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Every game between Long Beach Poly and Serra is its own little chaotic piece of football history, and Saturday’s late-night showdown at the Honor Bowl in San Diego was no different. The two teams who’ve had major drama–including a game at Serra shut down at halftime due to unrest in the Serra stands–and who always play to a one-score finish, once again had major drama and played to a one-score finish, with the Cavaliers prevailing 27-21.
The Jackrabbits had opportunities to win the game, but came up short with some costly turnovers and even more costly penalties.
“I’m disappointed in our discipline,” said Poly coach Stephen Barbee. “I’m taking full responsibility on that. We put ourselves in position to win–our ability to have discipline in key moments ultimately cost us. And again, I take full responsibility for that, and that’s going to be rectified.”
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The Jackrabbits sit at 0-3 with a much-needed bye week coming up, then a Moore League opener against Jordan and then Lakewood, followed by a meeting with Mission Viejo at SoFi Stadium to round out the nonleague schedule. It’s a rare struggle of a nonleague for Poly, which went 7-1 in nonleague the last two years. Poly’s last time losing three games in their nonleague schedule was 2022, when they started 1-3 and went on to win the CIF-SS Division 4 championship.
Saturday’s game against Serra showed that the young Poly squad has improved significantly over the last three weeks after taking lopsided losses to Folsom (No. 12 in California) and Lincoln (No. 18 in California), as they were in it up to the end against Serra (No. 11 in California). But the game also showed that they have a ways to go in terms of learning how to finish and win.
The game opened with both teams employing the same strategy: control possession and run the clock. There were just five drives in the opening half, as Serra scored on their first drive to take a 7-0 lead, then Poly had a seven minute, 80 yard drive that stalled at the Serra five, as they ended up turning it over on downs after having a first and goal at the five.
After Poly’s defense put up a three-and-out, QB Deuce Jefferson led a touchdown drive with completions to Kamarie Smith and Jayden Coley, running it in himself to tie the game at 7-7. Serra had the ball for their third and final drive to end the half and kicked a short field goal to take a 10-7 lead.
In the second half, Poly opened with a drive into Serra territory that stalled, and after trading drives, Serra took over deep in Poly territory following a Jefferson fumble. The Cavaliers scored to take a 17-7 lead. Poly answered immediately as Jefferson found Dylin Bruce for a 57 yard pass, then hit Ben Harris and finally Smith for a 15-yard score that made it a one-score game again.
Poly got the ball back mid-third quarter with a chance to take the lead, but running back Ben Harris–California’s fastest freshman last year running a 10.3 in the 100–fumbled the ball away on a carry. Harris also opened the second half with a kickoff return for a touchdown that was called back on a holding penalty, one of several costly penalties incurred by both teams on Saturday–in addition to a dozen players on each team sent off over kneepad violations.
“We had some penalties that called back big plays,” said Barbee. “We’ve got to get better at that.” Barbee, who is never critical of officials, said he felt the game was impacted by flags on both teams.
“When you have hundreds of yards in penalties, it’s huge,” he said. “In two plays you’re having a 30 or 45 yard swing, it goes from third and forever to first and goal. We have to do better if we’re going to compete.”
Serra struck next with a score to go up 24-13 late in the third quarter after which Poly again had a deep drive come up empty despite reaching the Serra 13. It felt like the Cavs might drive and take control of the game for good, but sophomore cornerback Julius “JuJu” Johnson snatched an interception to give Poly the ball back, and Jefferson found Bruce for a 50-yard score that made it a three-point game after a two-point conversion from Jefferson to Coley.
The pass was a dot from Jefferson, who was much improved with 289 passing yards on Saturday, including 175 to the sophomore Bruce.
“He’s got to get better, every kid and coach in our program has to get better,” said Barbee. “He’s grown, he’s continuing to grow, and we have to do better.”
Serra had a long drive that stopped on a third and goal as they settled for a field goal to take a 27-21 lead with 7:29 left. Poly drove towards midfield when Jefferson was intercepted to give Serra the ball back. Johnson made a huge play to force a fumble and give it back to Poly with 1:30 left at midfield, but a second Jefferson interception ended the game as Serra knelt it out.
Barbee agreed that Johnson was a bright spot, coming up with two huge turnovers despite playing with calf cramps.
“He was huge, huge, and our defense put us in a position to win,” said Barbee.
Among the other big calls by the officials, Poly lost two players to ejection after a scuffle between a Serra lineman and Poly cornerback Deon Jackson, who appeared to be hit by the Serra lineman. Poly cornerback Donte “Tae” Wright tried to break up the skirmish, which happened in front of the Cavs sideline, but the refs ended up ejecting Jackson, Wright, and Serra lineman Reginald Terry Jr for fighting; that’s significant because if it’s not overturned on appeal, it carries a multi-game suspension under new CIF State rules.
“I have to look at the film, but what I saw was Deion getting hit by a guy three times his size, their whole team running over to it,” said Barbee. “We’ll watch the film on it and then speak on it.” Both teams deserve credit on a night where emotions were running high for not running onto the field and turning it into a bigger issue. The officials still called Barbee and Serra coach Scott Altenberg to midfield to tell them further skirmishes would result in the game being called.
In all there were more than 300 yards of penalties in the game between the two teams, with three players ejected, multiple personal fouls, a sideline interference call on both sides (as opposed to the usual sideline warning) and a dozen players sent off for their kneepads not covering their knees.
