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FSM Essential Recap: Las Vegas High School Football- Bishop Gorman vs Slam Academy- Week 1
Welcome to the kickoff of the 2021 Nevada high school football season. It’s been a hell of a ride to get here, and we are nowhere near being back with no CCSD school playing in an abbreviated season due to COVID-19. But for some schools and their players, they get to have some normalcy happen in their lives under the “Friday Night Lights.”
Tonight Bishop Gorman takes on Slam Academy at Fertitta Field at Bishop Gorman High School. This will be the first game for new Bishop Gorman head coach Brent Browner. He takes over for Kenny Sanchez, who left after the 2019 season. Browner was the defensive back coach for Gorman before taking over. The Gaels also welcome back offensive coordinator Craig Canfield, who led the Gaels offense to 3 straight National Championships before taking a year off and eventually heading to Desert Pines High School for the 2019 season.
The Gaels are loaded with talent once again. Led by Jaydn Ott, Cam Barfield, Jake Taylor, Jaden Hicks, Cyrus Moss, DJ Herman, Fabian Ross, and the Branch brothers, Zachariah & Zion. The Gaels will also have a new quarterback this season. All eyes will be on highly touted freshman quarterback Micah Alejado, who was either got to get the start or see significant playing time for the Gaels. Alejado has been touted as the next great Gaels quarterback for the past two seasons.
Entering the game, the excitement could be felt on the Gaels sideline, but a strong focus could also loomed over stadium; Gorman where on a mission.
The game started with a bang for the Gaels with a 95-yard kickoff return touchdown by Johnathan Brady. In the following series, the Gaels special teams unit partially blocked a punt giving the Gorman the ball on the Slam 24 yard line. Two plays later, star running back Jaydn Ott rumbled into the endzone.
The writing was on the wall, and from this point on, Bishop Gorman controlled every aspect of the game. They looked like a well-oiled machine, disciplined, executing their plays properly, scoring five more touchdowns and a safety. All the while keeping Slam Academy out of the endzone with aggressive and swarming defense, forcing five turnovers and scoring on three of them.
Before the end of the third quarter, the score was 30-0 in favor of Bishop Gorman. After the end of the first half, Bishop Gorman pulled their starters out after the first half and allowed their reserve players to get some on-field action and much-needed experience. In short, the Bishop Gorman Gaels picked up where they left off over a year ago; the same cannot be said about the Slam Academy Bulls.
Slam had a long night, playing almost the entire game on their side of the 50-yard line, smothered by the Gorman defense. Quarterback Joseph Kuykendall was under constant pressure the entire game, even getting sacked the last play of the game by the second year 3A school played their best, but as the game went on, it became obvious that coach Browner’s squad was too much for Slam to handle.
With all that has been going on this 58-0 win has to feel good for the new head coach, placing his best foot forward, however next weeks test is against fellow 5A opponent Faith Lutheran. Faith is now led by former UNLV head football coach Mike Sanford, and it will be a more important and telling test for Brendon Browner and his Gaels team.
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-Jaron Turner – Franchise Sports Media
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