Friday, September 6th, the MaxPreps most anticipated high school football game of the year took place at Santa Ana Bowl with the No. 1 Bishop Gorman taking the first loss of the 24-25 season against No. 2 Mater Dei with a final score of 31-15.

Every season, Mater Dei is Gorman’s biggest opponent for their national games. After playing Mater Dei four times throughout their national game history, the National Champion Bishop Gorman have been unsuccessful with taking down the California team. Mater Dei also snapped Gorman’s twenty-seven game winning streak in the same night.

The Gaels started off rocky against Mater Dei in the first quarter with a losing score of 14-0 but Maika Eugenio ‘26 and Anthony Hickman ‘25 were able to find the end-zone with less than a minute to halftime. Eugenio ‘26 said that going back to the locker room we had to keep the momentum there and pick up the speed and “get points on the board fast.”

Unfortunately, the Monarchs took away their momentum coming out in the second half with a three-and-out and a touchdown. However in the final minutes, Brandon Gaea ‘25 was able to secure a touchdown from Eugenio ‘26, “we just scored too late,” he stated.

After losing the biggest match of the year, Gorman will be working hard to take down Orange Lutheran in their next game on September 13th.