<\/o:p><\/p>\nWhat does all that mean? <\/span>The Bruins know that it would be an \u201cupset\u201d if they could hand the Lancers their first loss league, but he Lancers know they will get Wilson\u2019s best shot. <\/span>Here\u2019s a fearless prediction for you\u2026 he who wins the turnover battle, wins the Moore League and a #1 seed in the CIF bracket.<\/o:p><\/p>\nThe Playoff Game: Poly @ Compton, 7pm<\/o:p><\/strong><\/p>\nPoly coach Raul Lara said it perfectly: “Whoever wins gets to keep playing.” <\/span>If Poly wins, they’re the league’s two or three-seed (two if Wilson loses to Lakewood, three if they win); if Compton wins, they clinch the three-seed. <\/span>No matter what else happens, whoever loses, goes home.<\/o:p><\/p>\nPoly Offense vs. Compton Defense<\/o:p><\/em><\/p>\nThe Jackrabbits, simply put, are going to need to score in this game to win\u2014their offense has been somewhat anemic at times. <\/span>When it hasn’t been, it’s been prolific\u2014they moved the ball with ease against Wilson and Jordan, but struggled mightily against Cabrillo. <\/span>It seems to run through the passing game\u2014when Poly’s able to stretch the field, they can run with any team in the Southern Section (they certainly have enough backs with enough ability). <\/span>If they struggle to throw (as they did against the Jags, starting 0\/14), then it’ll be easy for Compton to stack the box and make Poly one-dimensional. <\/span>If they can get some yardage downfield, they should be able to control the clock, and the field.<\/o:p><\/p>\n“We have to fix the little things that ultimately kill us,” Lara says, referencing his team’s three-game streak of having 100+ yards of penalties. <\/span>“We’re treating this as a playoff game, absolutely.”<\/o:p><\/p>\nCompton Offense vs. Poly Defense<\/o:p><\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re looking at the Tarbabes’ league schedule this year, you might wonder\u2014what happened? <\/span>After two big losses to Wilson and Jordan, they rebounded in a big way against Millikan last week, winning by three TDs. <\/span>Coach Calvin Bryant says much of that is due to their new quarterback, Chris Jones. <\/span>“Our starting QB broke his thumb earlier in the year\u2014and Chris made the sacrifice recently to take over at QB. <\/span>It’s been a big boost.” <\/span>The right maestro is needed in Compton’s offense, because of its complex timing and switches. <\/span><\/o:p><\/p>\n“We have the runners and the blockers,” says Bryant. <\/span>“We just needed the guy to get the ball in the right hands.” <\/span>Bryant also says the most important thing for his team is to not get too <\/em>hyped up this year. <\/span>Compton has a habit of getting so pumped up for the Poly game that it can exhaust them a little. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\nLara brings it back to the fundamentals: “The most important thing is to control that line of scrimmage. <\/span>If they push us off it won’t matter who the running back is.”<\/o:p><\/p>\nSt. Anthony vs. Bellermine-Jefferson, Clark Field @ 7pm<\/o:p><\/strong><\/p>\nThe Saints and Guards, both 5-4, 1-2 in league, are playing for a playoff spot, and it\u2019s no secret.<\/o:p><\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been telling the team that all week,\u201d said St. Anthony coach Brian Walsh. <\/span>\u201cWe know what they\u2019re going to do, it\u2019s up to us to step up.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\nWhat Bell Jeff is going to do is run the ball. <\/span>The Guards love to pound the rock out of their double wing set as Abdo Hajj, Micah Shirley and Alex Davidians are averaging 6, 13 and 5 yards-per-carry this year, respectively.<\/o:p><\/p>\nThe Pride Bowl: Cabrillo @ Jordan, 7pm<\/o:p><\/strong><\/p>\nThese two teams are playing for nothing but pride right now: Jordan started the year as a CIF top ten but are just 2-7; Cabrillo is 0-9 and still looking for their first win of the last two years. <\/span>“This is kind of like our Super Bowl,” admitted Jags coach A.J. Luke. <\/span>“We’re going to go to J-Town and try to get it done.”<\/p>\nThey’ll face a hungry Panthers team that desperately wants to defend its home turf in the final week of a tumultuous season that’s been filled with freak injuries and bad luck. <\/span>It’s likely that Jordan will try to establish a strong running game against the Jags, while Cabrillo will likely air it out a little against Jordan, since their receivers have a size advantage over the Panthers’ secondary.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s everything you need to know\u2014and more\u2014about tonight’s Long Beach football games, including a title bout at Wilson and what’s essentially a playoff game in Compton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}