First-place matchups abound on loaded Week 9 football slate

If next week’s high school football schedule in Southern Nevada were a fight card or the lineup of a music festival, it would easily be deemed the event of the year.

Two weeks remain in the regular season, and many games next week will have a playoff-like feel with league titles on the line. Highlighting Friday’s slate of games will be matchups for first place in the 5A Division II and III Southern Leagues and 4A Desert and Mountain Leagues.

Faith Lutheran (5-2, 4-0 5A Division II Southern League) hosts Foothill (7-1, 4-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, and Palo Verde (3-3, 3-0 5A Division III Southern League) plays at Legacy (3-4, 3-0) at 6 p.m. with the league title up for grabs.

The Falcons pulled away for a 34-21 home win over Henderson rival Green Valley on Friday, and the Crusaders rolled to a 38-6 win at Durango.

Crusaders coach Mike Sanford said that coming off a bye last week, he was looking for his team to put together a complete game and to be more efficient in the passing game. Quarterbacks Garyt Odom and Alex Rogers combined for three touchdown passes Friday.

While Foothill made plays in all three phases to put away Green Valley, Falcons coach Vernon Brown said they will need to clean up their mistakes and cut down on penalties against Faith Lutheran to secure the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in the region playoffs.

“We’ve got to improve, cut down on the penalties and silly mistakes on defense,” Brown said Friday. “… You can’t do that against Faith Lutheran. And then we’ve got Basic, our rival after that. We still got our work cut out for us.”

Basic (5-2, 3-1) is behind Foothill and Faith Lutheran in the standings. The Wolves had a 17-point lead over Faith Lutheran before the Crusaders rallied for a 24-23 overtime win on Sept. 14. Basic and Foothill play Oct. 20.

Palo Verde and Legacy have tested themselves against the top teams in 5A Division I and II in preparation for a shot at the league title and a deep playoff run. The Panthers rolled past Spring Valley 42-14 on Friday, and Legacy fell to Division I opponent Arbor View 42-18.

Friday will be the toughest league test for the Panthers and Longhorns, who have outscored league opponents 131-21 and 124-16, respectively, this season.

Aside from postseason implications, where teams will play next season will be determined in these final two weeks. The top two teams in the 5A Division II and III regular-season standings, regardless of postseason performance, will be promoted to 5A Division I and II, respectively, next year.

Playoff positioning in 5A Division I will be impacted this week, too, as four of the state’s top teams will face one another when Gorman plays at Desert Pines and Arbor View hosts Liberty.

Gorman, which has a stranglehold on 5A Division I, plays at Desert Pines at 6 p.m. Friday. The Gaels had just one first-half possession Friday at Shadow Ridge and led 7-3 at halftime before rolling to a 48-17 win. Desert Pines crushed Coronado on Thursday 48-7, coming back after having to forfeit its game against Liberty as punishment for a postgame bench-clearing incident with Arbor View on Sept. 22.

The Jaguars stopped Gorman’s six-game shutout streak against local teams in last year’s 5A Southern Region semifinals.

The No. 2 seed in the 5A Division I playoffs will be determined when Arbor View hosts Liberty on Friday. Liberty defeated Arbor View 24-9 in last year’s 5A Southern Region semifinals and twice in 2021. Liberty blanked Silverado 35-0 on Friday.

“This is a game we’ve been looking for,” Arbor View coach Matt Gerber said Friday. “It’s the mountain we’re trying to climb. We’ve been getting up that mountain, but we haven’t gotten to the top. So we’re hoping we get a good effort next week. The effort we gave (in the win at Legacy on Friday) probably won’t get it done.”

In 4A, Centennial (6-1, 4-0) plays at Mojave (4-2, 4-0) at 6 p.m. with first place in the Desert League on the line, and Canyon Springs (6-0, 4-0) hosts Sunrise Mountain (5-1, 4-0) for first place in the Mountain League at 6 p.m. Each 4A league winner will be promoted to 5A Division III next year.

SLAM Academy (6-1, 5-0 3A Southern League) rolled Virgin Valley 55-36 on Friday, continuing its run toward a league title while breaking up a three-way tie in second place between the Bulldogs, Moapa Valley and Boulder City. SLAM Academy defeated Moapa Valley 34-7 on Sept. 14 and hosts Boulder City at 6 p.m. Friday.

In 2A, Lake Mead Academy is running away in the Southern League. The Eagles (5-1, 2-0) routed White Pine 70-0 on Friday and defeated last year’s state-runner-up Lincoln County 58-6 on Sept. 29.

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