Defense leads Poly over Carson

In the early going Friday, pretty much any ball Carson quarterback Kevin McMahon lofted in the air was in Darreus Rogers’ neighborhood.

The USC-bound receiver caught 10 passes for 192 yards and two touchdowns in the first half against Long Beach Poly. He single-handedly kept the Colts in the game, making a one-handed catch for a 34-yard score shortly before halftime.

Things were mostly out of Rogers’ hands the rest of the game. The Jackrabbits caught as many of McMahon’s passes — two — as Rogers did in the second half, scoring touchdowns on a pair of interceptions to pull away for a 38-18 intersectional victory at Long Beach Veterans Stadium.

“Basically, we got in his face and jammed him,” Poly linebacker Matthew Rowe said of Rogers, who finished with 12 catches for 210 yards. “And we had the safety over the top.”

Rowe sealed the Colts’ fate on the first play of the fourth quarter when he returned an interception 70 yards for a touchdown to give the Jackrabbits (2-0) a 32-12 lead. Two plays later, Poly defensive back Tiller Gaston intercepted another pass and returned it 37 yards for a score.

“It was a combination of maybe a bad read or a bad pass or a receiver didn’t run a route,” Carson Coach Elijah Asante said of the interceptions. “We’ve got to get crisper and get stronger and make less mistakes.”

Carson’s ragged play started in the first half, when the Colts (1-1) fumbled twice, were sacked in the end zone and committed six penalties. But the McMahon-to-Rogers combination kept them in the game.

Rogers’ first dazzling catch came early in the second quarter, when he hauled in a long pass near the sideline and then cut back toward the middle and raced into the end zone for a 68-yard touchdown.

McMahon finished the game completing 28 of 39 passes for 327 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Carson tailback Roger Jones, who rushed for 122 yards last week in a victory over Santa Ana Mater Dei, mustered only 21 yards in 12 carries.

Poly’s offense struggled, with the exception of running back Gerard Wicks, who had 92 yards and two touchdowns in 11 carries. Quarterbacks Chaiyse Hales and Nicholas Pope combined to complete only three of 12 passes for 64 yards and a touchdown.

With 23 catches for 429 yards in his first two games, Rogers appears on pace for a record-setting season. But Asante said the Colts’ offense will require more balance as it continues a brutal nonleague schedule that includes a game against Santa Margarita in two weeks.

“We just need more players to step up and supplement him,” Asante said. “He can’t do it all by himself the whole game.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com