Poly, Mater Dei Can’t Settle the Score in Latest Rematch

Santa Ana Mater Dei and Long Beach Poly played in the Southern Section Division I championship game for the third consecutive year Saturday night.

In 1997, Long Beach Poly won, ending the Monarchs’ 27-game winning streak.

In 1998, Mater Dei returned the favor, ending the Jackrabbits’ 27-game winning streak.

So perhaps it was only fitting that the two proud programs played to a 21-21 tie before 19,304 at Edison Field.

Though overtime periods are played during the regular season and in playoff games, Southern Section football rules stipulate that if a tie exists at the end of regulation play in a hampionship game, co-champions are declared.

It was the fourth tie in major division history, the first since 1985, when Poly and Huntington Beach Edison played to a 14-14 draw.

The tie gave Mater Dei its ninth title, its fourth in six years and fifth of the 1990s.

The Monarchs (11-2-1) became the first school to repeat as the major division champion since Anaheim Servite in 1982-83.

Long Beach Poly (13-0-1) won its second title in three years and is 40-1-1 over the last three seasons.

Mater Dei played most of the game without Matt Grootegoed, its star running back and defensive back, who had rushed for 244 yards in last year’s final.

Grootegoed left early in the first quarter after suffering a sprained ankle.

Poly took advantage of Grootegoed’s absence by scoring three touchdowns within a span of two minutes 21 seconds in the second quarter to turn a 3-0 deficit into a 21-10 halftime lead.

But Mater Dei came back to tie the score, 21-21, on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Matt Leinart to Ray Gilbert with 1:25 left in the third quarter and a 30-yard field goal by Bryan New with 7:45 left in the game.

Neither team could launch an effective offensive after New’s field goal. Mater Dei got the ball at its 14 with 1:21 left, but after two runs and an incomplete pass that was almost intercepted, the Monarchs ran out the clock.

Leinart completed 15 of 30 passes for 240 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Junior Palacios, who sat out most of last year’s final because of an abdominal injury, gained 106 yards in 23 carries and caught five passes for 57 yards.

Poly running back Hershel Dennis, who had rushed for 386 yards and scored eight touchdowns in the Jackrabbits’ three playoff victories, gained 144 yards in 17 carries. Quarterback Brandon Fasavalu completed seven of 18 passes for 133 yards and two touchdowns.

“It’s a big letdown. We worked hard all week. We didn’t work hard just to be co-champs,” Dennis said.

Mater Dei scored first with 6:03 left in the second quarter on a 19-yard field goal by New, capping a nine-play 65-yard drive.

Poly answered less than two minutes later when Fasavalu, who had missed on his first four passes, connected with Dante Washington for a 53-yard touchdown pass play with 4:20 left.

Gilbert returned the ensuing kickoff 50 yards and the Monarchs wasted no time capitalizing. Leinart dropped back after faking a handoff and hit Jeff Diulio streaking across the middle for a 47-yard touchdown that gave Mater Dei a 10-7 lead.

Mater Dei could have earned some breathing room after Brian Del Vecchio intercepted a pass by Fasavalu with 3:41 left. Palacios, however, fumbled at the three, giving the ball back to Poly.

Dennis made the Monarchs pay on the Jackrabbits’ second play when he took a handoff up the middle and sprinted 79 yards to the Mater Dei 11. On the next play, Douglas Hines ran the ball in for a 14-10 lead with 2:10 left.

On the ensuing kickoff, Mater Dei’s Matthew McCarty could not handle Charlie Hayes’ squib kick and Poly recovered at the Mater Dei 31.