Bishop Gorman went to Santa Ana on Friday and beat Mater Dei 25-8. Not a squeaker. Not a field goal at the horn. Seventeen points, on the road, against a team we had in our top ten. Gorman is Nevada's No. 1 by a distance that is getting harder to measure, and it is 10th in the SPIN Power 100 this week, up two.
That was the easy part of the board. The rest of it took some work.
Two head to head games settled two arguments
Mater Academy East Las Vegas went to Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon and won 27-19. Last week we had Pinecrest fourth and Mater East fifth. You cannot keep a team above the team that just beat it on its own field, so they swap and then some. Mater East is fourth. Pinecrest drops three to seventh, because the loss was at home and because the teams that jumped it did not lose.
Liberty of Henderson beat Foothill 48-17. Last week Foothill was sixth and Liberty was eighth. Same principle, bigger margin. Liberty climbs to fifth. Foothill falls three to ninth.
Coronado of Henderson went to Desert Oasis and won 27-13, and moves up three to sixth. Palo Verde won 23-19 at Moapa Valley and stays third. Churchill County stays second.
Damonte Ranch lost by a point and kept its spot, barely
Damonte Ranch lost 20-19 at home to Escalon, a California team. It falls three to 10th and stays on the board. A one point loss to an out of state opponent is not the kind of result that gets you thrown off, and there was nobody in Nevada with a stronger card waiting to take the spot.
Except one. Legacy of North Las Vegas is 4-1 and comes on at eighth. Faith Lutheran won on Friday and still comes off the board, because the ten spots are a comparison, not a reward for showing up. Legacy's card is better right now. If that changes, the board changes.
| Rank | Team | Record | Last week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bishop Gorman, Las Vegas | 4-1 | Hold |
| 2 | Churchill County, Fallon | 5-0 | Hold |
| 3 | Palo Verde, Las Vegas | 5-0 | Hold |
| 4 | Mater Academy East Las Vegas | 4-0 | Up 1 |
| 5 | Liberty, Henderson | 3-2 | Up 3 |
| 6 | Coronado, Henderson | 4-1 | Up 3 |
| 7 | Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon, Henderson | 3-1 | Down 3 |
| 8 | Legacy, North Las Vegas | 4-1 | New |
| 9 | Foothill, Henderson | 3-2 | Down 3 |
| 10 | Damonte Ranch, Reno | 4-1 | Down 3 |
Off the board: Faith Lutheran.
The only Nevada team that matters nationally
Gorman is the only Nevada team on the Power 100, and after Friday it is the only Nevada team anyone outside the state is going to be talking about for a while. Mater Dei fell nine spots to 19th on the national board. Gorman took two of those spots for itself. Bookmark it: the next time somebody tells you the Nevada champion cannot play with California's best, you have a score to hand them.
