Saint Louis came away with a 31-19 win over Bishop Gorman the last time the teams met, on Aug. 30, 2019 at Aloha Stadium. The two teams will face-off once again Friday, this time at the Gaels' Fertitta Field in Las Vegas. CJ Caraang | SL

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Fri, Aug 20, 2021 @ Bishop Gorman [ 4:00 pm ]

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Saint Louis

21

Bishop Gorman

42

Final	1	2	3	4	T
Saint Louis (6-4-0)	7	7	0	7	21
Bishop Gorman (1-0-0)	7	21	7	7	42

• Pass
• Rush
• Rec

Camron Barfield 0 yd 5 TD

Keola Apduhan 0 yd 1 TD

It has been quite some time, to say the least, since a team from Hawaii has played a prep football game.

In fact, come Friday — when reigning four-time Open Division state champion Saint Louis takes on host Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas — it will mark 608 days from the last instance.

That instance also happened to include the Crusaders, who were three weeks removed from their 45-6 win over Kahuku in the state final, and also took place in Sin City, when Saint Louis saw its 38-game winning streak come to an end with a 35-19 loss to Florida 7A champion St. Thomas Aquinas on Dec. 21, 2019.

In a serendipitous twist, that game — which was aired live on national television on ESPNU — took place at Fertitta Field, home to the Gaels of Bishop Gorman.

"When we went up the last time, gosh, it was cold," Saint Louis coach Ron Lee recalled of the made-for-TV matchup. "Some of the kids got really sick that week; it was a tough week, but I don't think it's going to matter that much (that we played there before)."

Lee took a few minutes Tuesday afternoon — a few hours before the Crusaders were set to depart from Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on a red-eye flight for the ‘ninth island' — to discuss Friday's season opener against the No. 12 team in the MaxPreps Top 25 national rankings.

"We need to play good competition and they've got so much speed and all these four- and five-star guys, so it'll be a great test right now to see where we're at, because we haven't played, too, for a couple years now," said Lee, whose team is 30th in the same rankings.

However, the Gaels will have a chip on their shoulder after how the 2019 season played out for them. They went 11-2 that year, including a 31-19 loss at Aloha Stadium at the hands of Crusaders; their only other defeat came in the final game of the season, in the Desert Region championship game, against Liberty, and ended their streak of 10 straight state championships and 115 consecutive wins over in-state opponents.

"We're the only (Hawaii) team that is playing this week and that gives us a little — it's like a preseason game; we're going there to win, but it's just the fact that we get to play. When we come back we have a bye and then we play Punahou (on Sept. 3), so it's all good for us," Lee said, "And to play a team like Gorman is  really beneficial for us. Hopefully it's a good game and we get a lot out of it."

Lee noted that just a handful of players on his current team who played against St. Thomas Aquinas.

"These guys haven't played — most of them are from the JV and intermediate — and we didn't have a (2020) season, so that's the biggest question mark we have," he said. "There's a few guys that played in that game — not many — so it's a new experience, but what we're really looking for is how they play under the lights. (The Gaels) are very good and we're very young and inexperienced, so this will be a really good test for us."

Among the top players for Bishop Gorman is four-star linebacker Cyrus Moss, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound senior who is rated as the No. 2 prospect in the state of Nevada by Rivals and according to the website, has 28 Division I scholarship offers — nearly all of them from Power-Five programs. Another highly-touted player on the defensive side of the ball is four-star safety Zion Branch, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior with 43 scholarship offers.

It amounts to a tough task for Saint Louis first-year starter A.J. Bianco. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior, who has offers from Nebraska, Washington State and UH, enters the season as the clear-cut No. 1 on the Crusaders' quarterback depth chart.

Wide receiver Devon Tauaefa, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior, and slotback Trech Kekahuna, a 5-foot-9, 165-pound junior, are the lone returnees that bring varsity experience to the offensive skill positions, but Saint Louis can lean on a massive offensive line that features three Division-I commits in 6-foot-2, 275-pound center Ethan Spener (Hawaii), 6-foot-3, 330-pound guard Jonah Savaiinaea (Arizona) and 6-foot-4, 305-pound tackle Laakea Kapoi (San Diego State).

Safety Kona Moore, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound senior and UH commit, leads a defense that is almost entirely brand new. Cal Lee, the former head coach-turned-defensive coordinator of the team, is high on linebackers Iona Purcell, a 5-foot-11, 225-pound junior, and Tasi Tadio, a 5-foot-11, 220-pound senior.

Ron Lee said there are still several starting spots up for grabs and that he will use Friday's game to help evaluate those position battles.

"That's what we need to see, get our guys to play," he said. "Some of the guys that won't make the trip are starters on the o-line, so it just gives the other guys a chance to step up and it's going to make us better."

The Crusaders arrived in Las Vegas Wednesday morning. They will get in a practice at Fertitta Field the next day, followed by an alumni rally that evening.

"The last time we played up there we had so many people that came by — alumni and people from (Los Angeles) and Utah — and I think they're expecting the same thing again. I hear the tickets go on sale (Wednesday), but the tickets they gave us are already gone. There's a whole bunch of families that are going," said Lee, who said he took about 65 players on the trip.

"Everybody had to be vaccinated, so we couldn't take everybody, but I think that's enough guys. I wish we could have taken the whole team, but that wasn't possible," he explained.

Friday's showdown with the Gaels was supposed to be the third game on the schedule for Saint Louis, but with the Aug. 4th announcement of a pause by the state Department of Education until Sept. 24, it forced the start of the prep football season to be pushed back.

"It's been so up and down," Lee said. "We were really starting to jell as a team, and that was a couple weeks ago that we were supposed to play Campbell and then we got word that the (DOE) was pushing everything back and then we just went flat."

Lee said the players were initially distraught over the news — which came just two days before the start of the season — but have ramped things back up since then.

"The kids were really looking forward to getting the season started, so we kind of took a dip two, three weeks ago, but now that we're at the season and the Gorman game is gonna go through, the kids got excited again and now that we got an ILH season, I mean, I can see it in the practices that the kids are really having fun and working hard, but they know we've got a tough one coming up this week," he said.

"I'm excited to see how we perform," Lee added. "We've had some really good practices, but now it's time to get under the lights to see who steps up, but I think they're ready to go."

Kickoff between the Crusaders and Gaels is scheduled for 4 p.m. Hawaii time. The game will be streamed live on the NFHS network and can be viewed with a paid subscription.