High school football: Mater Dei replaces lost game with contest vs. Liberty at Polynesian Football Classic

After losing two preseason games, Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) replaced one Tuesday with a Sept. 10 trip to the Polynesian Football Classic in Las Vegas against Liberty (Henderson, Nev.). The Monarchs, the No. 1 team in the MaxPreps Top 25 high school football rankings, face the 2019 4A Nevada champion as part of a three-game slate culminating with No. 12 Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) vs. Lone Peak (Highland, Utah).

The Monarchs still open their season with an Aug. 27 trip to No. 14 Duncanville (Texas), the first time since 2015 that a California school has played in the Lone Star State.

Bruce Rollinson's squad saw its season opener against Corona Centennial fall through when quarantine protocols forced the Huskies to cancel as they wouldn't have the CIF-mandated 10 practices prior to Friday. Ironically, the Monarchs are in a three-way scrimmage with Corona Centennial and Damien on Friday.

On the heels of losing the game vs. the Huskies, Hawaii announced it was pausing its season for a month to get athletes vaccinated, forcing the cancellation of Mater Dei's Sept. 11 game vs. Mililani (Hawaii).

The Patriots didn't play in 2020, but finished 2019 with a 50-7 thumping of Centennial in the 4A finals. Liberty went 10-5 on the season, which included a thrilling 30-24 overtime playoff win over Bishop Gorman that snapped the Gaels' 10 season-title streak. Quarterback Jayden Maiava, a UNLV commit, leads Liberty along with four-star wide receiver Germie Bernard, a Washington commit, and Texas commit Anthony Jones.

The Polynesian Football Classic schedule also includes Desert Pines (Las Vegas) hosting Orem (Utah) at 4 p.m. Sept. 10. All three games are at Bishop Gorman High School. The Mater Dei-Liberty game is at 7:30 p.m.

More information on the Polynesian Football Classic can be found here.