Video: Soni Ofahengaue's highlights vs. vs Bishop Gorman
SOUTH JORDAN – Battling the nation's No. 1 high school football team is a rare treat for any Utah team. It became an even more special occasion for
Bingham (South Jordan), since the Miners got to do it in their home stadium.
Bingham hosted Bishop Gorman last weekend in the second half of a home-and-home series that began in 2014 in Las Vegas. The result did not favor the Miners, as the Gaels put the clamps on Bingham's offense in the first half – scoring 17 unanswered points before halftime – and walked away with a 38-20 victory.
Still, the fact that Bingham could get a national high school football powerhouse to even travel to Utah speaks volumes to the reputation the Miners have built for themselves on a national level.
"They're definitely one of the toughest programs in the country," Bishop Gorman coach Kenny Sanchez said. "(Bingham) didn't quit until the very end. We had to tell our kids, 'These kids are not going to stop fighting.' That's what they do. They fight all the way through."
Utah high school football teams like Bingham are earning a chance to be in the national spotlight because an increasing number are going outside the state to seek out high-profile opponents to fill the non-region portions of their schedules.
Utah teams will have played 32 out-of-state opponents by the end of the 2015 season. Only 14 football-playing schools from the Beehive State have not played against a team from outside of Utah.
East (Salt Lake City) was the only non-independent team to schedule more than one out-of-state opponent. The Leopards faced Centennial (Corona, Calif.) earlier this month, falling 49-13 to the nationally ranked Huskies. East also hosts Valor Christian (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) on Sept. 19 after playing the Eagles in Colorado last season.
East trekked to California but lost to nationally ranked Centennial.
Photo by Kevin Hansen
Some of these games are with teams in close geographic proximity from bordering states. Many contests, however, are designed to pit top teams from Utah against top teams from other parts of the nation.
Getting a chance to measure up against elite high school football teams outside of Utah has had a profound effect on teams like Bingham.
"The best part about that is we were able to see ourselves as valid competitors on a national level," Miners coach John Lambourne said. "Other people started to see us that way throughout the country."
Building a national brand has been a step-by-step process for Bingham. The Miners got their first taste of facing a high school power from outside their borders when they met Kahuku (Hawaii) in Cedar City during the 2007 season. Since that time, Bingham has played a series of high-profile opponents ranging from Trinity (Euless, Texas) to Valor Christian each season.
Many other schools have followed the same template.
Jordan (Sandy) put itself on the national map in 2008 when the Beetdiggers upset Washington (Massillon, Ohio) on the road. Since that time, Jordan has continued to schedule out-of-state football powers. This season, the Beetdiggers are set to conclude a home-and-home series with Cherry Creek (Greenwood Village, Colo.) on Sept. 18.
Simply playing in these types of games is not enough these days for Utah teams. The next step is to rack up consistent wins and be the sort of program that teams from other states dream about scheduling.
"Competition is never a bad thing," Lambourne said. "We've got some good, competitive teams in this state and a lot of our teams can compete with these guys too. But to go and beat them is a whole other thing. We haven't quite done that in our last three tries. So we'll go back to the drawing board, but it will no longer be: 'Hey we were competitive.' Now the mindset is: 'We think we can win, but we've got to do things to help us to win.'"
John Coon covers Utah high school sports for MaxPreps. You can contact him at john_coon@hotmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @johncoonsports
