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| Poly Restrains Compton's rushing attack |
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| Long Beach Poly stonewalls Compton’s heralded ground game; the Jackrabbits stay undefeated smashing the Tarbabes, 40-13.
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Long Beach Poly continued its Moore League supremacy on Friday night with their 77th consecutive victory in league play. The victory also clinched the Moore League title for the Jackrabbits, (9-0, 5-0). For the second year in a row, both teams came into the contest undefeated; and for the second year in a row, the same result: complete Poly domination. Poly jumped out to an early 18-0 lead in the first quarter, finishing off Compton (7-1, 4-1) 40-13.
The Jackrabbits got out to fast start when Compton fumbled the opening kick-off and Poly defensive lineman Zakeem Williams picked up the ball and trotted his way 24 yards to the end zone. Poly went for two to push the lead to 8-0. After a three and out by Compton, Poly scored on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Morgan Fennell to running back Daveon Barner. Barner appeared to be down on the play, but his knee never touched the ground and he darted 43 yards to pay dirt. Poly again converted the two point conversion to put them up 16-0 before five minutes in the game had elapsed.
The Tarbabes finally found the end zone when quarterback Jerry Maluia ran the ball on a 4-yard quarterback keeper, closing the gap 18-7. Poly would add another touchdown and a field goal to take a 27-7 halftime lead.
Poly received a big night out of Fennell, who was 5-of-10 passing for 198 yards and three touchdowns. The Poly quarterback hooked up with junior wide-out Kaelin Clay on two long touchdown strikes of 42 and 55 yards. On the second touchdown strike, Clay beat the Compton cornerback by five yards on the stutter step and galloped to the end-zone untouched.
“The stop and go is something we usually don’t run, but the coaches felt like we could execute it. I saw they were pressing me, so I found a way to get behind the corner,” Clay said.
Tarbabes running back James McConico came into the game averaging an astonishing 28.8 yards per carry. However, Poly effectively clipped the wings from Compton’s double wing T offense, holding McConico to only 60 yards on 10 carries.
“The performance was uncharacteristic of our team. We just couldn’t get anything going. Their defense was swarming and sniffing out the ball,” McConico said.
Poly’s defense, a truly stingy unit yielding only 5.6 points per game, has been the stable unit all year long for the Jack Rabbits. They continued their solid play Friday holding the Tarbabes to minimal yardage throughout the contest. Poly defensive coordinator Jeff Turley pointed to the defense’s ability to stay on their assignments.
“We read our linemen and filled the holes. We had our moments with mistakes, but the kids did an excellent job of executing the game plan,” Turley said.
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