{"id":2898,"date":"2009-11-07T08:51:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-07T08:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/football-poly-almost-drops-clumsy-contest-with-cabrillo\/"},"modified":"2009-11-07T08:51:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-07T08:51:00","slug":"football-poly-almost-drops-clumsy-contest-with-cabrillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/football-poly-almost-drops-clumsy-contest-with-cabrillo","title":{"rendered":"Football: Poly Almost Drops Clumsy Contest With Cabrillo"},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/em>Photos by John Fajardo<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to strong defensive play and a great night by Kaelin Clay, the Poly Jackrabbits overcame a sluggish offensive performance to defeat Cabrillo 15-6.  <\/span>The Jackrabbits didn’t break a mistake-cued zero-zero tie until there were just over nine minutes left in the first half.  <\/span>“Maybe we took them too lightly,” said Clay after the game, “It showed.  <\/span>They gave us a real fight.”<\/p>\n

It was a strange atmosphere for football at Vet’s Stadium, as the minds of players and coaches were still on the fatal shooting after the Wilson\/Poly game last week, and the stands were virtually empty.  <\/span>The mood carried into the gameplay, as both offenses looked listless, missing blocking assignments and never getting into a rhythm.  <\/span>Both QBs struggled to get the ball to their receivers (Poly started 0\/13 and Cabrillo 4\/14).  <\/span>The play of the Poly defense saved them, as they limited Cabrillo to 47 yards of offense in the first half.<\/p>\n

With Cabrillo unable to move the ball, Clay’s success in the return game was a huge boost, as three times in the first half Poly started at or inside the Jaguar 40-yard line.  <\/span>But nothing was clicking on offense\u2014when Poly QB Chris Leachman got the ball to his receivers, they dropped it, and when his receivers were open, he couldn’t hit them accurately.  <\/span>Two missed field goals and a failed fourth-and-goal attempt meant it was doughnuts at halftime.<\/p>\n

In the second half, the defenses started grabbing interceptions (one for Cabrillo and three for Poly).  <\/span>Kameron Jackson’s interception, Poly’s first, halted a Cabrillo drive at the Poly 40.  <\/span>Then, with just over nine minutes left, Cabrillo QB Derek Stewart made the mistake that swung the outcome, underthrowing a post route and watching as it was picked off by Poly’s Salamo Fiso, who had a powerful return all the way down to the one yard line.  <\/span>The next play, Poly’s fullback Lexus Johnson punched it in, and after two Cabrillo false starts, Leachman snuck it up the middle to make it 8-0. <\/p>\n

Stewart threw another interception on the next drive, this time picked off by Josh Fasavalu.  <\/span>Poly handed the ball to Clay, who had great success at running back in the second half\u2014he had six carries for 60 yards on the drive, including a touchdown (he finished with 15 carries for 110 yards, and had close to 100 yards in the return game).  <\/span><\/p>\n

Cabrillo did break with recent history by putting up their first points against Poly since 2003, with a 45-yard touchdown pass from Stewart to Derek Speight in the waning minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

Cabrillo coach A.J. Luke said coming close to tasting victory was tough for his winless team, but should help build towards the future.  <\/span>“They’re not scared of losing,” he said, “That’s for sure.  <\/span>They know they can play at a high level, now.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Poly coach Raul Lara took responsibility for his team’s effort level, saying he didn’t feel he’d adequately prepared them for the game.  <\/span>The win, coupled with Compton’s upset of Millikan, sets up a win-or-go-home trip to Compton next week.  <\/span>If Poly wins, they’re in the playoffs\u2014and if Wilson loses to Lakewood, they’d be the second seed, even.  <\/span>If they lose, no matter what else happens next week, they’re out for the first time in thirty years.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Clay said after the game, “We know we have the team\u2014we just have to put it together.  <\/span>We can’t say we’re young anymore, that excuse is old.<\/em>“<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked if his team would look more motivated next week against the Tarbabes, Lara said, “We better <\/em>get motivated\u2014if we don’t, we’re done.” <\/span><\/p>\n


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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was 0-0 with less than nine minutes left in the game before Poly finally got the deciding points of the game.<\/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-2898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898","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=2898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2898"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2898"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}