Tough lesson pays off for Servite
LONG BEACH - Losing is not such a bad thing … if you can learn from it.
During last year’s 35-34 overtime loss to Lakewood, Servite had a number of young players help the Friars come back from a two-touchdown deficit to force the extra session.
Servite was able to put that lesson to good use Friday night, rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to pull out a 21-18 victory over Long Beach Poly in the second round of the CIF-SS Pac-5 Division playoffs.
Servite quarterback Cody Fajardo remembered last year’s game with Lakewood and dedicated Friday’s come-from-behind victory to his fellow seniors who were with him that night in 2008.
“We have a lot of seniors that played last year in that game (versus Lakewood) so we knew what we had to do to come back,” Fajardo said among a cheering throng of fans.
After Kaelim Clay broke a 64-yard scoring run with 4:29 left to give Poly an 18-14 lead with 4:29 left, Fajardo and company struck right back, scoring on a 9-yard pass to Chris Nicholls on fourth down with little more than a minute left. The Friars then blocked a field goal attemopt with 11 seconds left to secure the victory.
Servite beat Poly, 30-7, in nonleague play, but Fajardo and his teammates had no doubt this would be a different ball game from the getgo.
“We played them early on when they had a lot of young guys, so we knew all it would take is for them to get a few games under their belts and they were going to be okay,” Fajardo said. “They definitely wanted a little revenge and they played well tonight.”
Servite coach Troy Thomas said he knew Poly would come to play and gave credit to the Jackrabbits.
“Beating Poly is a great thing, no doubt about it,” Thomas said. “They’re about the biggest thing footballwise in this area of the United States, so any win over them is a big win.”
Thomas was understandably nervous before Friday’s game, jokingly hoping his squad hadn’t had too much turkey.
“We better not have if we’re going to be chasing these guys around all night,” Thomas said.
Thomas said his coaches told the players during preparation for the game that things would definitely be different in Week 12 than they were in Week 1. After keeping things on the ground primarily in the first meeting, Thomas said the Jackrabbits’ passed the ball better in this game which kept the Friars on their toes.
Thomas praised his squad for its poise.
with playing with a lot of poise and character in the game. “The first time we played them we ran around like a chicken with our head cut off,” Thomas said. “We knew what this game meant tonight and we played like it.”
