Long Beach Poly was hoping to turn the page from a frustrating 2024 season in their home opener against Leuzinger on Friday night. The game was the first of the Justin Utupo era, and the new coach was hoping to open up the team’s final season playing at historic Veterans Memorial Stadium with a victory. Instead, the Jackrabbit defense looked solid against the Olympians, but Poly’s offense looked not quite ready for primetime in a 14-3 defeat.
Asked what bothered him the most about the loss, Utupo shook his head.
“I think it’s penalties,” he said. “We talk about that a lot as an offense–we can’t move forward if we’re always going backwards. That would be one and then getting guys healthy, getting the next man in and ready to go. I think we’ll be just fine–it’s a long season.”
Friday night was a long one for the Jackrabbits’ offense. Poly gained less than 200 yards and managed just a 30-yard field goal from Jonas Mendoza, scored to cap the opening drive of the game and season. That drive was promising, with QB Deuce Jefferson hitting Jayden Coley and Jaden Hernandez for first downs, with running back Harry Johnson breaking off a chunk as well. Poly took more than six minutes driving most of the length of the field, ultimately stalling out after Jefferson was sacked.
Leuzinger responded with 68-yard drive of their own, taking eight minutes to go the length of the field and pounding the rock with power back Journee Tonga, who had six carries in a row including a five-yard touchdown to give Leuzinger a 7-3 lead with 9:54 in the second quarter, after both teams had completed just one drive.
From that point on, the Poly defense played great, yielding just one more score despite being put in some tough positions by their offense. Taj Bourdeaux, Pierce Tusa, Savion Day and Jaden Hernandez all had tackles for a loss or a sack, and Jordan Moreno scooped up a fumble to end Leuzinger’s drive early in the second half.
But as the Poly defense was keeping them in it, the offense couldn’t ever get it going. It was a very heavy pass call for the Jackrabbits, whose running backs only carried the ball a handful of times, amounting to a little more than 10 yards. Jefferson threw it 27 times and ran it five, but was sacked a handful of times and wasn’t consistently looking downfield for receivers either. He finished 14/27 for 159 yards with an interception, as well as two other “could’ve been” interceptions that Olympian defenders dropped.
The Jackrabbits also had a few linemen go down with injuries, including team captain Sammy Timu.
“It’s hard when you lose one of those guys, it hurts,” said Utupo. “But we talked about having that next play mindset and that next man in mentality. We have to get the next guy ready to go and be able to step in there and keep it going.”
The Jackrabbits’ offense did have some three-and-outs including one with three straight incompletions, but most of the time they were able to pick up a first down or two. Twice they drove into Leuzinger territory only to have the drive end on a turnover on downs, including one on a fourth and goal to end the game.
Leuzinger did eventually break through early in the fourth quarter, as QB Russell Sekona hit a receiver in the end zone to take what felt like an insurmountable 14-3 lead, which the Jackrabbits weren’t able to narrow.
It doesn’t get easier for Poly (0-1) as the Jackrabbits will travel to San Diego to face Lincoln next Friday.
