DeSean Jackson was on the sideline for Long Beach Poly’s football game against Los Alamitos on Friday night, but unfortunately for the Jackrabbits he was in street clothes. It’s been 14 years since Jackson was Mr. Do Everything in the 2004 CIF championship game against the Griffins, and they sure could have used him on Friday evening. Poly turned in a second consecutive flat offensive performance and came up short against Los Al, 20-6.
“We just came out slow on offense,” said Poly coach Stephen Barbee. “We need to execute better. We had some drops, we need better play out of our line.”
The Jackrabbits had just over 50 yards of offense in the first half, while falling behind 7-0 despite a generally strong performance from its defense.
“Their defense is really tough, especially their line,” said Los Al coach Ray Fenton. “We were just trying to play field position.”
The Poly offense looked to have found a power rushing attack in the second half–even employing some I-formation–but a fumble at midfield stalled a promising drive. Los Al would eventually go up 13-0 and force Poly into more passing situations.
They got their first big completion of the night on a 40 yard pass from QB CJ Montes to Kejuan Markham, and then Markham hauled in a tiptoe touchdown shortly thereafter. Poly found itself down 13-6 with just under seven minutes remaining in the game, needing to get the ball back to its offense.
This time it was the defense that couldn’t answer the bell, as the Griffins went heavy to Keanu Norman, a stud running back who missed last week with injury. Los Al dialed up power sweep after power sweep and Norman motored them down the field and into the end zone for the door-slamming score.
“We didn’t get them off the field when we needed to, he’s a great back,” said Barbee.
Poly will have a week to regroup and figure out its offense before facing Serra in a televised game at Vets next Friday.
