HIGHLAND, Utah – The Bishop Gorman football team is about to get a much-needed bye week.
Not only are the Gaels looking to get healthy, but a daunting opponent awaits in two weeks.
Gorman, ranked No. 8 nationally by MaxPreps and USA Today, will have an extra week to get ready for No. 15 Mater Dei (California). The two teams will battle in Santa Ana at 7 p.m. on Sept. 18.
The Gaels are 0-5 all-time against Mater Dei but will enter the break with a win after defeating Lone Peak (Utah) 38-14 on the road Friday night. Even after the win in Utah, where Gorman never trailed, Gaels coach Brent Browner said his team is “still not playing” their “best football.”
“(We can) get healthy and just make sure we’re kind of in tune,” Browner said on Friday. “Giving the coaches about two weeks to study for somebody is really important. Mater Dei’s a great team. They always have been.
“It’s a great series. We haven’t got one yet, but we’re looking to get one. It’s going to be tough this year. We just got to go out, practice hard, do our stuff and bring it home.”
Gorman’s win on Friday kept its slim chances of a fifth mythical national title alive. The Gaels (3-1) were coming off a 33-28 loss to Christopher Columbus in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 29, where the Gaels trailed 20-0 in the second quarter.
“We didn’t really put in a great performance (against Lone Peak). We had a lot of mental mistakes,” Browner said. “It’s not indicative of what we do, so we just got to fix it and hope the bye week gets that fixed.
“It’s tough to go from coast to coast and come back, so I thought the kids did a good job of that and adjusting. We’re not playing our best football. We could perform a lot better. The product on the field is not indicative of who we are. We got to get those things fixed.”
Against Lone Peak, Gorman used its trio of running backs — Noah Cole, St. John Bosco transfer Corey Hinton Jr., and freshman Trey Washington — to pound out 237 rushing yards and control time of possession. The Gaels have relied on their running while without four-star sophomore wide receiver Zyren Menor, who did not play Friday against Lone Peak.
Gorman quarterback Ace Amina completed 8 of 16 passes for 57 yards and freshman Brody Amina, Ace’s younger brother, played most of the second half with the Gaels in control. Brody Amina completed 5 of 7 passes for 63 yards.
Gorman earlier this season lost one of its wide receivers it expected to have this year in Mater Dei transfer Gavin Honore. A report from Rivals said Honore was not cleared to play by the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association and Honore transferred back to Mater Dei.
The attrition forced Browner to move UNLV commit Azavier McDaniel from defensive back to wide receiver. McDaniel caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Brody Amina in the third quarter Friday against Lone Peak.
“(McDaniel has) always been a two-way player,” Browner said. “We’ve been lucky enough to have enough receivers, but we’re really banged up right now. After the Columbus game, we moved him there full time. We didn’t have enough firepower at the end of that (Columbus) game.”
Gorman also wasn’t at full strength on defense with the Gaels missing four-star defensive lineman Tayaun Lawrence, who did not play against Lone Peak. The Gaels got some production from their younger defensive players, with Tausa’Afia Taufa-Langi recording a sack and a tackle for loss in the first half and freshman Pai’Ea Cosier had a tackle for loss and recovered a fumble.
“We settled in on defense,” Browner said. “We went in really banged up against Columbus, so we had some guys that were kind of out of position and different things. Maybe we threw a little bit too much at them mentally, so we made some simple mistakes in that game. We decided let’s keep it simple.”
Gorman got plenty of production from its regular starters. Four-star sophomore defensive back Brayley Manning had two interceptions, and Caleb Lea’ea recorded two sacks. Tamatoa Gaoteote had a sack and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.
Mater Dei is 3-0 and won at Gorman last year 27-24. Browner added that as much as the next two weeks will be about preparation, they will also be about getting caught up after missing five days of school over the past two weeks.
“For us, it’s (also) just catching back up in school,” Browner said. “It’s been tough to do that piece at an academic school so we just need to get those guys back in the classroom doing that stuff, getting with our teachers.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
