How Lakewood Lancer Football Brought Hope for the Moore League

I had this all planned out. I knew what I was going to do if it were one outcome, and if it were the other.

People who do this for a living call it contingency. As a graduate student closing in on a couple of degrees that I hope will make my employment situation secure like those safes from Dunbar Armored, I knew the the ins and outs of a strong, failproof contingency plan.

And my contingency plan went into effect the moment I stepped out of my house at approximately 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009.

I was not even born when my alma mater, Lakewood High School, last defeated the flagship school of the Harry J. Moore League, Long Beach Polytechnic High. That year was 1982, a 14-7 win.

But I knew about the heritage, their reputation as the "Home of Scholars and Champions" (or "Den of Gangsters and Criminals," depending on your side of 1600 Atlantic Avenue) in other sports and disciplines on and off the field, and I knew that this was originally destined to be my school of choice.

Or so I thought.

My older sister, who works as a registered nurse at nearby St. Mary's Medical Center, was a graduate of Poly. I could have followed in her footsteps. But a series of events that I decline to expand on built a detour to Briercrest Street.

In my senior year, the Lancers were a dismal 1-8. We couldn't face Bloomington due to the September 11th bombings. This year's team, coached by former Los Alamitos assistant Thaddeus MacNeal, would demolish the patchwork group of gridders that played at John T. Ford Stadium. I kid you not.

But I want to go back to Poly for a moment. Before the game-televised by Fox Sports West-began, the Jackrabbits were riding an 80-game winning streak. The last team to beat Poly? A school up the road known as David Starr Jordan High.

In that 28-0 win over the Green and Gold, a certain quarterback by the name of Ortege Jenkins helped the Panthers torch the Jackrabbits in a shutout.

Since then, Poly-under then-head coach Jerry Jaso and now former assistant Raul Lara-had been reloading their guns, and began their streak. They were churning league titles, section titles, and even took part in a bowl game.

Of course, they were the goat among the SoCal squads in their ambush by Mike Alberghini's Sacramento Grant Pacers, but that's a different story.

This season was unusual for Poly. They had lost the bulk of their team to graduation, and-in a rare instance-lacked the firepower to reload. Worse still, sophomore quarterback Dylan Lagarde was inconsistent during the non-league campaign (also referred by the misnomer "pre-season schedule") and hightailed to John Barnes' Los Al Griffins.

Senior QB Chris Leachman was effective in their 31-0 rout of Jordan the week before, and would have made things interesting if he was the starter to begin with. And the Jackrabbits did have some playmakers in Cory Westbrook, Earnest Pettway, Michael Teo and Kaelin Clay, among others.

Lakewood, on the other hand, had a team that needed to get a result to make an impact against some of the strongest teams in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division.

And I am talking about Huntington Beach Edison, Anaheim Servite (who the Lancers defeated in the playoff last year, and the Jackrabbits got blown apart by this year), Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, Mission Viejo (who the Lancers also defeated last year)...those teams.

Jesse Scroggins, who signed with the USC Trojans, needed this game as a chance to show that he could be a worthy understudy to current starter Matt Barkley. In the spread offense package, Scroggins had some options: Rashad Wadood (who I nickname "The Dude"), Terrence Woods, Alley Long, Darius Powe, Ron Lewis, Kevin Anderson, Kevin Medearis and Chris Davis, among others. That's a lot of "is"es, by the way.

Defensively, Lakewood was led by cornerback Dion Bailey, linebackers Justin Utupo and Keanu Kalolo, and defensive linemen Todd Barr and Kelly Harpham.

I wondered why Long Beach City College (whose team would be massacred by the Lancers) did not draw this many people at their games: 11,000 were on hand to see Vets Stadium turn into Armageddon for one night.

Before I went into the pit of fire, I stumbled upon a tailgate for the parents. Now this was a feast worthy of appraisal by His Majesty King Arthur Pendragon: sub sandwiches, pizza, steak and chicken asada with salsa and corn tortillas, Spanish rice, potato salad, macaroni salad, potato wedges, fried chicken, and cans of Coors Light and Coca-Cola.

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