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For the second time in two weeks, the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits found themselves in a dogfight in the fourth quarter of a CIF playoff game. <\/span>This week it was the Esperanza Aztecs to took them to the brink, as the score was tied 10-10 going into the final period. <\/span>Then the Jackrabbits, who went very<\/i><\/span> heavy on the run in this game, turned to their quarterback, Morgan Fennell, and asked him to make a big play. <\/span>He made two, and the Jackrabbits went on to win, 17-10. <\/span>They’ll now advance to the semifinal round, where they’ll be facing the Lakewood Lancers. <\/span>You read that right: the Lakewood Lancers, their Moore League rivals who are currently streaking through the postseason.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/object><\/span><\/p>\nBut, before we get ahead of ourselves: Facing a long third down in the fourth quarter with the game knotted at ten, Fennell rolled right and winged a bullet to senior receiver Damon Smith, who made a great play getting his hands between the ball and the turf as he laid out for the catch. <\/span>Later that drive, on another third down, Fennell tossed a touch pass to TE Julian Campers, a converted basketball player, on a tackle eligible play. <\/span>A long 63-yard run later (Campers is 6’5″ 270 lbs, so it was a long<\/i><\/span> run), and the Jackrabbits were in scoring territory, on the two-yard line. <\/span>Melvin “Boom Boom” Richardson blasted it in, giving him his (and Poly’s) second TD of the night. <\/span>Poly went up 17-10, the score they’d go on to win by. <\/span>Richardson finished with 19 carries for 105 yards and two TDs, and his counterpart Daveon “Burner” Barner chipped in 19 for 50. <\/span>Fennell was 3\/6 for 89 yards, including the two crucial third down plays.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Aztecs, who run the Delaware Wing-T, were hoping to confuse the Poly defense, and never really managed to. <\/span>They only had one run of more than ten yards in the first half, and besides their first two drives of the second half (which notched a field goal and a TD), never really found any traction, despite trying a few new tricks. <\/span>“They went away from their tendencies,” Poly defensive coordinator Jeff Turley said after the game. <\/span>“That’s good coaching.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\nBut despite the good coaching, and the performance of Aztec running back Jared Moore, who finished with 16 carries for 107 yards and Esperanza’s only score, Poly won the low-scoring, hard-hitting, run-heavy playoff contest. <\/span>“Hey,” said Poly coach Raul Lara after. <\/span>“That’s how you’re supposed <\/i><\/span>to win these games.”<\/span><\/p>\nThe entire city is rejoicing at getting an all-Moore League semifinal (the first time that’s happened in over three decades), but Lakewood’s hot streak hasn’t escaped the notice of the Poly coaches. <\/span>“Thadd MacNeal has really turned their team around,” said Lara. <\/span>“They’re the hottest team in the playoffs right now.” <\/span>Despite that, the Poly coaches and players all say they were pulling for Lakewood on Friday. <\/span>Said Turley, “We truly root for everyone. <\/span>It’s all about the Moore League.”<\/span><\/p>\nThe top talent of the league will be on full display this Friday at 7:30; it looks like the game will almost certainly be at Cerritos College, but check back for updates, as well as incredibly detailed previews of the game throughout the week.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Leapin’ Lara—the coach (on the right) reacts to a call by the refs<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nCoaches Lara and MacNeal, from Poly and Lakewood, after the game—you’ll see them again next week, in the Moore League Super Bowl Round II.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Poly Jackrabbits managed to bull their way to a victory in Round 2, and will now go on to face Lakewood in the semis. It would be impossible to describe how excited we are.<\/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-5230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230","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=5230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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