LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Four high school football state finals were played at Allegiant Stadium on Tuesday in classes 1A, 3A, 4A and 5A-I.
Three of the four winning teams — SLAM! Nevada, Mojave, and Bishop Gorman — are from Southern Nevada. While Gorman is no stranger to state titles, SLAM! and Mojave took home their programs' very first state championship.
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I was there to capture highlights, celebrations, and reactions from the winning teams.
Mojave beat their North Las Vegas counterpart Canyon Springs 30-6 after taking a 14-0 lead into halftime. The Rattlers won it all for the first time since the school opened in 1996.
Hawaiian Vegas transplants head coach Wes Pacheco and assistant head coach Spike Rossi have completed quite the turnaround, going from winning a single game in 2019 to winning 12 straight this season after losing their season opener to a Hawaii team. Mojave went undefeated against Nevada teams this year.
“We finally did it," Pacheco said after the game. "It was kind of like that flashback moment of all the trials and tribulations. I’m at the school from five in the morning to eight at night all for these guys, all for the love of the game, but more importantly love of our players. So to see them get this end result, that’s the greatest gift of all.”
“We bought into this program a lot," Mojave safety D'Terrion Bowman said. "It’s a dream come true. Like my coach said, high motor everything. We always doing it, we’re going to keep doing it. I love this team.”
In class 3A, SLAM! Nevada stormed back from down 10 to score 14 unanswered points and upset the two-time defending champs Truckee 34-30. The Bulls snapped the Wolverines' 34-game win streak in the process.
SLAM!, a charter school program founded by rapper Pitbull and an acronym that stands for Sports Leadership and Management, has three schools — two in Florida and one in Southern Nevada. The Henderson campus opened in 2016 and eight years later the Bulls are state champs.
"When we started winning games a couple years ago they were like okay, I can see the fruits of our labor now," said SLAM! Nevada head coach Mike Cofer, a two-time Super Bowl champion and former kicker with the San Francisco 49ers. "These are some hard-nosed kids because we are not easy to play for. It takes so many people to make this happen, of having a football program at a school that doesn’t have everything it needs to really have one.”
“There’s a lot of emotions," SLAM! quarterback Alaijah Young said. "We just had to stay calm. We came into the game thinking ‘We got nothing to lose. Nothing at all.’ That’s going to be forever. This stadium, everything. They haven’t lost a game in like three years. That felt awesome.”
Bishop Gorman rolled Arbor View 69-7 to capture their fourth straight state title. Leading 48-0 at halftime and shutting out the Aggies until the final minute of a running clock, Gorman has now won 15 of the last 17 state championships.
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“To go out here and be able to compete in Raiders Stadium with my friends, it’s just a blessing," quarterback Maika Eugenio said. "From winning national championships, winning games, state championships, everything’s the same.”
Pahranagat Valley took home the 1A state title earlier in the day and it was far from their first, the program earning their 24th all-time state championship.
Earlier in the week, Bishop Manogue beat Faith Lutheran in 5A-II while Pershing County won it all in 2A.
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