Health & Fitness
Wicks, Jackrabbits Too Much for Amat as Poly Advances
Gerard Wicks runs for 256 yards and three touchdowns as the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits advances to the PAC 5 quarterfinals against Mission Viejo, the division's #2 seeded team
Gerard Wicks ran for 256 yards on 19 carries and three touchdowns to lead the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits past the visiting Bishop Amat Lancers 40-25 Friday night in a PAC 5 division first round game .
“This is Poly football,” head coach Raul Lara said. “We like to use our running backs to run the ball, and sometimes do a play action, when needed, and pass the ball.”
Wicks’ backfield mate Manusamoa Luuaga added 148 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown.
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It was Bishop Amat who drew first blood when Anthony Camarago returned an interception 25 yards for the first points of the game.
Poly responded on its next drive, going 80 yards, culminating in a one yard scoring run by Luuaga to tie the game 7-7 with less than 8:00 to go in the first period.
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“They (Wicks and Luuaga) are two different kind of runners,” explained Lara. “Wicks is faster obviously, as you have seen. Once he is able to get to the edge, he is gone. Luuaga is more of the power back.”
Amat, however would not go away, scoring on a 57-yard run by Darren Andrews on the very next series to retake the lead 14-7.
Andrews led the Amat running attack, going for 97 yards on five carries and a touchdown.
Wicks scored the first of his three touchdowns scoring on a 13-yard run set up by a 65-yard run by Luuaga two plays prior.
Edward Mancilla added a 25-yard field goal to retake the lead 17-13, but Amat would then go scoreless until late in the fourth quarter, missing two more field goal attempts in the process.
“The defensive guys did a great job,” Lara said. “We let them score too many times, but we made adjustments and they did a great job shutting them down in the second half.”
With a little over two minutes to go in the game, Amat drove down the field, on primarily passing plays, culminating with a Renee Carrillo scoring run. Amat attempted and successfully recovered the ensuing onside kick with 22 seconds remaining, but were unable to score again as time ran out.
Poly faces the #2 seed Mission Viejo Diablos next Friday .
BOX SCORE
School Name
1
2
3
4
Final
Bishop Amat
14
3
0
8
25
Long Beach Poly
14
13
6
7
40
