Poly/Servite game story

By Dave Werstine
Staff Writer
LONG BEACH - Reload or rebuild?
When that question was put to Poly High coach Raul Lara about his two-time defending CIF Southern Section Pac 5 champion Jackrabbits, his standard replay was,"If you are going to beat Poly, you better do it now."
That only begged this question: Was Lara being serious or just bluffing to try to stay under the radar as much as possible?
Everybody at Veterans Stadium on Thursday night found out that top-ranked Poly is closer to rebuilding mode after it was dominated in a 30-7 loss to No. 2 Servite in a nonleague season opener.
Poly (0-1), in losing its first game to a CIF-SS schools since December of 2006, looked every bit as young and inexperienced as advertised, from its whole new defense to its sophomore starting quarterback.
Servite took advantage of that from the get-go.
The Friars (1-0) moved the ball at will in the first half and their defense didn't give an inch in taking a 16-0 lead three plays into the second quarter.
After finally stalling Servite on its opening drive, Poly took over at its own 13-yard line. Somewhat of a surprise, new QB Dylan Lagarde threw three consecutive passes before being sacked at the 6. Alan Roniss' ensuing punt was blocked out of the end zone by Rudy Guerrero for a safety.
Servite returned the kickoff to the Jackrabbits 40, and five plays later, aided by a Poly unsportsmanlike conduct call, the Friars made it 9-0 as QB Cody Fajardo connected with Chris Nicholls just inside the end zone.
After holding Poly to a three-and-out, Servite marched the ball 57 yards on 12 plays, capped by Fajardo's 3-yard run 38 seconds into the second quarter that pushed the lead to 16-0.
At that point, it was definitely all Servite. The Friars rolled up 153 yards of offense, with Fajardo going 10-of-10 for 104 yards passing, and held the Jackrabbits to total of -9 yards.
It wasn't the Poly team that everyone had gotten used to seeing.
Certainly not the same team that won back-to-back CIF titles, won a state title two years ago, and advanced to the state championship game last season.
Things got a little better for Poly later in the quarter. The Jackrabbits held the Friars off the scoreboard, finally earned their first first down of the game, then went 60 yards in the final 2:06 of the half to cut the deficit to 16-7 on Michael Simmons' 9-yard touchdown run with 46 seconds remaining.
Still, the first-half numbers weren't kind to Poly. The once-vaunted rushing attack was held to 11 yards on 12 carries and Lagarde was 6-of-13 for 38 yards - 37 of those going to tight end Josiah Blandin.
Meanwhile, the Friars gained 194 yards of offense.
The Jackrabbits failed to get much of anything going offensively in the second half, crossing midfield just three times but never getting within scoring range. Defensively, they were unable to keep the Friars within striking distance.
Servite tacked on a TD from 5 yards out by Jody Thomas on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 23-9, and Nicholls raced 25 yards around the left end to push the Friars' lead to 30-7 with 5:26 to go.
Lagarde, who showed a strong arm, overthrowing receivers on deep routes often, finished 9-of-27 for 80 yards before giving way to fellow sophomore signal-caller Chaiyse Hales late in the game. Poly ran for just 23 yards on 21 attempts, led by Cory
Westbrook's 24 yards.
Overall, Servite finished with 183 yards rushing on 44 carries and 156 yards passing.
The schedule doesn't get any easier for the Jackrabbits, who face St.
Bonaventure, the No. 1 team in the CIF-SS Northern Division, next week followed by match-ups against L.A. City power Narbonne, San Diego section power Oceanside and key Moore League games against Jordan and Lakewood.