Bishop Gorman football hosts Lone Peak (Utah) in national showdown

Bishop Gorman’s football team took time Sunday to enjoy Hawaii after the Gaels shut out Kahuku 38-0 on Saturday.

The Gaels then flew to Las Vegas on Monday and began practicing after they landed.

There wasn’t any time to waste with a short week ahead that puts Gorman in the middle of its nonleague schedule, featuring some of the nation’s top teams.

The Gaels, ranked No. 2 nationally by USA Today and No. 3 by MaxPreps, host Lone Peak (Utah) at 7 p.m. Friday, which starts a three-week stretch that includes East St. Louis (Illinois) and top-ranked Mater Dei (California). Lone Peak (3-0) is the second-ranked team in Utah by MaxPreps.

“We’ve already pregame planned some stuff, so now we’re making sure we finalize exactly what we want to do against Lone Peak,” Gorman coach Brent Browner said. “We’ve done plenty of short weeks. It’s not my favorite thing, but it is what it is.”

Gorman (2-0) had no problems against Kahuku. The Gaels threw for 381 yards and held Kahuku to 94 total yards.

“I thought they played really well,” Browner said. “We did what we had to do. Defense did a tremendous job, running around, flying to the ball and doing the stuff they had to do. (Quarterback) Maika (Eugenio) and the offense did a great job slinging the rock like he does and going through the whole process, but he did an amazing job.”

‘Pretty special’ QB

Gorman opened its season with a 52-0 shutout of Centennial to begin Class 5A Desert League play on Aug. 22. Consistent quarterback play and having a deep rotation on defense have helped the Gaels to a strong start.

Eugenio, a Hawaii commit, completed 30 of 37 passes for 352 yards with three touchdowns and connected with seven receivers against Kahuku. He’s completed 84.4 percent of his passes this season.

The senior stepped into the starting role after the loss to Mater Dei last season and immediately took the Gaels’ passing attack to another level. This season, Eugenio has plenty of options to throw to with Hawaii commit Isaiah Nickels, Kaina Watson and sophomore Zyren Menor among the Gaels’ top receivers.

Eugenio has “been in the system for a long time, so he knows it, what to do, reads, all the things you need to do for the system,” Browner said. “That’s the biggest piece of why he’s successful. He’s not just throwing the ball to one guy and one guy doing everything. Seven guys touched the ball, he’s able to get the ball where it’s supposed to go, when it’s supposed to go there, which is hard to do.

“But that’s the best piece about it. When you have a quarterback that could do that, it’s pretty special.”

Defensive depth

Lone Peak’s offense will be Gorman’s toughest test so far. The Knights are averaging 41.6 points and 411.7 yards per game. They are led by wide receivers and twins Jaron and Kennan Pula, who are both committed to Utah.

“They’ve been putting up a lot of points on the offense, so we got to do a good job on defense,” Browner said. “Their defense has been holding guys to not that much, either. They have a really, really good team.”

There are two things that could be in Gorman’s favor. Browner said there are some things the team has in its “back pocket” that it didn’t showcase against Kahuku, and on defense, the Gaels have rotated in a lot of players to build their depth.

“We played a ton of guys in that last game and still were able to hold a shutout and played against all (Kahuku’s starters),” Browner said. “It’s a deep group of guys that can play, so that’s a plus that many guys that can all go play and do what they have to do at a high level. We just have to make sure that we got everything else set up for them.”

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