Long Beach Poly’s football team has taken two tests so far, and passed both of them. Tonight at Cerritos College at 7 p.m., they’ll face another big one in Los Alamitos. Plenty of Poly fans are already talking about next week’s televised showdown with Serra, but head coach Stephen Barbee isn’t among them.
“Los Al is physical, and they’re very, very well coached,” he said at practice on Thursday. “We’re going to have to get better than we were last Friday.”
Poly’s defense has been outstanding the last two weeks, with their starters allowing just three points in two games, while racking up 12 sacks, five touchdowns, and seven takeaways. But for as good as Poly’s D was last week (scoring four touchdowns in a 26-3 win over Narbonne), the Jackrabbits offense was anemic. They totaled less than 100 yards and struggled to run or pass the ball consistently. That won’t fly against a Los Al team that isn’t likely to throw the ball up for grabs a lot.
The Griffins are 0-1 after a 38-35 loss to Vista Murrieta, a result Barbee said isn’t making him overlook this week’s opponent.
“That was a track meet all game against a very good Vista Murrieta team,” he said. “We’ve got to be really sound on defense.”
More importantly, his offense is going to have to find ways to be more consistent, since it’s not likely the defense can pitch a perfect game yet again. That will be especially difficult with Los Al running beach Keanu Norman back on the field for the Griffins this week after sitting last week with injury.
