Sophomore leads 5A girls soccer in scoring for undefeated No. 1 Bishop Gorman

Bishop Gorman girls soccer coach Doug Borgel said sophomore forward Aleah Warner is disappointed after a game when she doesn’t score a goal.

That hasn’t happened too often this season.

Warner enters Tuesday leading the Class 5A in scoring with 19 goals as the girls soccer season approaches its midway point, which is tied for the fourth most in the state.

“I feel way more confident than last year because I have people supporting me,” said Warner who scored nine goals as a freshman last year. “I wouldn’t be able to score this many goals without my teammates.”

Warner’s stellar play as Gorman ranked as the No. 1 girls soccer team in the Review-Journal’s Southern Nevada rankings and undefeated at 13-0. The Gaels (13-0, 5-0 5A Southern League) enter Tuesday tied for first place with Arbor View (10-0-1, 5-0).

“(Warner’s) growth as a player has been fun to watch,” Borgel said. “She is really hard on herself and I think most great players are. Last year as a freshman, she was great and I think she matured a bit this year and brought new things to her game and it’s going to be fun to watch her the next couple years too just to see how great she can really be.”

‘She has great drive’

Warner has recorded a hat trick three times this season. But one of the highlights of her season came Sept. 17 when she scored two goals and had an assist in the Gaels’ 4-1 road win over previously unbeaten Faith Lutheran (8-1-1, 4-1), the two-time defending 5A state champion.

“She leads by example,” Borgel said. “She’s a very quiet kid, very humble. Her sister played here and was the same way, really humble family, but super competitive and she has great drive. She doesn’t want to come out of games ever, wants to always be in there.

“She’s unselfish at times but she has a great nose for the goal and has scored some fantastic goals for us.”

During her freshman year last season, Gorman went 11-8-3 and was knocked out of the 5A state playoffs in the quarterfinals. Warner said this year’s Gorman team has more chemistry than last year’s team and that’s played a role in the Gaels’ dominance.

She added that the team’s goal of winning a state championship is a motivating factor as Gorman looks to try and win its first girls soccer title since 2018.

“It’s really (a) big (motivating factor) because we haven’t won in a really long time,” Warner said. “We want to come in with a new generation and win all these games and make it past the first round and possibly lead to first place.”

A look at 5A girls soccer

Gorman gets another test Wednesday when it hosts Coronado at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, and then plays Arbor View and Centennial the following week. Coronado (5-2-3, 1-2-2) has reached the state title game in five of the last six seasons and has won the title twice.

Everything is shaping up for Gorman, Arbor View, Faith Lutheran, Centennial (8-2-1, 2-2-1) and Coronado to battle for the 5A state title. 5A is a Southern-only classification with eight teams. The top six teams in the standings qualify for the state tournament, which begins Oct. 28 with the top two teams getting byes to the state semifinals on Nov. 4.

“I still think Faith Lutheran is the class of the league when they have all their players,” said Borgel who added that Gorman and Faith Lutheran were not at full strength last week with both teams missing players because of commitments to their club teams.

“There’s five of us that are really, really good and any of those five on any given day can beat the other ones. It’ll be important to get one of those top two seeds and get a bye in the first round and control your destiny a little bit.”

Borgel has coached Gorman since 2009 and won three state titles. The coach said the next three games will be an important point of the season to see where the Gaels are at.

“Our goal is to win every game moving forward and if we’re able to do that, this could be one of the best teams I’ve ever had,” Borgel said. “I don’t know (if they are) yet, but they’re trending that way, so we’re looking forward to it.”