Poly looks to capture outright championship
LONG BEACH » There's one team standing in the way of the first championship the Poly football team wants to win this season.
Poly (8-1, 5-0), which has already clinched at least a share of the Moore League title, will play at Jordan (7-2, 3-2) tonight, with a chance to win the league's outright championship.
Millikan (6-3, 4-1) is in second place and hosts Cabrillo (2-7, 0-5) on Friday night.
“It's going to be huge,” Poly coach Stephen Barbee said of tonight's game. “This is the springboard game to walking into the playoffs.
“We've had a great couple weeks of practice to be very honest and we're really just fine-tuning some things, ironing out all the wrinkles that we had and we're really looking forward to playing a really talented Jordan team.”
Meanwhile, Jordan coach Jon Nielsen said from his perspective, tonight's matchup is not a rivalry game.
“We're not expected to win,” Nielsen said. “There's no rivalry until someone starts to win on the other side.
“Poly has no rivals in the Moore League. It's been a long time since anybody beat them. So we have to play a football game against a good football team.”
The Jackrabbits have already clinched one of the Moore League's three automatic playoff berths. Poly, which is ranked No. 8 in the CIF Southern Section by CalPreps, could end up being a Division 1 playoff team.
Jordan, which is ranked No. 110 in the CIF-SS by CalPreps, is tied for third place in the Moore League with Lakewood. However, the Panthers do not have the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Lancers after losing 24-13 at home Lakewood on Sept. 29.
If No. 109 Lakewood beats Compton (3-6, 1-4) on Friday, Jordan will finish fourth in league, regardless of today's result. That would mean the Panthers, who could possibly end up in the Division 7 playoffs, would need an atlarge selection to earn the team's first postseason berth since being the Division 11 runner-up in 2021.
“We're going to play a really good football team,” Nielsen said. “They're a Division 1 team for a reason.”
Poly has a 99% chance to win the game against Jordan, according to CalPreps. The Jackrabbits are projected to win 4913. Despite those predictions, Nielsen wants his team to give maximum energy and effort against Poly.
“We have to go out there and compete,” Nielsen said. “Just like any other game, we're going to go out there and compete in all three phases of the game
Jordan is led by junior quarterback Jarret Nielsen, who has thrown for 3,031 yards, 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions in nine games this season. Nielsen has a team-high 761 yards rushing and eight touchdowns on 61 carries.
Jordan also features senior running back Jordan Washington (Arizona commit), who has 1,316 total yards of offense (658 rushing and 658 receiving) and 15 touchdowns in eight games this season. Washington, who is one of the fastest football players in the nation, has a personalbest time of 10.24 seconds in the 100 meters.
Poly is led by a quintet of Division I commits: senior quarterback Darius Curry (Colorado State), senior receiver Jordan Malau'ulu (Fresno State commit), senior linebacker Dylan Williams (Oregon commit), senior cornerback Quimari Shemwell (Arizona commit) and senior cornerback Michael Beresford (Eastern Washington).
“We have a singular focus,” Barbee said. “We know after this game, it's one week seasons.
“We all are living on borrowed time and it's something that there's a shelf life with each team and if things go our way, we're looking to play seven more games and ideally that's what we're working towards so really just working towards that and trying to be the best team we can at this point.”