Long lines. Face paint. Blue shirts. Football fans. The number one football team in the nation, according to the USA Today National High School Football Rankings, visited Bingham on September 4th, 2015 to play against our football team.
The final score: Bishop Gorman High School beat Bingham with a score of 38-20. Speaking of the loss Charlie Baggett said, “We missed several opportunities. And against a good team like Bishop Gorman you can’t do that. We needed to capitalize and couldn’t. No excuses though”. Based on last year’s game, the eighteen point gap should have been smaller, according to the USA Today National High School Football Rankings.
Last year Bingham was invited to Las Vegas to play Bishop Gorman at their home field, where the Bingham Miners lost in overtime. The final score was 23-20. Max Paulson, on the offensive line, said, “We played well, but in the end we didn’t get the job done”.
Tyler Topham, a wide receiver, broke his arm in the 4th quarter of this year’s game after landing on it oddly. The clocks stopped for several minutes as the medical team rushed to help him. His arm was put into an air cast, and as he was escorted off the field, the game began again.
The game was anticipated by many since even before the school year started, and not just by the players and the students. Football mom, Candice Neilson, said “I took this day off weeks ago. I got in line around 1:15 and I barely made it to the front. Some people got there before I did, the earliest [someone got in line] was 12:30”.
The lines stretched from the south entrance all the way to the main doors. When the gates opened at 5 o’clock, people started to enter, pushing and shoving. Many students hopped the fence, which eventually led to it falling down.