No. 2 Bishop Gorman outlasts No. 1 St. John Bosco after losing 21-point lead — PHOTOS

You can never count out the No. 1 high school football team in the country and Bishop Gorman learned that the hard way Friday night against St. John Bosco.

The Gaels, ranked No. 2 nationally by MaxPreps, saw their 21-0 halftime lead evaporate as the Braves made a comeback.

Fortunately for Gorman, it was a former Braves player that came through. Tied at 28-28 in the fourth quarter, Gaels quarterback Ace Amina found former Bosco running back Corey Hinton Jr. near midfield, and Hinton raced 54 yards for a touchdown.

It proved to be the game-winner as the Gaels outlasted No. 1 St. John Bosco 38-28 Friday night at Fertitta Field in front of a standing room-only, capacity crowd of more than 5,000 on Gorman’s campus.

“It feels amazing,” Bishop Gorman coach Brent Browner said. “It’s a heavyweight bout, man. We had them on the ropes and they battled back. I thought we did just enough and we needed to make the right plays to finish this thing off. The kids did a great job. The coaches did a great job.”

It was the third all-time meeting between Bishop Gorman (2-0) and St. John Bosco (0-1) and the first meeting since 2016. The Gaels had won the previous two matchups.

“Of course, you’d like to shut them out but it’s next to impossible,” Browner said. “They have that good of a quarterback, that good of a scheme, that good of a coach. We knew it was going to be a give and take. We just handled the storm early and they came out – they’re the No. 1 team for a reason.

“They were ready to go. We just needed to make the plays that we needed to make.”

The win boosts Gorman’s chances at a fifth mythical national title. The Gaels continue their grueling four-game out-of-state stretch with Columbus (Florida) on Aug. 29, followed by Lone Peak (Utah) and Mater Dei (California), both in September.

“I found some dudes that we didn’t know could play, that could play,” Browner said. “I found some guys that are probably going to get a chance to start now that didn’t start before. I found the heart and soul of a team that didn’t want to quit.

“It’d been really easy for those kids to quit. Momentum had shifted. They believed in what we called. They believed in the coaches. They executed and you can’t beat that.”

The Gaels led 21-0 at halftime while holding St. John Bosco to a net total of 35 yards of offense in the first half.

Amina started at quarterback for Gorman, after the team swapped possessions with Amina and Kansas commit and California transfer Chance Thomas against Losee last week. Amina threw two touchdown passes in the first half for the Gaels, including an 8-yard pass to Noah Cole on the game’s opening possession.

“We were doing good, we got stuck a little bit but we learned how to pick it up at the end of the game,” Amina said. “We knew it was going to be like this. We prepared for this whole summer, every day when it was hot, we worked our butts off for this.”

The biggest wave of momentum shifted on the ensuing St. John Bosco drive.

First, a high snap on first down sailed 17 yards down to the Braves’ 3-yard line. Two plays later, St. John Bosco quarterback Koa Malau’ulu was hit as he was ready to throw and the ball came out in the end zone. Gorman’s Caleb Lea’Ea, right as the ball was inches away from rolling out of the back of the end zone, fell on top of it and after a brief discussion, it was ruled a Gaels touchdown.

Gorman led 14-0 with 6:38 left in the first quarter and held that lead into the second quarter.

It wasn’t the prettiest first half for Gorman, as the Gaels committed a handful of penalties that negated big plays. That included a pass interference penalty that wiped an Amina touchdown pass off the board.

In the second half, St. John Bosco made its comeback. Malau’ulu threw a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter, one to Kuika Moaaii and another to DJ Tubbs on a leaping catch, to cut the deficit to 21-14.

Gorman went ahead 28-14 late in the third quarter on a 53-yard TD pass from Amina to Zyren Menor. But St. John Bosco didn’t go away as Maliq Allen broke off a 30-yard touchdown run as the third quarter expired.

While Gorman’s offense struggled to move the ball, Tubbs made an impact on special teams, taking a punt 50-plus yards in the fourth for a touchdown to tie the game at 28.

But Gorman’s defense stood tall after Hinton’s touchdown catch that came with 6:49 left in the game. Cal commit Kamil Loud came up with a key tackle for loss on fourth down with Gorman leading 35-28 and iced the game with an interception in the final seconds. Gaels kicker Maximillano Fuentes added a 49-yard field goal for the Gaels final score.

“The whole defense are dogs,” Amina said. “We came out this whole summer preparing for this one game.”

Amina threw for 212 yards and four touchdowns. Hinton finished with 84 receiving yards and Menor had 88 yards with two touchdown catches for Gorman.

“(Menor) is a great player. He’s one of the best receivers I’ve ever played with,” Amina said. “His speed is unmatched. The way he runs his routes, it’s crazy. That makes him a great player.”