CIF State Bowl Championships
Open Division: Grant (Sacramento) 25, Long Beach Poly 20
Grant stars: WR Darvin McCauley 8 catches, 135 yards, 2 TDs, RB Devontae Butler 104 yards, 1 TD; LB Tony Matavale 9 tackles, Kipeli Koniseti 236 yards passing, two TDs passing, one running.
Poly stars: WR Kaelin Clay 4 catches, 92 yards, TD, LB George Daily-Lyles 7 tackles, TD return; DT Juwuan Brown 8 tackles, blocked punt.
Other Bowl Game Stories: Open, D1, D2, D3, Small Schools.
Game previews: Open, D1. D2, D3, Small schools.
Final MaxPreps National Rankings: 6. Centennial (15-0), 14. Grant (14-0); 15. Long Beach Poly (14-1); 19. De La Salle (12-2); 20. Bellarmine (12-1); 22. St. Bonaventure (14-1); 23. Tesora (13-1).
Final California rankings: Click here.
Earlier feature: Grant coach Mike Alberghini.
By Mitch StephensMaxPreps.com
CARSON, Calif. - The team many thought didn't belong on California’s biggest stage pulled off Northern California’s only victory and one of the nation's biggest upsets of the season late Saturday night at the Home Depot Center.
Fittingly, it was the country’s last high school game of 2008.
Grant, a little-known school from the toughest streets of Sacramento, took a me-against-the-world approach and stunned one of the nation’s most renowned programs with a 25-20 victory over Long Beach Poly in the CIF State Bowl Game Open Division championship.
The Pacers (14-0) matched Poly (14-1) in every area, even resiliency, as it squandered an early lead, but came back from two fourth-quarter deficits to knock off the nation’s No. 4 team, a tough-minded squad that had pulled off four playoff games with second-half comebacks.
“We shocked the world,” skipping players and fist-flailing coaches kept shouting during a raucous post-game celebration. “We shocked the world.”
Darvin McCauley, who opened the scoring with a brilliant 54-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter, ended things off with a 15-yard scoring reception from Kipeli Koniseti with 1 minute, 11 seconds remaining for the game-winner.
Grant’s defense, which gave up just 243 yards, allowed one first down but then forced three incompletions. On fourth-and-10 from midfield, Morgan Fennell completed a pass to Kaelin Clay that landed inches short of a first down.
The unranked Pacers, who many thought belonged in the lesser Division I game behind six-time mythical national champion De La Salle or not in the Bowl Game series at all, ran out the clock, setting off a wild celebration.
Southern California had won the previous four Bowl games over the two-day event - and nine of the first 10 since the CIF began its version of a state championship format in 2006 - but Grant saved Northern California from a clean sweep.
More so, this was a triumph for a hard-knock inner city region of the state capitol.
"I've said it 1,000 times, but for a lot of these kids it's us against the world every day of their lives," Grant coach Mike Alberghini said. "Today we manned up and we conquered that big world."
Koniseti, who completed 13 of 26 for 236 yards and two scores and added a 1-yard sneak for another touchdown, was overcome with emotion minutes after the game.
"Courage baby, courage," he said. "Coaches said it was up to me to lead this team. They put the pressure on and I got down a few times. But I love this team right here. They're my family. I'll play to the death for these people."
Now that’s intensity.
After Koniseti gave the Pacers a 13-0 lead with a 1-yard sneak early in the second quarter, Poly took the lead 14-13 on a beautiful 55-yard touchdown bomb from Fennell to Clay late in the second quarter and a blocked punt and 6-yard TD return by George Daily-Lyles with 3:16 left in the third.
It was the first and only touchdown of an illustrious high school career for Daily-Lyles.
“I was just trying to make a play and step up at the right time,” Daily-Lyles said.
Many thought Grant would fold, but instead cornerback Marvin Lamb picked off a deflected Fennell pass, returned it 30 yards to the Poly 15. Three plays later, Devontae Butler (22 carries, 104 yards) swept left end for a 6-yard touchdown, giving the Pacers a 19-14 lead with 10:36 remaining.
“Both teams showed a lot of heart,” Alberghini said. “Both teams wouldn’t quit.”
Back came Poly, as Melvin Richardson, bottled up all night, busted loose on a 55-yard TD run with 9:39 left. Richardson, who had just 19 yards on his other 11 carries, scored a game-winning 61-yard touchdown late last week in a 20-17 win over Tesoro.
“Everyone probably thought we were cooked then,” Alberghini said. “I never lost faith.”
After a pair of possessions, Grant went on a 68-yard march in eight plays, keyed by runs of 22 and 12 yards by Butler, and finished off on a short inside route by McCauley (8 catches, 135 yards), who split top-notch defensive backs Darius Williams-Fox and Ryan Willits.
“It was a made-up play,” McCauley said. “It was supposed to be a fade but they kept playing me deep. I told (Koniseti) to throw it behind me and that I'd come back and get it. That's what I did and we got into the end zone. That was the greatest feeling in the world."
Said Alberghini: “Darvin McCauley was the man tonight. So many times we don’t throw to him in games and he goes home unhappy. But tonight in the center stage he came up big. Really big.”
So did Grant, which finished with 369 yards against a defense generally regarded as one of the best in the country. Poly, who has sent more players to the NFL than any high school in the country, came in with a 26-game win streak.
All of it came crashing down against an unlikely foe.
“You have to give it up to NorCal,” George-Lyles said. “We watched them on film and thought we had them physically and mentally. But they came to play.”
Said Poly defensive end and All-American candidate Iuta Tepa: “You can’t win them all. You got to give (Grant) props for coming all this way and winning.”
Poly coach Raul Lara gave his team lots of love as well. He called it an “awesome” season and his players “champions” after winning the Pac-5 Division of the Southern Section, which might just be the nation’s toughest tournament.
His team, however, had a propensity to fall behind and find a way to pull a Jackrabbit out of its hat late.
But Saturday it ran into a well-rested squad – the Pacers had two weeks off since its Sac-Joaquin Section title game while Poly battled four straight weeks in the Pac-5 - and more importantly equally-willed squad.
Ultimately his team’s lack of offense – it managed just eight first downs and its bread-and-butter, the running game, managed just 3.1-yard per carry in 25 attempts – placed too great a burden on the defense, which had bailed out the Jackrabbits far too often this season.
“We didn’t give (the defense) enough time to rest,” Lara said. “We had three-and-outs much too often. I could tell during timeouts our guys were tired.”
That didn’t bode well facing a team that was tired of hearing how it didn’t belong. The Pacers were charged from the moment they entered the Home Depot Center 60 minutes before kickoff until 30 minutes after the final whistle.
“We came out and hit them hard right away,” said Tony Matavale, a jackhammer of a 6-1, 220-pound linebacker who finished with a game-high nine tackles, three for losses. “We wanted to let (Poly) and every one know that we do belong in the Open Division. We wanted to prove that what people were saying was wrong and we were right and to win this game would prove it to everyone.”
The week-long hyperbole did nothing to help Poly. It fed into Alberghini’s long-standing against-all-odds sermon and energized 40 already hungry teens against the 100-or-so-strong Jackrabbits.
“I don’t know how many times we were told this week that (Poly) would be too fast and too athletic for us,” Alberghini said. “But we met the challenge. We would not be intimidated, not out-run, not out-hit.
“This was a great inner-city battle with two teams that stood in there and took blow after blow. I knew this would go the entire 12 rounds and there would be no knockout.
“But we made the last play. …tonight was our night.”
E-mail Mitch Stephens at mstephens@maxpreps.com
Grant 25, Long Beach Poly 20Grant 7 6 0 12 - 25
Poly - 0 7 7 6 - 20
First quarter
G – McCauley 54 pass from Koniseti (Koniseti kick), 6:59
Second quarter
G – Koniseti 1 run (kick failed), 10:44
LB – Clay 65 pass from Fennell (Roniss kick), 4:52
Third quarter
LB – Daily-Lyles 6 blocked punt return (Roniss kick), 3:16
Fourth quarter
G – Butler 6 run (run failed), 10:36
LB – Richardson 55 run (pass failed), 9:39
G – McCauley 15 pass from Koniseti (pass failed), 1:11
Team Statistics
First downs: Grant 15, LB 8
Rushes-yards: Grant 39-133, LB 25-79
Passing: Grant 13-26-0-236, LB 11-28-1-164
Total yards: Grant 369, LB 243
Turnovers: Grant 2, Poly 2
Possession: Grant 26:07, Poly 21:53
Penalties: Grant 9-69, LB 6-70
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Grant, Butler 22-104, Koniseti 16-31, Team 1-(-2). Poly, Richardson 12-74, Barner 8-20, Fennell 5-(-15).
Passing
Grant, Koniseti 13-26-0-236. Poly, Fennell 11-28-1-164.
Receiving
Grant, McCauley 8-135, Warren 2-52, Fields 1-40, Amey 1-1, Jones 1-8. Poly, Clayt 4-92, Jonson 2-29, Westbrook 2-19, McKay 1-19, Smith 1-3, Barner 1-2.
Tackles
Grant, Matavale 9, Wallace 8, Warren 6; Poly, Brown 8, Daily-Lyles 7, McKay 6, Williams-Fox 6, Showe 6, M. Jones 6.
