High school football rewind: The pageantry returns

Everything was close with the satellite Friday night.

The pageantry of precocious schoolhouse shot returned to Southern Nevada successful afloat force. It was each there, the bands, the cheerleaders and the fans successful the stands.

And for Clark County School District teams, determination was the undeniable scent of caller artificial turf aft the territory installed oregon repaired caller turf fields astatine each of its precocious schools.

No, the archetypal week of shot didn’t spell disconnected without a hitch. Three games were canceled successful Southern Nevada — Legacy-Faith Lutheran, Sunrise Mountain-Pahrump Valley and Bonanza-Cheyenne. But it could person been worse.

As an email from a manager Friday greeting said, “We were an inch from not playing today.”

A Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association spokesperson told the Review-Journal connected Friday that games successful antithetic sports were canceled statewide for assorted reasons, including COVID concerns, brushwood fires and a shortage of players.

Those are each issues that volition beryllium delved into deeper implicit the adjacent week, but this isn’t the abstraction for that.

This is simply a abstraction for celebration. Football and autumn precocious schoolhouse sports is back. Week 1 mightiness not person been perfect, but it was a full batch amended than the nothingness that was happening past fall.

With that successful mind, let’s look astatine immoderate of what transpired successful the opening week.

Impressive opening statements

Making excessively overmuch of an opener is ever dangerous. That’s particularly existent this season, with astir teams not having played since 2019, not to notation each the impediments listed above.

Still, a fewer teams and players stood out, starting with a acquainted face.

Cam Barfield ran for 136 yards and 5 touchdowns to pb Bishop Gorman to a 42-21 win implicit a chap nationalist powerfulness successful St. Louis from Hawaii. The Gaels reeled disconnected 28 unanswered points aft the crippled was tied astatine 14.

It took a portion for Liberty to truly get rolling against an always-tough Arbor View squad. But the Patriots pulled distant for a 42-14 win, led by a defence that constricted Arbor View to 88 full yards.

Despite the loss, the Aggies had 1 of the biggest plays of the nighttime anywhere, opening the crippled with a Tanner Aitken 91-yard kickoff instrumentality for a touchdown.

Green Valley and Desert Pines besides got disconnected to awesome starts successful Class 5A play, and Shadow Ridge made an aboriginal 4A connection with a 31-22 triumph implicit 5A Centennial.

In 3A, Boulder City, Moapa Valley and Boulder City each cruised successful games that ended up with a moving timepiece successful the 2nd half.

Game of the night

Actually, let’s spell backmost to Thursday. Desert Oasis’ 9-8 triumph implicit Spring Valley wasn’t a enactment of creation by immoderate agelong of the imagination.

But it was the archetypal autumn precocious schoolhouse shot crippled successful Nevada successful 2 years. For each its faults, it was competitive. It besides had a redemption story, arsenic Zion Gonsalves missed an other constituent successful the archetypal 4th but drilled a 42-yard tract extremity that proved to beryllium the game-winner.

“These kids got a twelvemonth stripped distant from them, truthful I consciousness large for the kids,” Desert Oasis manager Brant Smith said aft the game. “They merit this.”

They surely do.

Liberty to instrumentality connected the best

For the 4th consecutive year, Liberty volition play successful the Polynesian Classic astatine Bishop Gorman. The Patriots’ hostile connected Friday, Sept. 10, conscionable won’t beryllium the 1 they primitively expected.

East High successful Utah won’t beryllium allowed to question and was forced to driblet out, but Liberty manager Rich Muraco kept the crippled connected the docket and looked for a caller opponent. The 1 helium found? Mater Dei (California), ranked by immoderate services arsenic the No. 1 squad successful the nation.

“It’s not casual to find a squad that could travel successful precocious announcement similar that,” Liberty manager Rich Muraco said. “It ties your hands due to the fact that determination aren’t a batch of teams looking for games successful August. But Mater Dei mislaid a crippled due to the fact that their hostile couldn’t travel. As I’ve said before, I similar to situation our programme and play the best.”

Early look ahead

On Friday, Gorman volition play a uncommon in-state crippled successful nonleague play, hosting Bishop Manogue from Reno. The past clip those teams met, the Gaels cruised to a 69-26 triumph successful the 2018 Class 4A authorities title game.

Arbor View volition look to rebound, hosting a Faith Lutheran squad whose opener against Legacy was canceled. Shadow Ridge heads to Silverado successful a conflict of 1-0 teams that are among the favorites for the 4A championship.

Contact Jason Orts astatine jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts connected Twitter.