Long Beach Finds That Mater Dei’s Too Tough

The team of the present met the team of the future, and this time the present won out.

The Long Beach Jackrabbits, a team of primarily sophomores and juniors, are going to be tough next year. But unbeaten Mater Dei, the state’s top-ranked team, proved Friday it was the team of the moment with a 42-13 victory before an estimated 10,000 at Santa Ana Stadium.

The Monarchs (13-0) will face the winner of tonight’s Fontana-Loyola semifinal match next week for the Division I championship. It will be Mater Dei’s second final appearance in three years, and fourth this decade.

“I give all the credit to our coaches, who are the best in the state,” Coach Bruce Rollinson said. “They had us extremely well prepared for Poly tonight.”

Poly’s season concludes at 9-4.

In a showcase for two of the state’s outstanding wide receivers, Mater Dei’s Rod Perry Jr. outshone Long Beach’s Kenyon Rambo. Perry gathered in seven passes for 178 yards. His two second-quarter touchdowns blew open a close game.

Rambo was held to one catch for 29 yards.

“We had read in the papers how we hadn’t faced defensive backs as good as theirs,” Perry said. “David [Castleton] and I knew we would be getting single coverage most of the game and prepared for it.

Castleton was nearly as productive, catching five balls for 71 yards and a touchdown.

Quarterback Nick Stremick completed 15 of 24 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns.

“When they talk about the great quarterbacks in the county,” Stremick said, “they speak of the ones who are big or throw far. All I know is I’m the winningest quarterback so far.”

As the first half unfolded, it became clear that if either quarterback had the time to throw, the secondaries would be in for a long night.

Mater Dei took better advantage of the concept than Poly, as well as taking advantage of two Jackrabbit turnovers.

The Monarchs took the opening kickoff and traveled 80 yards, scoring the conventional way--a two-yard run by McNair.

Poly answered immediately. On its second play from the 27, Chris Lewis--who struggled through a 11 for 32 night with one touchdown and two interceptions--found Larry Croom, who go behind defender James Farley at the 50 and ran into the end zone untouched.

“We knew they had a high powered offense,” Rollinson said. “We’d have liked to have covered better on their first touchdown. But we also had a high level of confidence driving 80 yards on our first series.”