Invited to the party

Mike Sciacca

It wasn’t too long ago that Edison and Long Beach Poly met in an

important football game.

Just 11 months removed from their previous meeting, which took

place on a perfect night last December at Edison Field, the Chargers

and Jackrabbits will go at it again Friday night, this time in the

opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs.

Long Beach Poly will host the showdown at Veterans Stadium in Long

Beach.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

“Our guys are excited about this chance,” Edison coach Dave White

said. “When you play Poly, you have nothing to lose.”

There’s a certain mystique associated with the Jackrabbits, and

rightly so -- the program has appeared in the last five division

championship games, winning three consecutive titles.

They made it three-in-a-row last December by defeating Edison in a

well-played championship final, 42-28.

“We gave them quite a battle, and I was really proud of our guys

that night,” White recalled. “Both teams have new faces in their

lineup this season, and this is a different year. We’ll be ready.”

Unlike last season, when Edison won the Sunset League championship

and was undefeated entering the playoffs, the Chargers were not

assured an automatic spot in the 2002 postseason party.

Having finished in fourth place in the Sunset League standings and

4-6 overall, the Chargers were in the hunt for an at-large berth and

didn’t learn of their fate until pairings were announced Sunday.

Edison was one of three teams considered for one at-large berth,

and the Chargers beat out Long Beach Jordan and AB Miller for that

coveted berth, said Rob Wigod, CIF Southern Section assistant

commissioner.

Wigod said a four-member committee looked over the three schools

who had submitted at-large petitions and used six points of criteria

to consider whether or not a team was worthy of at-large

consideration.

The six points of criteria used, he said, were strength of

schedule, strength of league, overall record, common opponents,

head-to-head competition and how a team played down the stretch of

the regular season.

“It was a difficult decision, but Edison came out on top when you

factored in everything,” Wigod said. “They come from what the

committee felt was one of the toughest leagues around -- the Sunset

League -- and they played pretty good football down the stretch. Even

though they lost, they played Los Alamitos tough on the final night

of the season.”

Los Alamitos, champion of the Sunset League, earned a No. 2 seed.

Esperanza, runner-up to Los Alamitos, received the No. 4 seed.

Edison, AB Miller and Long Beach Jordan -- a Moore League rival of

Long Beach Poly -- had a common opponent in Esperanza. Wigod said

that the committee felt the Chargers played a better game against

Esperanza than did the two other schools.

Edison also won two of three games down the stretch, and that

played a big factor, he said. The Chargers joined Loyola, Servite and

Santa Margarita -- all from the Serra League -- earning at-large

berths in the 16-team field.

They’ll be taking on a Poly squad that went 9-1 and, to no one’s

surprise, earned the division’s top seed for a fifth consecutive

year.

“Anytime you play a good football team, you need to play

near-perfect football in order to beat them,” White said. “We’ll need

to keep turnovers to a minimum on Friday, but with [quarterback]

Tommy Grady, I feel we’ll be able to move the ball down the field.

“It should be another great game between the two schools.”

The schools last met in a first round playoff game in 1995, with

Poly taking a 40-14 victory at Long Beach Wilson High.

The Edison-Poly Series

’82 Poly 21, Edison 17

’85 Edison 14, Poly 14

’91 Edison 13, Poly 6

’95 Poly 40, Edison 14

’02 Poly 42, Edison 28

*Note: The 1985 tie came in the CIF Big Five title game. The 2002

meeting came in the Division I final. All meetings between the

schools have come during postseason play.