When the four-time defending state champion Saint Louis Crusaders football team flies into Las Vegas on Wednesday, all eyes will be on the prize of defeating Nevada powerhouse Bishop Gorman on Friday.
It will be the first official game any high school team from Hawaii has played since the state championship tripleheader at Aloha Stadium in November 2019.
The pandemic has gotten in the way ever since.
“We really are very excited for the opportunity to play,” Saint Louis head coach Ron Lee said after Tuesday’s practice on campus. “We’ve got a lot of young guys who haven’t really played (a varsity game). They’re pretty much all up from the JV and intermediate teams.”
This will be Ron Lee’s debut as the Crusaders’ coach after taking over for brother Cal Lee, the winningest coach in Hawaii high school football history, in February 2020. Cal is still in the fold, as Ron’s defensive coordinator.
The task this week will be very difficult, especially since it’s a season opener 3,000 miles away from home. The host Gaels are ranked No. 12 in the nation (Saint Louis is No. 30) by MaxPreps and are considered the top team in Nevada with a rich winning history.
“We’re really looking forward to this,” Lee added.
A.J. Bianco, the starting quarterback will be taking his first varsity snaps.
A.J. Bianco makes his first start Friday in Nevada.
(Image credit: Twitter.com).
“A.J. has looked really good in practice and we’ve been going hard (defense vs. offense) against each other,” Lee said. “I’m confident he’ll do OK. Overall, we have a lot of question marks, but I think we’ll do OK. We know Gorman is solid with lots of talent, speed and many athletes.”
Bianco was the only Saint Louis player mentioned in a MaxPreps video preview of the matchup of nationally known schools.
That MaxPreps video is below.
Some, but not all, of Saint Louis’ expected impact players aside from Bianco are running back Jaysen DeLaura, receivers Devin Tauaefa, slotback Trech Kekauna, center Ethan Spencer (a University of Hawaii commit), offensive linemen Jonah Savaiinaea (an Arizona commit) and Laakea Kapoi (a San Diego State commit) and Iapani Laloulu (Farrington transfer who has offers from Arizona, Florida, Oregon and Tennessee), linebacker Iona Purcell and defensive lineman Julian Savaiinaea.
“We have a pretty good offensive line,” Lee said. “We’ll see how they show up when the lights go on. We lost all four receivers from 2019, but we have some tall, good receivers, and we think the linebacker position is one of our strengths and we have young but active defensive linemen.”
Bishop Gorman’s defense is a known strength.
“This is just going to be an incredible matchup,” said Steve Montoya of MaxPreps on the preview video. “Bishop Gorman is absolutely loaded on defense. They’ve got two really good cornerbacks. Zion Branch, he’s the No. 1 cornerback in the state of Nevada. USC commit Fabian Ross is another good one. Then you’ve got this kid, Cyrus Moss, 6-foot-6 linebacker, edge rusher. He can do it all. He’s got 29 offers right now. We’ll see if A.J. Bianco with a great returning offensive line can put up points. This is going to be a fun one in the state of Nevada.”
Saint Louis is also No. 1 in ScoringLive.com’s power rankings.
In 2019, nationally ranked No. 12 Saint Louis defeated No. 13 Bishop Gorman 31-19 at Aloha Stadium. The two teams will meet again in Hawaii in 2022. Click here to watch HawaiiPrepWorld.com’s video highlights of that game.
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