Chargers, Jackrabbits to meet once again

Mike Sciacca

There’s a history associated with Edison High and Long Beach Poly in

the CIF-Southern Section football playoffs, and the two well-known

programs will add another chapter to the story Friday night.

That’s when the Chargers, tri-champion of the Sunset League will

play host to the Jackrabbits, once again champion of the Moore

League, in a second-round Division I showdown at Orange Coast

College.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

The game will be the third postseason meeting between the schools

in the last three years.

Last November, Moore League champion Long Beach Poly opened the

playoffs with a 30-7 win over the Chargers, an at-large entry.

In December of 2001, the teams met at Edison International Field,

where the Jackrabbits staved off a determined Edison squad, 42-28, in

the Division I championship game.

“We’re no strangers when it comes to meeting in the playoffs,”

said Edison coach Dave White, who has led the Chargers in all but two

of their meetings with the Jackrabbits. “Poly has fielded some

outstanding teams over the years and they’ve been pretty awesome over

the last 15 years.”

Edison first met up with Poly in the postseason in 1982, where the

Jackrabbits scored a 21-17 semifinal victory over the Sunset champion

Chargers, then coached by Bill Workman.

Three years later, the teams met in the Big 5 championship game

and their title battled ended in a 14-14 tie.

They met up again in 1991 and this time, Edison, under White,

emerged victorious, its 13-6 first-round win eliminating Poly.

In 1995, Poly was a 40-14 first-round winner.

The Jackrabbits (9-2) entered the Division I 2003 playoffs

carrying the No. 1 seed. They survived St. John Bosco in a

first-round contest last Friday, 33-22.

Edison, meanwhile, improved to 8-3 with a 31-14 first-round triumph at A.B. Miller.

The Chargers reached into their bag of tricks against the Rebels,

using two double-pass plays to score touchdowns.

The first came in the second quarter, when Matt White and Nate

Mitani hooked up on a 62-yard scoring play. The second came in the

fourth quarter when Joshua Gage connected with White on an 18-yard

touchdown pass.

Gage also rushed for two touchdowns.

“I thought our kids played a great game,” White said of Friday’s

win. “I hope we can carry that over to the Poly game because it’s

imperative that we play near-perfect football, if we hope to beat

them.”

The game pits Edison’s stingy defense against a typically-fast and

speedy Jackrabbits offense.

Poly enters the game averaging 36 points on offense. On the other

side of the ball, Edison’s defense has yielded an average of 10

points per game.