Mission Viejo Takes Care of Business, Beats Long Beach Poly Again, 17-12

On the strength of a defense that limited Long Beach Poly to only 101 yards, Mission Viejo scored a 17-12 victory Friday in a battle of CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division heavyweights at Mission Viejo High.

Two of the Southland's marquee programs met in a huge matchup that was won by the Diablos (3-1), despite committing four turnovers.  Mission Viejo was ranked No. 34 in the nation in the ESPN Fab 50 rankings and No. 2 in the Pac-5, while Poly was ranked No. 37 and No. 8..

Led by Ryan Harris, Colin Dzubnar and Max Redfield, Mission Viejo limited Poly's offense to only two field goals despite the Jackrabbits starting both drives in good field position -- at the Poly 47-yard line and the Mission 46.

"It's a great win," Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson said. "They always play really strong against us, and we must have their number right now. I'm sure they'd love to see us in the playoffs and if that's the case, that's fine with me."

Poly certainly had revenge on its mind; it lost last year at Poly, 37-7. But the Jackrabbits couldn't control the line of scrimmage and, for the second week in a row, were held to a modest point total. They beat Narbonne last week, 19-16.

Special teams had a hand in the victory for Mission Viejo as Redfield blocked what would have been a third field goal by Poly's Hayden Hunt.

The defense allowed Poly only nine yards rushing on 18 carries, and 92 yards passing on Chaiyse Hales' 10-of-18 performance.

Garrett Marino's fumble recovery on the first play of the game set up Mission Viejo's first touchdown, and Anthony Pierce's interception return set up Zach Christensen's field goal to make it 17-6 with 11:56 left in the game.

Mission's offense occasionally sputtered, Johnson said, though it certainly had its positive moments as well. Alex Bridgford completed 13 of 28 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns, of 24 yards to D.J. Wilson and five yards to Brandon Neville, to go ahead 14-3.

But Bridgford also had three passes intercepted, the last by Randall Goforth, whose 85-yard return for a score cut Poly's deficit to 17-12 with 5:16 left in the game. The two-point conversion pass failed.

Goforth had two interceptions.

Next Friday, Mission Viejo (3-1) plays at Carson (1-2), which lost this Friday to Santa Margarita, 39-21. The Colts opened the season with a 26-22 victory over Mater Dei, followed by a 38-18 loss to Poly.

Video to follow. Stay tuned!