Game of the Week : Long Beach Poly Catches Gardena, 7-3

Long Beach Poly, ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section and the State and No. 6 in the country by USA Today, got a win Friday night from an unexpected source.

Eric Morgan, who started the game at wide receiver, replaced Michael Herring at quarterback late in the third quarter and later hit Andre Hill with a 40-yard scoring pass to give the Jackrabbits a 7-3 win over Gardena, ranked No. 3 in the City, in the season opener for both teams at Gardena.

Trailing, 3-0, after Gardena’s Demetirous Smith kicked a 17-yard field goal with 4:54 remaining in the first half, Long Beach Poly decided to put Morgan in after Herring, playing his first game as a varsity quarterback, had completed 5 of 12 passes for 40 yards with three interceptions. On Morgan’s second series of the game and the Jackrabbits’ first of the fourth quarter, Hill got behind three Gardena defenders--Melvin Orr, Malcolm Norrington and Sang Pak--for the go-ahead score. Adam Scolaro made the extra point.

“He (Orr) was playing way off me,” Hill said. “It looked like they were expecting us to throw to the post (out) side, and I went inside instead.”

Said Co-Coach Jerry Jaso: “The play was designed to go deep. And Morgan did a heck of a job of getting away from the rush and getting the pass off.”

In fact, it was a heck of a defensive game from the beginning. Poly held Brian Brown, Gardena’s highly regarded running back, to just 29 yards in 14 carries, and that was after he broke off for 11 yards on his first carry.

The defense also set up the game’s first score. Poly got the ball on its own 11 after recovering a Gardena fumble, but couldn’t put together a drive and had to punt.

Todd Nichols dropped back to his own two-yard line to kick, but had it blocked by Lamar Clark and downed by Yancey Hawkins of Gardena. The Mohicans couldn’t dent Poly’s tough defensive line and had to settle for Smith’s field goal.

“The thing that sticks out in my mind as the biggest series of the game is that goal-line stand within one yard of the touchdown,” Jaso said. “But those big hosses (the Jackrabbits’ defendive unit) buckled their chin straps and said, ‘No, you’re not going to get the touchdown.’ ”