‘Ready for the moment’: No. 2 Gorman primed to battle No. 1 Mater Dei

The Gaels have sent a stream of players to Division I college programs, and several have made it to the NFL. Last season, the Gaels were named national champions for the fourth time in program history to go along with their 20th Nevada state title.

But if Bishop Gorman wants to win a fifth mythical national title, it will have to do something it’s never done before: beat California powerhouse Mater Dei.

The Gaels, ranked No. 2 nationally by MaxPreps and USA Today, will get their shot at No. 1 Mater Dei at 7 p.m. Friday at Santa Ana Stadium in Santa Ana, California. The Gaels are 0-3 all-time against the Monarchs.

“We’re ready for the moment,” junior defensive back Jett Washington said. “We put in a lot of work to get here. They’re a really good team, but we’re pretty good, too. We’re just going to go out there and play hard.”

Even though there are still more than two months left in the season, Friday’s game has been coined as the de facto high school football national championship game.

A win for Gorman (2-0) would all but guarantee a fifth national title, with one more out-of-state game (Sept. 13 at home against California’s Orange Lutheran, ranked No. 19 nationally) and then just Southern Nevada teams in its last six regular-season games before the Class 5A Division I state playoffs.

“Every game is a national championship game,” Gorman coach Brent Browner said. “(Mater Dei) has been No. 1 for however many years in a row, so you get into that mode where every game is like that. It is a national championship game every time you play if you’re at that high of a level.”

‘Biggest game’

The Gaels wouldn’t be entirely eliminated with a close loss should Mater Dei (1-0) stumble in Trinity League play, but they can control their own destiny Friday night. A win would be their 28th straight. Their last loss was 24-21 to Mater Dei on Aug. 26, 2022, at Gorman.

“It’s going to be good. This is pretty much our national (championship) game,” said senior offensive lineman Doug Utu, who played in the 2022 matchup. “This is going to be a yes or no to a national championship. This is probably the biggest game I’ve ever played in so far.”

There’s plenty of history between the two powers. Mater Dei snapped Gorman’s 55-game winning streak in 2017 with a 35-21 victory and shut out the Gaels 42-0 in 2018.

In 2022, the Monarchs scored 10 unanswered points to rally for the win. It was the only loss during a 14-1 campaign for the Gaels, who finished fourth in the final MaxPreps rankings.

The teams were scheduled to play in 2023 before the Nevada high school realignment process dragged on for several months. Gorman eventually lost an out-of-state game under the new alignment, and the Gaels and Mater Dei could not find another date to play last season.

“It would be pretty big (to defeat Mater Dei),” Washington said. “There’s been a lot of people that have come through (Gorman). Playing this game, we’re not only representing ourselves, we’re representing everybody that came before us.”

‘They’re No. 1’

Gorman is coming off a bye. It had an impressive 29-21 win at No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida) on Aug. 24 in its last game. The Gaels scored 19 unanswered points to rally from a double-digit second-half deficit.

The win was another impressive performance for a Gorman group that’s played in plenty of big games. The Gaels have lost just twice since 2021. Browner said the players being used to the big stage has helped them not get “too caught up in (the) hype.”

“They’ve been tested for years,” Browner said. “These are guys that have lost to Mater Dei before, played against Miami Central (Florida), played all these other big games. They’ve done all of these things. It’s a real veteran group. They know how to prepare themselves.”

The Gaels have leaned on a lot of returners on defense. They’ve racked up six interceptions through the first two games, with Washington recording two in their 33-7 season-opening win against Kahuku (Hawaii).

On offense, quarterback Melvin Spicer IV had a pair of touchdown passes and made several key throws to help the Gaels rally against St. Thomas Aquinas, and they have averaged 223.5 rushing yards through the first two games.

Mater Dei rolled to a 42-25 home win against then-No. 8 Centennial (Corona, California) on Aug. 22. The Monarchs’ resume over the last decade is just as impressive as Gorman’s, with four of their six national titles coming since 2017.

Gorman is vying to be the first team besides St. John Bosco (California) to beat Mater Dei since 2015.

“(Mater Dei is) the best team in the country. They’re No. 1,” Browner said. “They got everything up and down the roster. That’s why we picked to play them, to challenge ourselves. The kids are really excited about the opportunity to play against the preseason No. 1 team in the country and see how good we really are.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.