Brett Peabody
Long Beach City College

LBCC Football Spring Game Gives 2018 Preview

The Long Beach City College football team held its spring game last week, giving local football fans a glimpse of the promising season ahead. The Vikings were a young team last year that finished 8-3, including a blowout win in the Patriotic Bowl Game to end the season. The team divides its roster into evenly-matched Black and White jerseys to play the game and the White team won, 24-10.

This year the team returns a ton of talent, and will likely feature the son of head coach Brett Peabody at quarterback. Drake Peabody looked crisp last week, leading the White squad to a win with two touchdown passes.

“He had a strong game, he didn’t miss many reads,” said coach Peabody. The job isn’t going to be handed to Drake though—Peabody has taken steps to make sure there’s no “daddy ball” at LBCC, including leaving the QB rotation up to his offensive coordinator. “We’ve got a very good freshman coming in to compete for the position,” he said.

Other standouts include Cedric Hood from Paramount, who looks to be one of the team’s top wideouts, and St. John Bosco alum Cross Poyer, who had a strong year for the team as a defensive back last year after starring as a linebacker at Bosco. Poyer had the game-sealing interception in the Spring Game.

“We’ve got a real high character team and we’ve got a great recruiting class coming in that we think can put us over the top,” said Peabody.

The Southern California Football Association announced its new conferences earlier this Spring, and there will be more travel for the Vikings, who will play in the Northern League with Bakersfield, Canyons, East LA, Moorpark, and Ventura.

Mike Guardabascio
An LBC native, Mike Guardabascio has been covering Long Beach sports professionally for 13 years, with his work published in dozens of Southern California magazines and newspapers. He's won numerous awards for his writing as well as the CIF Southern Section’s Champion For Character Award, and is the author of three books about Long Beach history.
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