<\/p>\n
For info on the shooting that took place outside the game, please click here.<\/a><\/span> The first time Poly and Wilson’s football teams squared off, we were still forty years away from the first Super Bowl\u2014and with Wilson feeling that a win was possible, the rivalry was definitely renewed before a raucous crowd of 5,000 at the Wilson homecoming.\u00a0 <\/span>But despite the Bruins’ best intentions, it was the same old story in this rivalry, as Poly won 34-15 (and were up 34-0 after the third quarter) to move to 2-2 in league, while Wilson gets their first league defeat to fall to 3-1.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n The Jackrabbits bounced back from a season-low performance against Millikan, and came out with some hunger and spark on both sides of the ball\u2014at halftime it was 27-0, Poly had scored a TD on all four of their possessions, while limiting Wilson to 43 yards and forcing two turnovers.\u00a0 <\/span>In all, it was the most complete half of football they’ve played this season.\u00a0 <\/span>“We were desperate for a win, period,” said Poly coach Raul Lara after the game.\u00a0 <\/span> “You have no idea<\/em>,” said a grinning Poly QB Chris Leachman when asked if the win was a relief.\u00a0 <\/span>“We knew we had to win tonight.”\u00a0 <\/span>Leachman looked poised, with two TDs and 119 yards in the first half, and finishing the night 10\/16 for 205 yards and 3 TDs.\u00a0 <\/span>It was Poly’s blocking that made the difference for them on time\u2014with time to throw, Leachman didn’t miss many opportunities, and with lanes to run in, first-time starter Kameron White, a junior, took advantage of his chance.<\/span><\/p>\n “I knew I had to step up, and try to become a leader on the field,” he said\u2014White started due to Cory Westbrook’s nagging knee injury sustained against Millikan.\u00a0 <\/span>White was the master of the triple-move, going outside-inside-outside three times, and almost never bouncing to the outside when he had a lane up the middle.\u00a0 <\/span>He had a TD and 124 yards on 16 carries in the first half.<\/p>\n Defensively, it was all about pressure\u2014Poly’s Cory Waller and Matt Rowe effectively locked down Wilson’s rushing attack (21 yards and a forced fumble in the first half), and spent a lot of time in the Bruin backfield.\u00a0 <\/span>“We knew we had to bring the intensity,” said Waller.\u00a0 <\/span>“It started from Monday’s practice.”<\/p>\n Poly’s first scores came off of a one yard run by Lexus Johnson, set up by White; a 16-yard TD run by White; a nice TD toss from Leachman to Earnest Pettway; and a 10-yard TD grab by Alex Cannon, just back from injury.<\/p>\n In the second half Wilson was able to move the ball more effectively, and they got two fourth-quarter TDs from sophomore QB Brett Harper, who saw his receiver Josh Bell catch a 20-yard TD off a deflection.\u00a0 <\/span>Ezell Ruffin also grabbed a high pass between three Poly defenders for a score with a little over a minute on the clock.<\/p>\n “I’m proud of how they played in the second half,” said Wilson coach Mario Morales.\u00a0 <\/span>He also expressed pride at the way his school showed up for the game.\u00a0 <\/span>“I felt really happy for our players.\u00a0 <\/span>It was a playoff experience, and I’m glad they got to experience that.”<\/p>\n For Poly, there were some negatives\u2014they definitely let up in the second half, with their only score coming on a 76-yard TD pass from Leachman to Kaelin Clay.\u00a0 <\/span>They also had penalty woes yet again, adding to last week’s 210 yard effort with 18 flags for 140 yards against Wilson.\u00a0 <\/span>The Jackrabbits will face Cabrillo next week, while Wilson will host Jordan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Long Beach’s oldest rivalry was renewed at Wilson on Friday, but the result was the same as it’s been for a while.<\/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-2958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958","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=2958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2958"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2958"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/a><\/p>\n