After Mater Dei defeated St. John Bosco in last year’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 football championship game, Mater Dei coach Frank McManus said, “We’re going to wrap them up in the middle of Bristol and take them on!”

He was referring to Las Vegas’ Bishop Gorman, which finished last season ranked No. 1 in the nation by MaxPreps and several other teams.

Mater Dei and Bishop Gorman are playing each other this week, not on the street outside the Mater Dei campus, but a few blocks away.

They play Friday at 7 p.m. at Santa Ana Stadium. The teams met in 2022, when Mater Dei defeated the Gaels 24-21 in Las Vegas. The Monarchs scored 10 points in the fourth quarter for a comeback victory.

Mater Dei, now coached by former Long Beach Poly coach Raul Lara, is ranked No. 1 nationally by MaxPreps. The Monarchs won CIF-SS and CIF State championships last season.

Bishop Gorman is No. 2 in the Maxpreps rankings. The Gaels won a Nevada state championship last season and are riding a 27-game winning streak into this week.

Both teams are coming off a bye week. Together, the teams have 21 players committed to NCAA Division I football schools.

Mater Dei opened the season with a 42-25 win over Centennial of Corona, which entered the season as a national Top 10 team. Centennial was without standout quarterback Husan Longstreet.

Bishop Gorman opened with a 33-7 home win over Kahuku of Hawaii and then won 29-21 at St. Thomas Aquinas of Florida, the No. 8 team in the Maxpreps rankings.

The Monarchs and Gaels have everything you’d expect from the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 teams: massive high school linemen, speed and talent at the positions, and championship-ringed coaches and college-caliber coaching staffs.

Bishop Gorman averages 236 yards per game passing and 224 yards per game rushing. That’s a good balance, and certainly a challenge for the Mater Dei defense.

Another challenge Gorman presents is the defense’s ability to attack. Edge rusher Prince Williams (6-3, 255) had 10 sacks in 11 games last year as a sophomore and has one sack and seven quarterback hurries in two games this year.

The prediction is that Mater Dei will achieve a narrow victory.

Why? Because you asked…

Mater Dei quarterback Dash Beirely. In the Centennial game, he threw a few open receivers over on deep balls. That’s OK — he could have been over-amped given the situation, which was his first game for Mater Dei after transferring from Chaparral from Temecula and a home game against a nationally ranked opponent. He’ll be much calmer and more accurate against Bishop Gorman.

Mater Dei receiver Chris Henry Jr. is 6-foot-3 and quick. That makes him virtually unstoppable, though the Gaels could have a good matchup for Henry if they put 6-foot-1 sophomore cornerback Hayden Stepp on him with some assistance from 6-foot-1 junior safety Jett Washington, a cousin of Kobe Bryant. Henry had two receptions for eight yards against Centennial; expect to see him more involved in the offense on Friday.

Mater Dei tight end Mark Bowman. He had a team-high three catches for 43 yards and a touchdown against Centennial. Bowman looks and plays like the kind of tight end that seems to exist every year at San Clemente High. He has the right size for the position at 6-4 and 220, he finds the open space on the field and he has great hands. Give him a half dozen catches to open things up for wideouts Henry, Marcus Harris, Gavin Honore and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt.

Mater Dei linebacker Nasir Wyatt. He’s going to have some rewarding moments in the Bishop Gorman backfield, and he’ll be important in keeping Gaels quarterback Melvin Spicer from escaping for big winning runs. Move Wyatt around as much as possible to make the Gaels offense unstable.

If all these things happen, it is a Mater Dei victory.

Of course, this is a tough opponent for the Monarchs. Bishop Gorman is capable of making things happen as he pleases. And the Gaels might be a little more excited than usual if they interpret McManus’ challenge as a suggestion that Bishop Gorman was avoiding the Monarchs.

We’ll see.