So many components of Poly’s game against Grant High in the CIF Open Division State Championship last night resembled Poly’s first four playoff games that it’s probably going to be a long time before some Jackrabbits fans can accept that this time, Poly didn’t pull off the comeback, losing 25-20 before several thousand fans at the Home Depot Center. After all, Poly outscored their opponent in the second half, got a few crucial turnovers, and had a 50+-yard fourth quarter touchdown run by Melvin Richardson to give them the lead. But somehow it was the Grant High Pacers who ended up celebrating on the field.
The ‘Rabbits got off to a slow start, certainly not unusual in a playoffs that has seen them go down by ten in every single contest—they mustered just 103 yards in the first half, including just six on the ground. The Pacers, so much like Poly in many ways, could not have started hotter. On the very first play of their second drive, quarterback Kipeli Koniseti found Darvin McCauley for a 54-yard touchdown, giving the Pacers a 7-0 lead less than five minutes into the game. The ‘Rabbits didn’t get a chance to respond, as Jordan Johnson fumbled the kickoff return, giving Grant the ball twice in a row. The Pacers expanded their lead to 13-0 (with a missed extra point attempt) early in the second, after Koniseti pounded it up the middle from two yards out. The senior quarterback gave Poly fits all night, with 272 total yards passing and rushing.
It wasn’t until the defense provided the spark that the offense caught fire—with Grant driving, Iuta Tepa reached out and took the ball from Pacers running back Devontae Booker’s hands, ripping it free and taking it in the other direction. Starting from their own 35, it only took Poly three plays to capitalize, with a 65-yard touchdown pass from Morgan Fennell to receiver Kaelin Clay. That’s how the half ended, with the score 13-7 Grant. “At that point, it could have been worse,” said Poly coach Raul Lara after the game. “We were getting our butts kicked.” Thanks to Grant’s lack of a field goal kicker (who would have easily made it 19-7) and the stiff play of the defense, the Jackrabbits were within six, and well within their comfort zone. Nobody in the green-and-gold stands was even sweating.
The third quarter was proof that CIF had gotten it right in picking these two teams to play for the right to be crowned state champion—two evenly-matched, similar teams duking it out and holding each other scoreless. Until, that is, Zakeem Williams of the ‘Rabbits blocked a Pacers punt from deep in their own territory with his facemask—George Daily-Lyles picked it up and stumbled into the end zone, giving Poly its first lead at 14-13 with three minutes left. ‘Rabbits fans knew the script—the big play would give them the lead, then their defense would lock it down for the win. And, as Grant was held to three-and-out on their next drive, that’s what appeared would happen. But on Poly’s next possession, an accurate pass from Fennell was bounced into the air by Johnson as he went to make the catch, and an opportunistic Marvin Lamb snatched it out of the air, running it back to Poly’s fifteen. Four plays later, after converting on a fourth-and-inches, Grant took the lead back, at 19-14, after the two-point conversion failed.
Still, there were ten minutes left in the game—that’s when Poly had turned it on against Tesoro. There weren’t many white knuckles in the Poly stands—especially since Melvin Richardson’s next touch, a minute later, went for a 55-yard touchdown run, the kind we’re almost used to seeing from him this season (he finished with 12 carries for 74 yards). Just like that, Poly was back up, 20-19, with 9:36 left. Now it was time for the defense to lock down and hold the win.
But two possessions later, Grant came up with an enormous, program-defining drive. They went 68 yards in 8 plays, taking 3:09 off the clock as Koniseti led his team into Poly’s red zone, then hit McCauley for a 16-yard TD, McCauley’s second of the night (he finished with eight catches for 134 yards). They went up 25-20, with 1:11 left to play. Now the Poly sideline started getting nervous.
The ‘Rabbits had one opportunity left, needing to go seventy yards in seventy seconds with two timeouts. Fennell’s first pass was good to Stan McKay for 19 yards, bringing Poly to midfield with a minute left. Then three straight incompletions (including a drop by Daveon Barner) set up fourth-and-ten with 44.3 seconds left, and the season on the line. The pass was complete to Kaelin Clay, who reached for the first down—and came up literally six inches short. Game over.
“It just didn’t happen for us,” said Lara, no doubt thinking of the six-inch gap between Clay’s catch and the first-down marker, and the freak bounce that gave Grant their interception. “But that was a great football game.” It was, and about as even as you could have hoped to see in a state title game, or any other game. In the end, it’s a game of inches—Saturday night, they just slid in the other direction.
