A cross-country trip to play one of the top teams in Florida on national television, after beating the No. 1 team in the country, could be seen as an opportunity for a letdown game for many high school football teams.

Bishop Gorman football coach Brent Browner is confident that won’t happen to the Gaels this week.

Gorman is entering its first week ranked No. 1 nationally by MaxPreps following a 38-28 home win over previously top-ranked St. John Bosco.

The Gaels (2-0) continue their challenging out-of-state schedule against Columbus (Miami, Florida) at 11 a.m. PT Saturday at St. Thomas Aquinas High School. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and is part of the Broward County National Football Showcase.

“It felt great playing the No. 1 team in the nation and being able to take them down and show the world what we’re about,” said Gorman senior defensive back Kamil Loud, a Cal commit. “But it’s a new week. Columbus is on the coach and that’s what we’re looking forward to next.”

Not every national ranking has Gorman at No. 1, which Browner is using as extra motivation.

“It’s good that everybody has us like at 15th in the nation or 20th (referring to the Massey Rating of Gorman at 15th nationally) or whatever. It’s good, it helps me out,” Browner said.

“Everybody thinks ‘letdown game,’ or we’re hearing all these things they are saying, but the kids chose to play these games. They want to play these games. They know they only have so many of these games. … Great win and all that stuff’s great. That’s over. Now, they’re excited for the next opportunity.”

‘Going to be a challenge’

Against St. John Bosco last week, Gorman jumped out to a 21-0 lead with junior Ace Amina as the Gaels’ starting quarterback. Amina threw for 212 yards and four touchdowns, which included a 54-yard pass to Corey Hinton in the fourth quarter that proved to be the game-winning score.

“I’m really proud of (Amina) because people were doubting him,” said junior four-star wide receiver Zyren Menor, who had four catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns against St. John Bosco. “I’m proud of him that he blocked that noise out and played his game and showed everyone what he can do.”

Columbus, ranked at No. 100 nationally by MaxPreps, defeated Southridge (Florida) 45-7 on Aug. 20. The Explorers have one of the top athletes in the nation in five-star A’mir Sears, a Miami commit who plays both wide receiver and cornerback. 247Sports has Sears rated as the 20th-overall class of 2027 prospect in the nation.

Along with an influx of transfers, Columbus’ speed will be a test against a stout Gorman defense that had 18 tackles for loss, eight sacks and two interceptions in the win over St. John Bosco.

“They’ve got a lot of guys that can fly around and do a lot of stuff,” Browner said. “So, just like any Florida game, it’s going to be a challenge. It’s going to be a dogfight.”

Florida connections

Gorman made the trip to Florida on Wednesday to get acclimated to the time change and weather conditions. After a two-hour flight delay on Wednesday, the Gaels got in a practice at midnight in Florida.

The Gaels are 4-0 against Florida teams under Browner (whose first season was in 2021), and the program’s last loss to a Florida team was in 2013 to Booker T. Washington 28-12 at home.

Temperatures for Saturday are expected to be in the mid-80s with humidity in the upper-70s and a chance for thunderstorms throughout the day. The last time Gorman played in Florida was in 2024, when the Gaels dealt with a lightning delay and rallied to beat St. Thomas Aquinas 29-21.

With the eventful offseason of the 30 CCSD football programs moving to independent status, Gorman was looking for games and Browner called Columbus defensive coordinator Jube Joseph, who previously coached at Miami Central (which played Gorman twice in 2021 and 2023), to help set up the game.

“There weren’t many opportunities to get games and to be able to call up another coach and in a heartbeat takes the game is amazing,” Browner said. “We weren’t supposed to go down there … (The event) had to do a lot of things internally for this to happen.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.

Up next

Who: Bishop Gorman vs. Columbus (Florida)

When: 11 a.m. Saturday

Where: St. Thomas Aquinas HS in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

TV: ESPN2

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