Photo by John Fajardo

At Long Beach Poly, the success of a football season is judged on one thing: championships.  And while that’s understandable, and to an extent admirable, it’s also a shame—because while they fell short of a third straight CIF championship this year, you’d be hard-pressed to find a team in the Southern Section that improved more from week one (a 30-7 thumping at the hands of Servite) to their last game (a nailbiting 21-18 loss to the same team, in a game with four lead changes).  Servite QB Cody Fajardo led two unbelievable drives to close out both halves to get the Friars the win.

Fajardo’s first drive came when Poly fans least expected it—when Servite took the ball with 3:19 left in the first half, their drives had thus far ended in a turnover (when a backwards pass by Fajardo was dropped and Corey Waller fell on it) and three three-and-outs, thanks to outstandings reads and tackles by the Poly defense.  That didn’t seem to bother the Friars, as they drove 79 yard in three minutes, eventually scoring on a 15-yard run up the middle by Fajardo.  With that score, the Friars took a 7-6 lead into the half—Poly had previously scored on a Cory Westbrook TD run, but missed the extra point.

A botched Poly fake punt gave Servite a short field midway through the third quarter, and they took opened the lead to 14-6 on a Fajardo TD pass that went for 19 yards.  Then Poly led the drive of their season, a 91-yard, 6:28 touchdown drive capped by a Kaelin Clay score that brought them to within two after the Rabbits failed on the two-point try.  Servite took a long drive into Poly territory, but a fumble into the end zone gave Poly the ball back with seven minutes left in the game; Clay decided to do it himself, ripping a 73-yard touchdown run up the middle to give Poly an 18-14 lead (the Rabbits again missed on the 2PC). 

That gave Servite the ball with 4:29 left—and anybody who’s seen them play for the last two years knows that’s too much time.  Fajardo took his offense onto the field at the Servite 6—and proceeded to march them downfield on a 94 yard touchdown drive over the next three minutes, with every single yard coming off his arm or feet.  The Friars converted twice on fourth down on the drive—the first time gave Poly fans something to scratch their heads over, when a very late flag came in for defensive pass interference on fourth-and-three.  I had a pretty clear shot at the play and it didn’t look like the contact warranted a flag. 

Poly got the ball back down 21-18 with 1:32 left and no scores, and Rabbits QB Chris Leachman led a drive all the way to the Servite 22, setting a field goal try to tie the game—which Servite blocked to end it.  Fajardo finished with 183 yards passing, 99 yards rushing, and all three Servite touchdowns.  The Friars gained 295 yards on Friday—282 of them were gained by Fajardo, who said after the game that he loves running the hurry-up offense.  “It helps so much, because it limits what the defense can do,” he said.

Poly got gutty performances on both sides of the ball, with Clay getting two scores and 124 yards on 12 rushes in his last game as a Jackrabbit.  Leachman had an ugly line, but came through in crunch time—he was 7-9 for 97 yards on third and fourth down, with completions to six receivers and six of the completions going for first downs.  Those two long drives were backbreakers, but the Poly defense played well otherwise, with turnovers and big tackles when they needed them.  The offense led three drives of over five minutes but only got points on one of those efforts.  Regardless of the outcome, the fight Poly showed was impressive, and an unbelievable contrast to the listless effort they put up in the first week. 

Looking to the future, the Jackrabbits will return a lot of players from this year’s team, and with the game they gave a Servite team that whomped them in week one, and a special player in Fajardo, it’s easy to believe next year will be less rocky than 2009 was.  “What we went through this year will help tremendously with the next few years,” said Poly coach Raul Lara after the game.  “Watch out—we’ll be back.”