The Bishop Gorman football team’s reign as the No. 1 team in the country lasted one week.
The Gaels dropped from the No. 1 spot in MaxPreps’ national rankings to No. 8 in the site’s new poll released on Monday after a 33-28 loss to Christopher Columbus (Florida) on Saturday.
St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida) is MaxPreps’ new No. 1 team. Columbus jumped from No. 100 to No. 6 after the win over the Gaels.
Gorman plays at Lone Peak (Utah) at 7 p.m. MT Friday. Lone Peak (2-1) is ranked No. 5 in MaxPreps’ Utah state rankings. Gorman defeated Lone Peak 35-14 last year in a game that was called in the third quarter after multiple Lone Peak players entered the field during a sideline altercation.
Gorman lost its No. 1 rankings in both ESPN’s SC Next Top 25 and High School Football America national rankings. The Gaels are No. 7 in ESPN’s rankings and No. 8 in HSFA’s Super 300 rankings.
On Saturday, Gorman (2-1) fell behind 20-0 to Columbus after an hour-long delay before the start and another 45 minutes in the first quarter due to lightning. The Gaels cut the deficit to 23-15 at halftime on two late touchdown passes from Ace Amina.
Columbus added a fourth-quarter touchdown and recovered a fumble on a kickoff, and extended its lead to 33-15 after a field goal. Amina added two late touchdowns, where Gorman recovered an onside kick in between scores, but Columbus recovered the final onside kick with a minute left.
After Lone Peak, Gorman plays at Mater Dei (California), ranked No. 15 nationally by MaxPreps, on Sept. 18. Gorman is 0-5 all-time against Mater Dei.
That is the last scheduled out-of-state opponent for Gorman, but it will likely participate in the four-team Overtime Nationals postseason tournament in December.
A report from Rivals said the Overtime Nationals will expand from a single-game event in 2025 to a four-team tournament this year. Gorman, which has four mythical high school football national championships, could get a chance to play nationally ranked teams from states such as Florida and Arizona that could boost the team’s national rankings.
St. Frances Academy (Maryland), which is ranked No. 2 by MaxPreps, defeated Corner Canyon (Utah) 37–20 in last year’s inaugural Overtime Nationals title game.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
