Mater Dei’s football team beat Centennial last week and has another big game Friday night against Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas at Santa Ana Stadium.
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Bishop Gorman (3-1) is No. 8 in the national rankings by MaxPreps, which has Mater Dei (4-0) ranked No. 13.
Mater Dei coach Raul Lara sat down for a quick chat Tuesday to discuss the game, his team and the outlook for this season.
Here is what he had to say:
Will Mater Dei continue to use three quarterbacks — junior Russell Sekona, freshman Paytyn Guess and senior Cameron Pooley? “You’re not going to see too much difference there, is all I can say. The neat thing to me is how all three of them support each other. No bickering, nothing like that.”
So far, what has been Mater Dei’s best unit? “The linebackers. We’re loaded there with DJ Clanton, Michael Davis and Ezekiel Su’a and all of the guys we have there.”
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What does he like best about this Monarchs team? “The team brotherhood is pretty strong. We had guys who left us, and that’s fine because maybe they don’t want what we have here.”
His thoughts on talk that Mater Dei football, which went 8-3 last year, is slipping? “They only see the wins and losses but they don’t see the development of these kids. It’s about building these young men so that when they leave they’re going to be great members of their community and they’re going to be great husbands and great fathers.”
What are the challenges of playing Bishop Gorman on Friday? “Gorman is a lot like us. They have a great defense with a bunch of guys flying around making tackles.”
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