This young Poly Jackrabbit squad is growing up a little more each week, and on Friday night they faced yet another bump on the road to maturity.   Oceanside personified adversity with a long trip to play a high quality opponent in front of a raucous home crowd, but despite plenty of positives, Poly couldn’t overcome second half mistakes, falling to the Pirates, 14-7.

With seven minutes remaining in the game, Poly drove 60 yards to the Oceanside 19-yard line, but defensive back King Holder picked off quarterback Dylan Legarde in the end zone with 1:12 left.  It was the fourth Poly interception in the second half, the same number of completions in those two quarters.  Holder also caught a nine-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter that proved to be the game winner.

“We didn’t play well enough on offense to win,” said Poly coach Raul Lara.  “We’ve got young guys and they still don’t know what we’re trying to do out there… taking advantage of mismatches, getting the balls to our receivers where they can make a play… if it weren’t for the defense, we would’ve been blown out tonight.”

Both defensive units played as well as most pundits predicted, but the Poly “D-Block” figured out the Oceanside attack at half time and locked it down from then on.  In the final two quarters they held the Pirates to 19 rushing yards, 58 passing yards, forced three turnovers and blocked a punt for the only Poly touchdown of the night.

Even after the long bus ride to play a five-time defending Section Champion, Poly was in this game from beginning to end.

On their second drive, Legarde and running back Markes Jackson took Poly to the Oceanside 30-yard line, but couldn’t convert on fourth-and-four.  The Pirates wasted little time responding to the ‘Rabbit drive, and on third-and 13, quarterback Quentis Clark found receiver Demario Coleman behind the secondary for a 45-yard touchdown.

With the help of a big run from Michael Simmons, Poly responded and came right back down the field to the Pirates 14-yard line, only to miss a 27-yard field goal after an unsuccessful screen pass on third-and-goal.  It was the second of five times on the night that Poly would venture inside the opponents 30-yard line without scoring.

After the missed field goal, the teams traded three-and-outs, until the Pirates got the ball on their own 45 after a bad punt from Poly.  They used great blocking and running from Rene Siluano to get down to the ‘Rabbit nine yard line before Clark found Holder in the end zone to make it 14-0 at the half.

The second half was full of penalties (twelve) and turnovers (seven) but that was more because of the tenacious play on defense than ineptitude on offense.  After the teams played possession hot potato for a quarter and a half, defensive back Ryan Goforth busted through the punt protection and blocked the Pirate punt with his facemask.  Dominique Williams scooped and scored to get the ‘Rabbits back in the game, 14-7, and when the defense forced another punt with seven minutes left to play, it looked like Poly could drive for the tying touchdown.

The final drive for Poly was actually the entire night in a nutshell.  The crowd was loud.  The Oceanside players were exhausted from playing both ways all night.  The Poly running game was working in spurts, but penalties slowed the drive, and ultimately it ended in a Poly mistake.  This time it was the interception by Holder in the end zone with a minute left.

“It’s a huge confidence boost,” said Holder, who by far had the two biggest plays of the night with his interception and touchdown catch.  “(Poly) is one of the best, and we want everyone to know that we are too.”

“This is our biggest win that’s not a CIF playoff, championship or league game since I’ve been here, no question,” said Oceanside coach John Carroll, who talked to his team after the game about how they played for San Diego.  “It mattered to us.”