Fountain Valley Falls to Poly, 40-9

Fountain Valley and Long Beach Poly met at midfield early Friday night, shook hands and then continued in opposite directions.

Second-seeded Poly showed no mercy against Fountain Valley, delivering a 40-9 knockout in a Southern Section Division I first-round game at Veterans Stadium.

Poly (11-0), which will play Redlands in next week’s second round, showed off its big-play offense with four scores of 35 yards or more. Quarterback Chris Lewis threw four touchdown passes and completed 14 of 20 attempts for 284 yards.

Fountain Valley (7-4) was handicapped by injuries to its starting quarterback, Jason Morris, and its leading rusher, John Sanders.

Morris, who dislocated his non-throwing shoulder two weeks ago against Huntington Beach, entered the game in the second quarter with his team trailing, 12-0. He completed six of his first eight attempts, but then misfired on his last 13 as the game quickly slipped away.

Sanders hadn’t played since twisting his ankle against Los Alamitos four weeks earlier and he was limited to only nine yards in three carries.

“We anticipated that neither of those guys might play,” Poly Coach Jerry Jaso said. “I watched Sanders jog out tonight and I knew the minute he jogged out he wasn’t going to be able to play. And the quarterback moved gingerly during warmups.”

The Jackrabbits scored on their second possession when they moved the ball 85 yards in four plays. Herman Ho-Ching’s 38-yard run put Poly into Fountain Valley territory and one play later, Lewis hit Kareem Kelly on a 35-yard touchdown pass.

Fountain Valley appeared to stop Poly on its next drive, but the Jackrabbits faked the punt with Ho-Ching throwing to a wide open David Sims for a 67-yard score.

Poly increased its lead to 20-0 in the second quarter on a perfect fade pass from Lewis to Kawika Watts that covered 61 yards.

Fountain Valley then drove just inside Poly’s 10, but Morris’s string of incomplete passes started there.

The Barons were unsuccessful after electing to go for a touchdown on fourth and goal from the nine with 1:16 left in the half, and Poly followed by driving 91 yards in the final minute for another score.