Photo by John Fajardo
It was the Storyline Bowl at Vet’s stadium, as Poly played their old quarterback on a road game at home in the first round of the Pac-5 CIF playoffs, and continued to prove that you’re only as good as your last performance in an impressive 24-7 win over Los Alamitos. The win was also head coach Raul Lara’s 100th career victory. The defense did all you could ask, shutting down Nick Richardson, sacking Dylan Lagarde four times, and notching two safeties, as well as a TD.
Offensively, Poly got off to a slow start—a lost fumble and two interceptions in the first half kept the game close, with Los Al’s only score coming after an interception return gave their offense the ball on the one. Kaelin Clay (and the rest of the Poly running platoon) put up a quick response TD to even the score at seven. Then, with less than two minutes left in the half, Poly blocked a punt that resulted in a safety, giving them a 9-7 halftime lead. That was the story of the game—the offense playing well enough to put the defense in position to win it, and the defense making the deciding plays.
In addition to limiting Los Al to a little over 130 yards on the game, they forced a fumble (knocked out of Richardson’s hands on a vicious hit on Richardson by Poly’s smallest starter, Dabness Atkins, and recovered by lineman Ryan Edwards), blocked two punts (Ryan Goforth and Corey Waller both got one, and Josh Fasavalu returned one for a TD), notched four sacks (two by Waller, one by Michael Teo, and one by Salamo Fiso), and grabbed one pick. So if you’re counting, that’s one touchdown, two safeties, four sacks, seven tackles for a loss, and eight three-and-outs. They also completely bottled up Richardson, who was averaging under three yards per-carry until he rattled off a 38-yarder against Poly’s second stringers with under two minutes on the clock.
The control the defense showed was also admirable; in an emotional game, they committed just one penalty (an offsides call on Teo). That unit seems to be improving every week, having given up just 25 points in the last three games (with six of those in garbage time, and seven due to the short porch on Friday). On offense, the running game churned it up, with 288 yards—157 of them, and both of Poly’s offensive TDs. The second was the most impressive series of the season for Poly, as they started on their own nine-yard line, and drove 91 yards in almost eight minutes for the game’s clinching TD, exhausting the Griffin defense while making the score 16-7.
The Poly defensive line said their coaches had them perfectly prepared to handle Richardson. “It started in practice on Monday,” said Waller, and his teammate Teo finished, “They told us about staying in the cutback lanes.”
“Yeah,” said Poly defensive coordinator Jeff Turley. “We told them, ‘You gotta shut the back door.'” While he was pleased with the way his defense played run first, and then got after the quarterback when they could, he cautioned against looking at it as a Poly vs. their ex-QB Lagarde situation. “That’s what we expect out of them in all passing situations,” he said. It’s a good day for Turley when he says his biggest problem on defense was that his players failed to fall on the ball in the end zone twice, letting it squirt out for a safety instead of holding onto it for a touchdown.
With the win, Poly continues an honored green and gold tradition—for the 18th consecutive year, they’ve reached the second round of the playoffs, and will hold a Thanksgiving practice. There were no hung heads about working on the holiday either—when Lara announced it during the postgame talk, the team erupted in cheers. The coach himself was all smiles after, though when congratulated on his 100th win he said, “I would have loved to get it a little earlier.”
Lara gave credit to his lineman, saying, “I thought our offensive line really took the game over.” The Edwardses, Ryan and Wilson, were absolute trucks when they got out in front of Clay and Westbrook. He also gave credit to Clay (who missed a practice this week from illness, and who was still afflicted prior to the game), for continuing to excel at running back when he’s been trained at receiver. “He’s just an athlete,” Lara said. “He has that natural ability, and it shows.”
But while the Jackrabbits are right at home next week—not just because they’re in the second round, but because they’re hosting Servite for the second time this year—they were a little out of sorts after the Los Al win. Even though it’s their home turf, the Griffins were technically the home team, so as the lights went off at Vet’s, the Poly coaches were yelling at their team, “Remember, the buses are that way this week!”