Mater East’s football team didn’t complete a pass in the first half on Thursday night against Sloan Canyon.
The Knights didn’t need to as they held an 18-point lead at halftime. But when they did complete their first pass, it proved to be a dagger in a battle of the two top Class 4A Southern Region football teams.
James Monaghan connected with S’Marion Coleman, who raced for an 18-yard touchdown that put Mater East ahead by 24 points early in the third quarter.
Mater East, ranked No. 5 in the Review-Journal’s Southern Nevada rankings, dominated on the ground, forced three turnovers and held off a late rally by No. 3 Sloan Canyon on its way to a 27-19 win at Sloan Canyon in front of a sold-out, standing-room only crowd.
“Nothing can faze us,” said Mater East interim coach Gio Fauolo, who added that the Knights’ regular head coach Tim Hough will be back with the team next week. “We came here, and we did what we thought we would do. We expected to win.
“I know everybody thought we would lose. There was a couple things saying we’re not big enough, but I think we showed we got one of the better (offensive lines) in the state.”
Mater East (4-0, 1-0 4A Southern League) is in prime position to claim the No. 1 seed in the 4A Southern Region playoffs. Sloan Canyon is the reigning 4A region champion and defeated Mater East 50-22 in last year’s 4A Southern Region semifinals.
“They kicked us out of the playoffs last year, so being that we had two weeks of preparation — all week it was just we got to beat Sloan. Beat Sloan, we got to beat the Pirates,” said Monaghan, who shared snaps with Rajahn Butler and had 27 passing yards and 21 rushing yards.
“We played a great game. Our defense stepped up in the first half, and our offense came back. We were just going, going, going.”
Sloan Canyon (3-1, 0-1) made things interesting in the second half with backup quarterback Derek Backman, who threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Kaiden Hunn with two minutes left in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 27-11.
As Mater East’s offense struggled to move the ball through the rest of the second half, Sloan Canyon got another touchdown on a 7-yard run from Jermaine Wilson Jr., and the following 2-point conversion made it a 27-19 game with 5:49 left and Mater East turned it over on downs on fourth-and-goal with under two minutes left.
Backman led Sloan Canyon on one final drive, but at Mater East’s 10-yard line, Backman was sacked and Mater East escaped with the win.
“They’re a good team,” Fauolo said. “We knew they wouldn’t go away. They got a whole bunch of my brothers (former UNLV teammates coaching at Sloan Canyon) across the field. I know how competitive they are and they weren’t going to back down. We got to do a better job of putting them away.”
Things didn’t start off well for Mater East. The Knights were forced into a possible three-and-out on the game’s opening possession and then elected to go for a fake punt on fourth and long that Sloan Canyon sniffed out immediately.
Sloan Canyon got the ball at Mater East’s 21 early in the game, and the Pirates converged on a fourth-and-3 on a 7-yard pass from Cade Hoshino to Talon Wittlief. But Mater East’s defense stood tall on three straight plays at the 1-yard line and the Pirates settled for a 20-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Mater East found its rhythm on the ground with Marcus Williams breaking off a pair of runs, and on fourth-and-3, offensive lineman Rayshawn Brown ran up the middle for a touchdown to give the Knights a 7-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Knights quarterback Rajahn Butler broke off a 63-yard run in the second quarter and on the next play Brown pounded it in from a yard out for another touchdown to put Mater East up 13-3 after a missed extra point early in the second quarter.
Mater East’s defense came up with a play when Hoshino fumbled and Justice Kaina recovered with the Pirates in the red zone.
The Knights’ defense came up with another play on the following Sloan Canyon possession when Hawaii commit Khalil Abdullah intercepted Hoshino and raced 40 yards for a touchdown. Butler’s 2-point run gave Mater East a 21-3 lead that it led until halftime.
“We’re know for our DBs,” Fauolo said. “He made a play when we needed. That’s a play (Abdullah) can make all the time. Hawaii knows what they’re getting. In the big time game, he’s going to make a big time play.”
Mater East had 184 rushing yards in the first half and did not complete a pass on three total attempts.
Sloan Canyon was held to 84 yards of offense in the first half and most of that came on Hoshino runs of 21 and 27 yards.
The two teams will likely meet again in the 4A Southern Region title game on Nov. 13, where the winner will head up North to play the 4A Northern champion for the 4A state title on Nov. 21.
Williams had 88 rushing yards to lead Mater East and Butler ran for 81 yards.
“We approach every game like we have to win that game,” Fauolo said. “We don’t really care about the rankings, standings, none of that. We just keep playing our ball and trying to be selfless with everything we do.”
Backman had 114 passing yards for Sloan Canyon after he entered midway through the third quarter, and Wilson was limited to 50 rushing yards on 21 carries.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
