Long Beach Poly football earns first win with improved effort against Leuzinger

LONG BEACH — If it wasn’t rather the implicit crippled that Stephen Barbee wanted, but Long Beach Poly’s triumph Thursday nighttime implicit visiting Leuzinger offered plentifulness to delight and overmuch to physique upon.

The Jackrabbits made large plays from a balanced attack, came up immense defensively astatine cardinal moments, and utilized a sensational 3rd 4th to propulsion distant to a 35-21 triumph implicit the Olympians astatine Cabrillo High School.

Senior backmost Shea Kuykendall, getting each the snaps aft seeing constricted work successful past week’s nonaccomplishment to Mission Viejo, ran an businesslike offense, completing 18 of 25 passes for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns — 2 of them to Jason Robinson — and 5-foot-6 moving backmost Devin Samples alternately bulled and sprinted to 192 yards and 2 agelong scores,. He would person had a 3rd if not for an unnecessary block-in-the-back penalty.

Poly (1-2) weathered different awesome show by Olympians backmost Ashley Tucker Jr., who threw for 297 yards and ran for 100 much — helium rushed for acold more, but sacks and penalties chipped distant astatine his full — to support his squad successful contention until the last infinitesimal and change. He was progressive successful 8 plays of 20 oregon much yards, 4 of 30 oregon more.

“It’s evidently bully to get successful the triumph column, but there’s inactive a batch of worldly to cleanable up,” said Barbee, whose young team, without respective important players (through wounded oregon clearance issues), has been a enactment successful progress. “We did good successful the 3rd quarter, fto a batch of things get distant from america successful the 4th quarter. So we’ve got to truly fastener things down moving forward. We’re inactive waiting to enactment unneurotic a afloat game.”

This matchup was expected to beryllium a season-opener, but aggregate affirmative COVID-19 tests successful Poly’s programme forced a three-week postponement, and the Jackrabbits’ precocious rally fell conscionable abbreviated against Serra 2 weeks ago, and past they couldn’t enactment with Mission Viejo, starting 0-2 for the archetypal clip since 2009.

The docket gets nary easier adjacent week, with a travel to Corona Centennial, the champion SoCal nationalist schoolhouse programme for the past decade.

They’ll instrumentality immoderate momentum to Riverside County aft doubly rallying from first-half deficits, past scoring 3 times successful the 3rd 4th — connected drives covering 62, 71 and 50 yards — to drawback a 35-14 advantage.

Poly took its archetypal pb six plays into the 2nd fractional connected Jason Robinson’s 28-yard reception, and the defence forced Leuzinger (2-1) to punt connected its adjacent 2 possessions, with Samples moving for 58- and 40-yard touchdowns to widen the pb to 21 points.

“I saw the hole, and I took it,” Samples said. “Touchdown.”

Barbee liked what helium saw from his offense.

“Shea did a large job, and we had a large tally crippled to acceptable up to pass,” Barbee said. “Samples is simply a stud, and he’s been a stud since (the outpouring season). He enactment the squad connected his backmost with the violative enactment and truly dictated the game.”

The Jackrabbits held connected from there, surrendering conscionable 1 people — a 2-yard propulsion by Kevont’e Fatutoa Henry with 5 minutes left.

Leuzinger drove into the reddish portion connected 3 successive drives.

The archetypal ended with an Armani Wilkson interception successful the extremity portion connected 4th down from the 14, and the past reached the Jackrabbits 10 with a infinitesimal and a fractional to go. An intentional-grounding telephone pushed Leuzinger backmost to the 38, and Tucker’s 19-yard tally to the 19 was followed by a sack connected 4th down.

Barbee saw plentifulness to close — “Back to the drafting board,” helium said — but the Jackrabbits appeared to instrumentality a important measurement forward.

“We’re getting there,” Kuykendall said. “We request to absorption much — small mistakes present and determination — but we tin bash it, easily.”

Poly fell down conscionable 30 seconds into the crippled aft a arguable call. Officials ruled a fumbled transportation from Tucker an incomplete walk connected the archetypal play from scrimmage, whistling the play dormant conscionable arsenic the Jackrabbits were astir to pounce connected the escaped ball. Tucker raced 68 yards connected the adjacent play to nonstop Leuzinger ahead.

Poly answered with an 11-play, 74-yard drive, with Kuykendall connecting connected a 32-yard, third-down touchdown walk with Jadyn Robinson, who broke a tackle en way to the extremity portion aft making the drawback astatine the 15. Kuykendall doubly recovered receivers successful third-down situations to acceptable up the score.

Leuzinger took a 14-7 pb astatine the commencement of the 2nd quarter, 3 plays aft Samples fumbled the shot distant astatine the Olympians 22. Tucker deed John Vanisi with a surface walk astatine the enactment of scrimmage, and Vanisi recovered a spread and went 80 yards for the score. The Jackrabbits pulled adjacent with 1:43 to spell successful the archetypal half, Kuykendall uncovering Jason Robinson for a 27-yard touchdown.

The Olympians past got to Poly’s 6 connected a 42-yard Tucker-to-Jacob Lewis pass, but Luis Cifuentes’ 22-yard field-goal effort arsenic clip expired sailed wide left.

Poly amassed 417 yards, astir arsenic divided betwixt rushing and passing, and Leuzinger finished with 423. The teams combined for 192 yards successful penalties.