<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Poly\/Compton at Vet’s, 7pm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The two teams at the top of the standings all season have been Poly and Compton—to absolutely no one’s surprise. <\/span>These teams play quintessential Moore League football, since they both pound the ball on the ground and they both play lockdown defense—together, they average under ten passing attempts a game on the season, and their combined defenses allow under ten points a game. <\/span>Simply put, they’re the two best offenses, the two best defenses, and the two best teams in the league. <\/span>And they’ll be playing tonight, at 7pm, at Vet’s.<\/span><\/p>\n Need more? <\/span>There are some interesting subplots here—Poly’s QB Morgan Fennell has been hot over the last few weeks, but he’s going against the best defensive back in the Moore League in Compton’s Chris Metcalf, who’s already committed to USC. <\/span>One of the best matchups of the game might be Metcalf on emerging Poly WR Jordan Johnson (who has four of Fennell’s five TDs in the last two weeks). <\/span>Poly running backs Melvin Richardson and Daveon Barner are great, but they’ve had trouble moving the ball against great defenses when their offense has been made one-dimensional, and if Poly wants to pull away they’ll need some success in the passing game.<\/span><\/p>\n On the other side, fans are salivating at the prospect of Compton’s running backs—they may have the best backfield in the nation—smashing into the Poly Wall. <\/span>So far nobody’s had any success, but Compton back James McConico is averaging nearly 30 yards a carry this season, and hits his fourth gear before most defenders are even thinking about hitting their second. <\/span>Key matchup here, aside from how well Poly’s DE Iuta Tepa can penetrate, may be on the outside: Compton relies a lot on their physical receivers to block near the sideline, but Poly has a pair of bruising, big corners, and they won’t be knocked aside easily.<\/span><\/p>\n Ultimately, this game will probably come down to broken tackles—both teams are going to run the ball, and play sound defense. <\/span>Whoever can run into the pile and come out on the other side the most will probably win the game, and it could come down to one or two big plays.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Lakewood\/Wilson @ Lakewood, 7pm<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n While the Jackrabbits and Tarbabes battle for first and second and the Jordan Panthers (who have clinched third) visit the winless Cabrillo Jaguars, the Lancers of Lakewood and the Wilson Bruins will be fighting for the fourth place spot. <\/span>Whoever wins this contest gets that honor, and its accompanying prize: the Moore League’s final CIF playoff slot. <\/span>LBPOSTSports has confirmed that Lakewood running back Jerry Stone, who has missed the first four games of league play due to academic ineligibility, has received high enough marks to regain his eligibility, and he will be suiting up tonight against Wilson.<\/span><\/p>\n Obviously that shifts the balance of power in the game—while Lakewood’s QB Jesse Scroggins may be the Moore League’s finest, you can probably expect to see a battle of the backs, as Lakewood’s Stone and Wilson’s Brandon Robertson will see plenty of carries. <\/span>Wilson proved it has some tricks deep into the playbook in last week’s last-second loss to Jordan, and they may need a few against the Lancers, since their defense is physical, aggressive, and can have a tendency to overpursue. <\/span>They’ll have to get touches to receivers Jemari Roberts, Ezell Ruffin, and Christian Rogers if they want to stay in this game. <\/span>If they can get out in front early and then pound it with Robertson, they have a good shot at reaching the postseason, just a year after going 1-9.<\/span><\/p>\n For the Lancers, it’s much more simple, since they have Scroggins as well as Stone, who may be the best back in the league not playing for Compton or Poly. <\/span>If they can put pressure on Wilson QB Stephen Barrett and force a few turnovers, Scroggins and Stone will have no problem capitalizing. <\/span>If their defense can’t give them those opportunities, it’ll be a lot closer, since the Bruins’ D is incredibly stingy when it’s got some field behind it. <\/span>Lakewood will also look for big plays on special teams, since crucial kick returns for TDs ended up being the margin of defeat for the Bruins against Compton and Jordan this season.<\/span><\/p>\n This game will almost certainly come down to who makes fewer mistakes, since the rosters are pretty even—Lakewood has a bigger, stronger defense, but they make more mistakes than the Bruins, the Lancers have the advantage at QB, but Wilson certainly has it at receiver. <\/span>The balance will come down to whose running game is more effective, and who doesn’t cough the ball up. <\/span>In other words, it’s high school football.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The two biggest games of the season are going on tonight, and we break them down for you better than you might even be able to comprehend.<\/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-5368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368","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=5368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5368"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5368"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}