Photo by Matt Cohn
In a somewhat chaotic, forfeit-riddled Moore League football season, one thing has remained constant: Poly is the dominating force. After an impressive 3 – 1 pre-season against some of the top teams in the state, the Jackrabbits have held all their Moore League opponents scoreless so far: only Millikan and Wilson remain on their league schedule.
The resurgent Millikan Rams will be gunning for a colossal upset at home against Poly this Friday night. A win would greatly increase their chances of a C.I.F. playoff berth. But there’s something else at stake: Millikan’s ’73 team held the rest of the Moore League to just six points–a Moore League record. 40 years later, Millikan has a chance to defend that record. The Rams would rather accomplish this themselves than have to depend on Wilson to do it the following week.
“Perhaps if Millikan gets (injured starting running back) Donald Gordon healthy, they could break through with a touchdown. That indeed would be a moral victory. Go Rams!” says Brad Liebeck, a veteran of the ’73 Millikan team, who, along with his teammates, will be watching Friday night’s contest with great interest.
Poly head coach Raul Lara has definitely taken notice of Millikan’s improvement. “After watching films of Millikan, you can see they are more fundamentally sound,” says Lara. “This year they have a good offensive line with great running backs. Defensively their up-front guys are playing well, especially the middle linebacker (Dean Duggan). Simply put, they are playing much better football.”
If Poly can shut out Millikan and Wilson–or hold the two of them to less than 6 points–they’ll own the Moore League record for fewest points allowed, and they will have done it facing one more League opponent (Cabrillo) than the ’73 Rams did. If Millikan beats Poly Friday night, they’ll wake up the echoes of the Rams’ ’77 and ’79 C.I.F. championship teams. For the members of the ’73 Ram team, seven points by Millikan on Friday night would wake up some very pleasant echoes as well.
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