maybe focus and the trip was more than these kids expected. Either way lesson learned and i'm sure Sanchez will beat it out of them over the next two weeks and then they'll take it out on Bergen
Aloha & FYI, it's not how you start, it's how you finish.
Anytime you come & play in the islands, no matter what team is playing theirs absolutely no giving up until the last play. Meaning, they all play with "heart" & no excuses. As we know, last nights penalties called was somewhat LAME (Referees was killing me).
Bottom line, our Defensive Backs & Defensive structure needs to IMPROVE big time. We have two (2) weeks until another power house comes to town.
Headed back to Vegas and it's always good to come home & see Ohana. Good game, but need to really work hard. Hopefully next year, we can play Hawaii's best team (usually Kahuku). Btw, St Louis is not Hawaii's best team.
Before anything else, have a Positive & Blessed day!!!!!!!
I'm surprised Gorman is okay with Sanchez's demeanor and language. The coach he replaced (Bob Altshuler) went 26-2 in two seasons, and was let go because of the way he conducted himself. When they hired Sanchez, Gorman said "the school was drawn to Sanchez not just for his success on the field but for the way he conducts himself off it." Yesterday, Sanchez dropped several cuss words on television, and came across as a guy that is completely full of himself. Seems like his conduct is contradictory to the values Gorman and Christianity stand for. It doesn't bother me any, and I'm not calling for his head, just surprised.
St. Louis may not be Hawaii's best team at the moment, they are definitely one of the best in the islands, along with Kamehameha, Punahou and public school powerhouse Kahuku, and every now and then a public school steps up to challenge Kahuku, unlike the ILH, where parity dictates its a dogfight until the seasons end. Catholic schools tend to play each other more often than not. St. Louis, like Gorman had to deal with the issues of athletic unfairness and teams wanting to forfeit games rather than playing them during their championship runs in the 1980s and 90s. St. Louis playing Bishop Gorman makes sense, as with Gorman playing Good Counsel. I would love to see a re-match in Las Vegas between Gorman and St. Louis.
Burger75,
same as the St. Louis game. 1050 on Cox. Fox sports west. If you haven't been to a Gorman game live, you should go. The facilities is awesome.
Gorman's linebackers looked confused and slow. I'm sure Sanchez can't wait for his new middle linebacker transfer (yea right) from Servite to debut at the Bergen Catholic game. What about that...an instant Servite playbook arriving at your front door.
Gorman again will be a difficult team to beat
Aloha & last comment,
Like ALL football teams. They all have holes & Gorman has SERIOUS problems on Defense especially their LB'S & SECONDARY. If they play the way while in Hawai'i, they're going get BEAT. Also, our teams here in the valley are getting better to say the least.
Bottom line, if the continue to work hard & stay humble everything will be positive & another State Championship. Hopefully, an undefeated season.
Was great to see that Sanchez can be like any other normal person out there. Letting their emotions get the best of them with the language. We could see it throughout the whole game. His frustration was clear as day. Wonder if the powers that be will be speaking to him about his "game face" knowing they will be on national television more than just once.
Kaloke...he's been like that for years and i'm sure they knew it when they hired him. I personally just poke fun of it, I too was shouting and cursing at my television most of the second half.
Sanchez, "42 F&;ING POINTS" classic. Surely he didn't know the cameras were on him.
BG has got to find someone to replace #9 at safety. He gave up 3 tds.
Still a win is a win.
This could be a real fun year. Lot of good stories and players to follow this year.