Gorman scores on every possession, routs Basic

It almost felt like a mistake when Bishop Gorman players were finally tackled on offense Friday.

Because on the Gaels’ first three offensive plays, it was only the end zone that stopped them.

Gorman did whatever it wanted in Friday night’s home Class 4A Desert Region quarterfinal against Basic, cruising to a 70-7 victory.

Gorman (8-3) will host Foothill (10-1) in a region semifinal on Nov. 16.

Junior quarterback Micah Bowens played essentially perfect football, completing 10 of 10 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for 16 yards and a score on five carries.

“That’s pretty good, huh? No, I guess that’s perfect,” Bishop Gorman head coach Kenny Sanchez said of his quarterback’s play. “That’ll work. We’ll take that.”

Rome Odunze caught five passes for a staggering 238 yards and two touchdowns. Sanchez believed the 238 receiving yards is a school record. Odunze took a screen 91 yards for a touchdown on the Gaels’ first play from scrimmage and caught a pass and raced 78 yards on their third play from scrimmage to put Gorman up 21-0.

“This team, they want to build their own legacy, and that’s kind of what their goal is right now,” Sanchez said. “They’re playing as a good of football as I’ve seen us play in awhile. … That was impressive what they did.”

Bowens’ 1-yard touchdown run with 3 minutes, 4 seconds left in the first half gave the Gaels a 42-7 lead, enacting the running-clock mercy rule.

The lone bright spot for Basic (4-6) came at the 5:38 mark in the first quarter when Dorian McAllister broke free for a 77-yard touchdown run.

“That was a great run by Dorian, great blocking by the line,” Basic head coach Jeff Cahill said. “We just made a few mistakes in the beginning. We dropped a couple passes, missed a couple tackles. And against a team like that, it’s death. They rolled it up quick on us.”

McAllister finished with 89 yards and the score on six carries. He also hauled in two passes for 35 yards, accounting for 124 of Basic’s 218 yards of offense. Gorman finished with 410 yards and averaged more than 17 yards per play as every offensive possession ended with a touchdown.