BONUS GAME PREVIEW
Long Beach Poly (12-0) vs. Lakewood (6-6)
Friday, 7 p.m. at Cerritos College
Outlook: The Jackrabbits appear to be playing on borrowed time.
They rallied for a 21-17 victory over Bishop Amat in the first round and held off Esperanza in a 17-10 victory in the quarterfinals. Now, here come the Lancers.
I know that Long Beach Poly defeated Lakewood, 32-15, in a regular-season meeting, but that was without Jerry Stone. (The Lancers had to forfeit four victories earlier this season.) Since Stone regained his eligibility, he and the Lancers have been unstoppable.
Stone rushed for 236 yards and two touchdowns against Servite in the first round and for 180 and three TDs against Mission Viejo last week. That should be enough to make the Jackrabbits nervous.
Long Beach Poly had troubles containing Esperanza’s Jared Moore, who rushed for 152 yards in last week’s game. What will Stone do?
Lakewood is 8-0 in games in which Stone has played. Do they make it nine?
Can Long Beach Poly establish anything that resembles a passing game?
Morgan Fennell completed seven of 16 passes against Bishop Amat and three of six against Esperanza.
MORE OF THE CALHOUN SIX:
- Tesoro vs. Orange Lutheran
- Tustin vs. Canyon
- Trabuco Hills vs. La Habra
- Corona del Mar vs. Mayfair
- Laguna Hills vs. Norwalk
- St. Margaret’s vs. Maranatha
Long Beach Poly 17-10 over Lakewood
Tesoro don’t look over your shoulder because Poly is coming.
Lakewood is hot and their confidence has to be sky high after beating two quality opponents. They are well coached, have a talented squad, and have come close at times to beating Poly over the last six years. They are currently, in fact, a very capable team that Poly has a lot of respect for–as they do all the opponents who they meet head-to-head on the playing field. However, your comment that the, “Jackrabbits appear to be playing on borrowed time,” does not adequately take into account the level of the competition they have faced not only the last two weeks, but over the entire season. They started the year by traveling to Florida and beating last year’s high school national leader in the polls. During the season they met and held off one of last year’s California state champions–a team in the North still in the hunt this year. Over the last two weeks they have beaten two very tough opponents in what many believe is the strongest grouping of high school teams in the nation–the Pac 5. Bishop Amat may have been an “at large team,” but that night they were one of the very finest teams I’ve ever seen Poly play. They came in having fumbled to their opponents only once in ten games, having a pass interception percentage lower than 3%, 1000+ yards for the season both running and passing, and with a game plan that took away much of Poly’s strong running attack for an extended length of time. They played an almost flawless game and when it was over no-one in the Poly stands who watched it would have felt cheated had they won–but they didn’t. Poly still found a way to win that game as they have every game since early last year. Turnovers will be important in this game, as in any high school or college game, as they create momentum. You can’t give the ball up multiple times and expect to win. Mater Dei has certainly learned that lesson more than once this year. But if you are one who believes that defense will be they key, as many do regarding big games, I can tell you that this is the best “team” defense I have seen at Poly. You can look back to past years and list the names of better individual standouts, but I wouldn’t want to bet against this squad. Poly hasn’t been “playing on borrowed time,” they’ve been playing outstanding football and making big time plays against great opponents.
I predict Lakewood over Poly by 10-14 points.
Poly is one of the few teams that can play bad…and still win, with that being said, playing bad is a trend you dont want to continue every week.
Lakewood and Poly know its other very well, the Lancers last win against the Jackrabbits was in 1982, so from a motivational point of view the odds would have to favor Lakewwood and since Polys which has been less then impressive most of the season on offence, The Jackrabbits better find away to get fired up and do what they have done best all season, shut teams down with there defence.
Poly wins 17-14.
Poly 35-21; Can’t wait to see them in the Championship against Tesoro (hopefully)! Either Tesoro or O Lu against Poly will be one to watch, but hopefully it’s Tesoro-Poly.
Even if Poly makes it to the finals, I would still favor Tesoro or Olu over the Jackrabbits. Actually, I think Tesoro would put on a better show than Olu against Poly.
i don’t think tondizzle follows high school football that much…that same olu team that you pick over LB POLY…goT beat pretty bad from AMAT….which POLY just beat 2 weeks ago….and you still manage to choose olu over POLY…..hmmm phink about it buddy…it doesn’t matter who comes…..we taken it all the way….and bring De la Sall…we going all the way STRONG BEACH….ALL GAS NO BREAKS…YAYAA
H.Poyer,
I follow football enough to know that every match up is different and any team/person, can win on any given night i.e. Stanford or Oregon State vs. USC; Tyson vs. Buster Douglas; Kimbo vs. That guy who kicked his a$$…you get my point…underdogs! Poly has shown its weaknesses and either team is going to expose those weaknesses further. Football is a game of strategy and I think the OC top two coaches are too good to loose at this point in the season. Olu lost to a very good Bishop Amat, who also gave Poly a run for their money. Olu also beat Sherman Oaks when they were expected to loose. Tesoro is running at full speed right now and they are not looking back. Whatever the case Poly will not win that title easily. Good luck!