Poly Turns a Negative Into Yet Another Title

Long Beach Poly surprised no one by winning its third consecutive Southern Section Division I championship. The Jackrabbits’ title, earned with a 42-28 victory over Huntington Beach Edison on Saturday at Edison Field, was regarded by many Division I coaches as almost a foregone conclusion from the start of the season.

Still, first-year Coach Raul Lara deserves credit for keeping his immensely talented team on track after the Jackrabbits lost to Concord De La Salle, 29-15, on Oct. 6.

“If we had won that game, it probably would have been much harder to keep the kids focused,” Lara said. “The loss humbled us. It made us vulnerable and sent the message that, ‘You’re not just invincible and can beat anyone.’ In the long run, that helped us.”

Poly won its fourth title in five years and became only the second school in Southern Section history to win three consecutive major-division titles. Redondo won in 1942-44, but there were no official playoffs in 1943 and 1944.

Poly, which finished 12-1, is 66-2-1 over the last five seasons. So what’s next for the Jackrabbits?

Running back Hershel Dennis, tight end Marcedes Lewis, defensive back Darnell Bing and linemen Winston Justice and Manuel Wright are among the Poly seniors heading off to Division I colleges, but plenty of talent remains. And the Jackrabbits will no doubt attract a transfer or two.

“We have a good corps coming back,” Lara said.

Linemen Kevin Brown and Hercules Satele, quarterback Leon Jackson, running backs Dwayne Washington and Jeremiah Toloumu and receivers Alex Watson and Derrick Jones are expected to be standouts on offense.

Lineman Junior Lemau’u, linebackers Mark Washington and Brian Banks and defensive back Rodney Van will lead the defense. Poly will play almost the same schedule next season with Rialto replacing Fontana in Week 4.

The following week, the Jackrabbits venture north to play De La Salle, which increased its national-record winning streak to 125 games with a 48-13 victory over San Leandro in the North Coast Section 4-A championship game.

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Top dogs: Poly was one of six teams that won Southern Section titles after being seeded No. 1 in their divisions for the playoffs. The others were Mission Viejo in Division II, Covina Charter Oak (Division VII), La Quinta (VIII), Ventura St. Bonaventure (XI) and Lancaster Paraclete (XII).

Newhall Hart won Division III and Brea Olinda won Division IV as No. 2-seeded teams. San Luis Obispo won Division IV and Santa Monica won Division X as No. 3-seeded teams. Lakewood Mayfair won Division VI and Redlands Arrowhead Christian won Division XIII as No. 4-seeded teams.

Riverside North, which won Division V, was the only unseeded team to win a title.

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Tandem team: Robbie Dubois and Ryan Powdrell, the senior backs who provided the one-two rushing punch in Mission Viejo’s 18-9 victory over Chino in the Division II championship on Saturday, hope to play together in college.

Dubois, who rushed for 199 yards and a touchdown in 30 carries, and Powdrell, who made those numbers possible with his blocking, said they are considering Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State, Colorado State and Nevada Las Vegas.

“They’re both very fine players and kids,” Mission Viejo Coach Bob Johnson said. “They’re both being looked at heavily by the ‘prop schools’ [that accept academic non-qualifiers]. They don’t have the core classes [to attend other Division I schools], unfortunately.”

Whichever school lands the two players will have a ready-made rushing attack. Dubois finished the season with 2,728 yards--his second consecutive 2,000-yard season--and 34 touchdowns, and Powdrell had 504 yards and eight touchdowns. Powdrell is even more effective at linebacker, where he led the Diablos in tackles.

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Moving on up: St. Bonaventure said goodbye to Division XI by winning its third consecutive title with a 49-14 victory over Orange Lutheran.

The Seraphs, who have won 42 consecutive games, next season will join the Channel League, which was in Division IV this season. St. Bonaventure is a coed school with an enrollment of 750. Several Channel League schools have more than 2,000 students.

“There’s no question, it’s a huge jump for us,” said Coach Jon Mack, who completed his 11th season with the Seraphs. “There is a definitely a numbers difference. But we’re excited. We can’t wait.”

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No backing down: Lost in the dramatic finish of Dorsey’s 19-14 victory over Woodland Hills Taft in the City Section final was the decision Dorsey made before the game when the Dons won the coin toss. Despite Taft’s vaunted offense, Dorsey stayed with its season-long practice and elected to kick off and flex its defensive muscle.

“We wanted to see what we could do right off the bat,” Dorsey Coach Paul Knox said. “We were highly respectful of their offense and knew they could score any time, but we couldn’t go in fearful. We wanted to convey to our kids and Taft that we were not going to fear them.”

Taft wide receiver Steve Smith had 12 catches, but the vast majority were passes caught along or behind the line of scrimmage. Smith, averaging more than 20 yards a catch, was limited to 75 yards. His longest gain was 16 yards.

“What we saw on film was that some people tried to challenge them but didn’t give guys any help,” Knox said. “Other teams were too conservative, they played way off the line and allowed them to catch the ball and run.

“We wanted to have a mixture of coverages. We played a lot more zone than we had played previously. We had to mix it up and tried to confuse them.”

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Stand-up guy: Taft quarterback Cary Dove, a junior, was in tears after the loss to Dorsey, but displayed mental and physical toughness. Dove suffered a sprained ankle and played much of the fourth quarter in severe pain. He spent three hours at a hospital emergency room after the game and went home at 4 a.m. on crutches. He got a couple of hours of sleep before deciding to wake up at 7 a.m. to appear on a cable sports show, something he promised to do, win or lose.

His father, Adrian, was proud that his son displayed maturity and integrity at a time of adversity. “This is a lesson in life,” Adrian said. “Things happen for unexplainable reasons and you have to move on.”

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No revenge: Tradition says it’s tough to beat the same football team twice in one season. But that was not the case in almost every championship game that was a rematch of a regular-season contest. Only Lakewood Mayfair, which lost to La Mirada, 28-0, in the regular season, was able to turn the tables to win in the final. The Monsoons defeated La Mirada, 22-9.

Newhall Hart defeated Valencia, 26-0, on Oct. 19, and won again Friday in the Division III final, 42-13. In Division V, Riverside North beat Moreno Valley Valley View, 14-7, on Nov. 1 and 21-17 on Friday. In Division VII, Covina Charter Oak defeated Los Altos, 14-13, on Oct. 26 and 7-6 on Saturday. Brea Olinda began the season with a 23-6 victory over Buena Park and ended the season Friday with a 45-15 victory over the Coyotes in the Division IX final.

In Division X, Santa Monica defeated North Torrance, 23-20, on Oct. 12 and 28-14 on Friday.

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Times staff writer Eric Sondheimer contributed to this report.

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Rushing Into History

A look at where Lorenzo Booker of Ventura St. Bonaventure and Curtis Brown of Lancaster Paraclete finished their careers among the top rushers in Southern Section history:

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Player Year Yards *Lorenzo Booker, St. Bonaventure 1999-01 8,501 Tyler Ebell, Ventura 1998-00 7,384 David Dotson, Valley View 1989-91 7,257 Michael Jones, Laguna Hills 1995-97 7,175 Curtis Brown, Paraclete 1998-01 7,046 Manuel White, Valencia 1997-99 6,745 Marcus Guzman, Norco 1997-99 6,625 George Keiaho, Buena 1990-93 6,615 Justin Fargas, Notre Dame 1995-97 6,352 Russell White, Crespi 1986-88 5,998

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* Also most yards by any rusher in state history