The562’s coverage of football in 2023-24 is sponsored in part by the MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Foundation and Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Foundation
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of Cabrillo Athletics is sponsored by the Cohn Family.
Long Beach Poly (6-1, 3-0) travels to Cabrillo (2-5, 0-3) for a Thursday evening game tonight at 6 p.m. We’ll have live updates and full coverage of the game.
The two teams are on the opposite ends of the CalPreps rankings, with Poly currently No. 6 in the Southern Section and Cabrillo currently No. 326. The Jackrabbits are projected by CalPreps to win the game 62-0.
The real drama of the game likely comes in the day after, as football pundits wait to see where Poly’s CalPreps ranking moves to after playing the Jaguars. The algorithm employed by CalPreps (whose rankings are used to make the CIF-SS playoff divisions) punishes teams who play lower-ranked opponents by dropping their strength of schedule rating. As such, Poly could win the game comfortably this evening and still end up dipping in the rankings–in fact, that’s happened frequently before.
The Jackrabbits played their sharpest game of the league schedule against Wilson last week in a 46-0 win that saw big plays from their offense, defense, and special teams. Cabrillo has lost all three league games so far, dropping a 13-6 close one against Compton before falling to Lakewood and Wilson by a combined score of 97-7 the last two weeks.
Poly will host Compton next week at Vets while Cabrillo will host Jordan.
