It was the 112th iteration of Long Beach’s oldest sports tradition, the Homecoming game at Long Beach Poly–and it was much the same story as the last century-plus, as the Jackrabbits went on to comfortably win against a Moore League opponent, beating Cabrillo 68-0 at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
Poly outgained the Jaguars 362 yards to -27, with a balanced offensive attack and a punishing defense.
“We tried some different things on defense and offense, trying to work on our complete game and focus on executing everything,” said Poly coach Stephen Barbee. “Just getting back to the basics.”
Barbee didn’t seem to relish the big win very much and admitted that he didn’t.
“I don’t, no,” he said. “Coach does a great job over there with what he’s got, we’re not trying to run it up on anyone but we’re getting our young guys some reps. I’ve been on the other end of some of these and I know it’s not fun.”
Poly gained 238 yards through the air and 124 on the ground, as everyone got a chance to shine. Shea Kuykendall went 8/12 for 171 yards and two touchdowns and starting quarterback Mehki Jordan was 3/7 for 67 yards and a score. Starting running back Malachi Rice had 11 carries for 111 yards and two touchdowns, while Zhakar Carter, Bryun Parham, Michael Sanford, and Donovan Turner all got touchdowns rushing. Ashun Brown, Kyren Rachel, and Keyonta Lanier had the receiving touchdowns.
The Poly defense held Cabrillo to negative yardage with five sacks, including three from Anthony Parker, who had 9 tackles. Parham had eight including three for a loss. Jeremiah Douglas-Grays had a recovered fumble for a touchdown for Poly’s defense.
For Cabrillo Marcel Johnson had a big hit on Jordan that went down as a sack and a forced fumble, and Roger McMillan ran hard, gaining seven yards on three carries. Edgar Haro had six tackles including a sack.
Poly (4-3, 3-0) will visit Compton next week while Cabrillo (1-6, 0-3) will visit Jordan.
