Poly’s blurring speed is crystal clear

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Top-seeded Long Beach Poly, after its 35-14 victory over Newport Harbor behind the rushing of Melvin Richardson and Daveon Barner, will be next up for fourth-seeded Orange Lutheran in a Pac-5 Division semifinal next Friday at the Home Depot Center.

Poly (11-1) is vying for its 17th section football championship. I saw the Jackrabbits the first time they played Newport Harbor this season, a 34-7 victory, and I wondered how they ever lost to Birmingham. They were as impressive as any team I had seen -- for the first half, anyway. The Sailors gave them a good run in the second half.

And, based on Coach Raul Lara’s quote in the Press-Telegram, Poly is still looking to apply the screws for two halves instead of relying on their talent for just one half. That’s kind of what happened last year in the semifinals against Orange Lutheran, when they fell short at the end, 23-22.

One thing is certain, Lutheran Coach Jim Kunau knows what’s in store: ‘There are all kinds of vision comments they make about TVs, Panavasion or whatever. With Long Beach Poly it’s BlurVision, because it’s just one fast green phalanx. We know how fast they are, we know how good they are, we know that it will be another Battle Royale.’

Yep, they’re fast.

-- Martin Henderson

-- Image from www.winstonmotorsports.com