Bishop Gorman spent all week refusing to name a starting quarterback. Turns out the answer was worth the wait.
Ace Amina started, threw for 212 yards and four touchdowns, and outlasted everything St. John Bosco could throw back at him, and the Gaels won 38-28 on Friday night in front of a standing-room crowd of more than 5,000 at Fertitta Field, per the Review-Journal. Our national No. 2 walked into our No. 3's building, erased a 21-0 hole, tied the game with nine minutes left, and still went home 0-1.
The night, in three acts:
| Act | Stretch | Score |
|---|---|---|
| All Gorman | First half | 21-0 Gorman |
| Bosco storms back | Third quarter to the 9:14 mark | 28-28 |
| Gorman's last word | The final 9:14 | 38-28 Gorman |
Gorman's first half was a burial
For twenty-four minutes, this was a blowout nobody outside Las Vegas ordered. Amina hit Noah Cole from 8 yards out on the opening drive, per USA Today High School Sports. A minute later, linebacker Braylon Ivory stripped Koa Malau'ulu in the end zone and Caleb Lea'Ea fell on the football for a defensive touchdown, per the same live coverage. When Amina found Zyren Menor before halftime, it was 21-0, and the sold-out crowd was watching MaxPreps' No. 1 team get handled by its No. 2.
Bosco had not played a down of football this season. For a half, it looked like it.
Then Bosco remembered who it was
Here's the part Bosco fans will replay all season, and they've earned it. Malau'ulu shook off the nightmare half and threw touchdowns to Kuika Moaalii and DJ Tubbs to cut it to 21-14. Amina answered with a 53-yard strike to Menor, his third touchdown pass, and a 28-14 cushion looked comfortable with a quarter to play.
It wasn't. Maliq Allen scored on a 30-yard run on the last play of the third, Tubbs took a punt back for a touchdown with 9:14 left, and at 28-28 the loudest building in Nevada suddenly wasn't.
Let's give the counterargument its full day in court. This was Bosco's opener, on the road, in Vegas heat, against a team playing its second game. The Braves outscored the hosts 28-7 between halftime and the nine-minute mark, and a program that trailed by three touchdowns at the break and tied it on the road is not broken. All of that is true.
Now explain the last ten points.
Corey Hinton Jr. ended it
Tied at 28, Gorman went to Corey Hinton Jr., the Las Vegas kid who spent his first two high school seasons at St. John Bosco and came home to Gorman in January, per the Review-Journal. With 6:49 left he caught a short pass from Amina, found the seam, and outran everyone for a 54-yard touchdown against the team that used to hand him the ball.
"This game meant everything to me. Coming back home, this game meant the world," Hinton told the Review-Journal.
Hinton finished with five catches for 84 yards, per the RJ. Maximiliano Fuentes drilled a 49-yard field goal to make it a two-score game, and cornerback Kamil Loud, who had already made a fourth-down stop, picked off Malau'ulu in the final seconds to end it.
Gorman is 3-0 all-time against Bosco: 2014, 2016, and now this. The third one was worth the decade.
What Gorman over Bosco does to the boards
Everybody's rankings walked into Friday claiming something different. MaxPreps billed it No. 1 against No. 2. USA Today's Super 25 had Bosco second and Gorman third, the same shape as ours: our published board reads St. Frances Academy first, Bosco second, Gorman third, and until Friday no result anywhere argued with it.
There's one now. Gorman is 2-0 holding the result of the year so far, and Monday's board work starts with an uncomfortable question for our top line: St. Frances holds No. 1 on reputation and roster. Gorman holds a scoreboard. We don't hand out the top spot for one August night, but the gap just got thin enough to argue about, and we intend to argue about it in print.
The schedule won't let anyone cool off, either. Gorman gets Columbus of Miami next, per the Review-Journal, and then brings this show to our beat: Lone Peak, in Highland, on Sept. 4, fourteen days after IMG Academy left a 59-3 crater on that same field.
Bosco goes home 0-1 with a second half of tape that should scare everyone left on its schedule. That's the strange arithmetic of August football. The Braves proved plenty Friday night.
The Gaels just proved more.
