The Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits defeated the favored St. John Bosco Braves 13-10 to advance to the Pac-5 Championship against Mater Dei. The Jackrabbits survived a tough physical battle behind a strong rushing performance from Washington State commit Gerard Wicks.
Wicks scored the lone touchdown of the first half on a short touchdown run to give the Jackrabbits a 6-0 advantage into halftime. As the fog rolled in, St. John Bosco cut the lead in half with a field goal in the third quarter.
Standout St. John Bosco junior defensive back Naijiel Hale made the play of the game with a ridiculous 64-yard interception return for a touchdown to give the Braves a 10-6 lead.
But the resilient kids from Poly refused to fold and moved the ball down the field.
The Jackrabbits benefited from a blown call from the officials on a long pass play down the sideline. The ball appeared to hit the ground and be trapped by the Poly junior receiver John Smith but the officials deemed it a good catch and gave Poly goal to go.
Poly punched in the game-winning touchdown on a quarterback sneak from Tai Tiedemann to take a 13-10 lead.
Both teams played hard and left it all out on the field but Poly controlled the line of scrimmage, holding the St. John Bosco Braves offense to only 110 yards and earning a hard fought victory.
