Mission Viejo rolls through Long Beach Poly

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The Mission Viejo High School Diablos' football train got rolling early Friday night and unfortunately for Long Beach Poly fans, their Jackrabbits got caught under the wheels.

Making things worse for the home team was that this locomotive was at full speed right from the start and didn't stop until the last minute.

It was total domination Friday night at Veterans' Memorial Stadium on the Long Beach City College campus, as Mission Viejo (Calif.), ranked No. 23 in the Maxpreps Xcellent 25 presented by the Army National Guard, steamrolled Long Beach Poly 37-7.

The possible shutout ended with 36 seconds left when Kameron White sprinted for a 92-yard touchdown down the right sideline, but other than that, Poly's positives were largely left at the station.

"They literally kicked our butts. They came down here to Long Beach in our backyard and they were determined and they kicked our butts," Poly coach Raul Lara said.

The young man to blame for a majority of the butt kicking was Mission Viejo's Dallas Kessman.

The senior running back cashed in for four touchdowns and 143 yards on 22 carries and started the tempo in positive fashion, taking three carries for 48 yards on the game's opening drive. He capped off the 89-yard march with a 4-yard score just 3 minutes, 15 seconds into the game, and it was smooth travels from there.

"The first one got everyone rolling. Everyone was psyched up about that," said Kessman. "Once you get the train going nobody's going to stop that. We came out fast and strong and it was a lot of fun."

Teammate Jahleel Pinner was co-conductor on this power train, scoring from 10 yards out on the second Mission Viejo drive, which was set up by a Poly three-and-out and subsequent blocked punt. Pinner was almost as effective as Kessman, racking up 118 yards on 18 attempts.

Kessman's second score came on a 3-yard run when he hurdled a diving Poly defender to make it 20-0 after three Mission Viejo possessions. It stayed that way until halftime, and after the break, Kessman capped off his team's first drive of the half with his third touchdown, an untouched jaunt from 8 yards out.

On his final touchdown, Kessman dragged a Poly defensive back for 4 yards before spinning into the end zone for a 6-yard score with 39 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Diablos (4-0) have been downright destructive on offense this year, with a 184-61 scoring advantage, and continue to look like a force in the CIF-Southern Section's Pac-5 division. Kessman said the Diablos have championship desires.

"We're going all the way, we're going to get that ring," he said.

Poly (2-2) struggled in front of the home crowd, posting 54 yards on offense even while factoring in White's run in the final minute. The Jackrabbits committed 10 penalties for 86 yards, tossed four interceptions and fumbled the ball away once. They pulled out a solid win against Narbonne the week before, but are exhibiting excruciating inconsistency, Lara said.

"Right now we're off and on, off and on every week," he said. "We have to figure this out. I thought our kids were more prepared and I thought we had them ready."

Diablos quarterback Alex Bridgford finished 9-for-20 with 96 yards and an interception, and Mission Viejo rolled up 371 yards of offense. Kicker Zachary Christensen was 4-for-5 on extra points and poked a 25-yard field goal.

The Diablos tallied 18 first downs compared to two for Long Beach Poly.

The stat leader for Poly was White, who added three runs for 11 yards on top of his 92-yard sprint. Quarterbacks Chaiyse Hales and Emmanuel Lara combined to go 5-for-17 with four interceptions and 32 yards.

Servite (Anaheim, Calif.) 16, Edison (Huntington Beach, Calif.) 9
The last time they faced each other, Servite beat Edison – ranked No. 1 in the nation at the time - in the driving rain of the Pac-5 finals, 16-6, and the next week won the Division II Bowl championship. 

Under completely dry conditions on Friday, Servite showed it can still play defense. The Friars (4-0) limited Edison (3-1) – which had averaged 44.6 points per game – to a field goal and a fourth quarter touchdown as it posted its third victory in four weeks over a team that played in a section final last season.  Next week, Servite plays host to Chaparral-Temecula, the defending Inland Division champion.

Butch Pauu, a junior linebacker, led the way for the Servite defense, whose starters finally gave up a touchdown – a 21-yard drive that included a fake field goal, a penalty half the distance to the goal to reach the 3-yard
line, and a fumble recovered in the end zone by lineman Kyle Finney.

Pauu and Karlton Dennis had second half interceptions, and Pauu knocked Edison quarterback Chase Favreau out of the game with a shoestring tackle that caused an ankle injury. The defense sacked Favreau three times and his replacement once.

The Friars didn’t have a lot of scoring, but with their defense they didn’t need much.  They scored on their first possession, a six-yard touchdown run by Jherremya Leuta-douyere, and added field goals of 52, 40 and 30 yards by Connor Loftus. Opponents have scored only 23 points this season against Servite.

Servite rushed for 200 yards, including 150 by Sean DeRosa. The Friars were on the verge of scoring at the end of the game but took a knee from the 3-yard line in the final minute.

Edison was the only team to beat Servite last season, 23-9, in a nonleague game.