To begin, we will rank the five best QBs to come out of the Western region.
Capping off USA TODAY High School Sports’ look at some of the greatest quarterbacks in high school football history, we’re ranking the five best QBs to come out of the Western region of the United States.
These QBs played for schools from the following states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. All high school stats are courtesy of Max Preps.
An arguable note: seven-time Super Bowl champion and the sport’s all-time greatest competitor Tom Brady played for Junipero Serra (Calif.) but is excluded because he didn’t truly become Tom Brady until he was already in the NFL – and these rankings are all about how the players performed in high school.
Winning football games is an exceedingly complicated business. And yet, it still boils down to scoring more points than the other guy.
While defense and special teams will always have their place, there’s nothing quite as exciting as running up the score. Today, let’s celebrate the wonder of offense by counting down the top 22 scoring high school football teams around the country in the 2022 season according to stats from Maxpreps.
St. John Bosco was named the high school football National Champion, but three other teams could make a case that they deserve that No. 1 spot for the 2022 season.
High school football doesn’t have the luxury of college and the NFL in which the best teams go head-to-head in a defined championship game, so it falls on the media to fulfill the excruciating task of deciding which team is the best in the nation.
On occasion, it’s fairly straightforward. For example, when Mater Dei went 15-0 in 2017 with an offense led by JT Daniels and Amon-Ra St. Brown, all seven media outlets voted for the Monarchs; similarly, in 2021, when they went 12-0.
But most years, it’s a near-impossible task. Who can say with certainty that one elite team full of Division I talent would beat another elite team full of Division I talent? Who can even say with certainty that a rematch wouldn’t flip the script in a game between those teams?
This year, four teams had a case for the No. 1 spot in the country. USA TODAY High School Sports selected St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.), as did the other six outlets that voted, but history should not show that this decision was made lightly.
More often than not, that question seeps into the conversation when looking over the country’s top high school football programs. Where one team’s dominance might be impressive, enough to land them in the upper echelon of nationally ranked teams, but the reality of the high school football schedule leaves much of the placement to hypotheticals.
That’s to say, the No. 5 team is excellent, maybe as great as the No. 4 team… but they don’t play, so — what?
Time after time, the collection of answers is nothing more than subjective zigzagging, a typical progression based on the state, the recruits, what “they” think, and ultimately, a cascade of wishful thinking—What if Team A did play Team B?
The 2022 version of that thought process has a handful of examples, but also introduces one of the more intriguing outliers as the season nears an end: No. 3 Bishop Gorman (Nev.) vs. No. 6 Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.).
Gorman has bulldozed teams all season. The Gaels have scored over 800 points while allowing less than 80. That’s a wild stat. In any state. In any division. With or without a roster that features players with four or five stars attached to their names.
The team’s lone loss this year? An epic battle against Mater Dei (Calif.), the perennial power that was the No. 1 team in the USA TODAY Sports Super 25 at the time. Even though it was only late August, the game ended as one of the best of 2022, with the Monarchs overcoming a 7-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win on a game-ending field goal, 24-21.
The outcome set the tone for much of the early action. And until St. John Bosco (Calif.) won its revenge game against Mater Dei at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Nov. 25, it set the order for the top teams in the country.
Since then, the “wishful thinking” has been simple—it would be incredible to see St. John Bosco line up against Bishop Gorman.
That’s not happening.
But not all is lost.
Enter the Lions out of the Sunshine State…
Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.) has been equally impressive, stingy on defense and powerful on offense. The Lions have navigated the tough Florida high school football calendar with a perfect 13-0 record that included wins over Northwestern (Fla.), Cardinal Newman (Fla.), No. 10 American Heritage (Fla.), plus the 1M state title. They also defeated St. John’s (D.C.).
Tops in the land, worthy of a top 3 or better, ahead of Gorman? In most circumstances, we’d look at such juggernauts with geographical perplexity, pointing to the different corners of the country as we rehash the aforementioned back-and-forth.
Saturday’s GEICO State Champions Bowl Series will help resolve some of that typical gray area. To some degree, so will the American Heritage-Central (Fla.) and the Duncanville-North Shore (Texas) outcomes.
And while the final scoreboard might not create a dynamic shift in the year-end USA TODAY Super 25, it’s not to say that it won’t either.
There are some spooky-good high school football teams on our Super 25 power rankings list. As the 2022 season transitions towards the playoffs, several schools have faced lesser competition from their own states, with predictable results.
This past week, 13 schools on our Super 25 list posted shutout victories over their opponents. Not every team was able to come away unscathed, though. Chandler (Ariz.) suffered their first loss of the season and North Shore (Texas) narrowly avoided theirs. Here are the full results for last week’s games.
Who are the next opponents for the nation’s top high school football teams?
The regular season is winding down for high school football teams across the country. That means there are few chances left for the field to catch Mater Dei, which has been on top of our Super 25 power rankings the entire season. The Monarchs notched another blowout win this past week, defeating Santa Margarita by a score of 52-7.
The best shot at unseating them belongs to second-ranked St. Frances Academy, a Baltimore team that has been idle for several weeks. However, the Panthers are back in action on Friday night. Here’s who they and the rest of the top 25 high school football teams around the country will be facing.
Here are the opponents for each of the top 25 teams around the country this week.
Three new teams joined our Super 25 rankings list this week. Looking ahead, there may be more shakeups as several squads will be facing as-yet-unbeaten challengers on Friday night.
Here are the opponents for each of the top 25 teams around the country this week.
This past week, several of the usual elite schools came away with dominant victories. Top-ranked Mater Dei (Calif.) remains undefeated on the season, while Bishop Gorman (Nev.), St. John Bosco (Calif.) and Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.) all had shutout wins. However, a couple of other schools on our list took a tumble.
Specifically, Archbishop Moeller (Ohio) suffered a loss to St. Edwards (Ohio), getting shut out 6-0 in their first loss of the season. Meanwhile, Mill Creek (Ga.) got beaten by highly-ranked Buford (Ga.).
Super 25 football schedule: How to watch the top HS teams this week
Mater Dei (Calif.) took down St. John Bosco (Calif.) last week in battle between the two best high school football teams in the country. The Monarchs remain at the top of our Super-25 rankings, but the rest of the picture at the top has been shaken up.
Here is who the top teams will be playing this week, including the top 25 showdown in Georgia between Buford and Mill Creek.
Bishop Gorman has reeled off six straight convincing wins, including four shutouts.
Bishop Gorman (Nev.) lost their second game of the season against top-ranked Mater Dei (Calif.). While they gave the reigning national champions and the consensus best high school football team in the country a run for their money, they lost by a score of 24-21 after taking a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
However, the Gaels have responded to that loss with a streak of dominant victories.
Since that blown lead against the Monarchs, Bishop Gorman has reeled off six straight convincing wins, including four shutouts. Here is a look at what they’ve done in the weeks since:
Friday 9/2 – defeated St. Louis (Hawaii) 56-14
Friday 9/9 – defeated Hamilton (Ariz.) 45-0
Friday 9/16 – defeated Brookwood (Ga.) 70-10
Friday 9/23 – defeated Arbor View (Nev.) 63-0
Friday 9/30 – defeated Canyon Springs (Nev.) 58-0
Friday 10/7 – defeated Legacy (Nev.) 69-0
Altogether, they have outscored these six opponents 361-24.
Junior QB Michael Alejado threw 24 touchdowns and no interceptions in that stretch. His QB rating for the season is up to 157.5.
They’re also getting pressure on their opponents. On the other side of the ball, Senior linebackers Palaie Faoa and Quincy Davis have combined for 17 sacks.
Next up on the schedule is an away game at Palo Verde (Nev.).