Long Beach Poly quarterback Legend Galeai poses for a photo after their 72-0 victory over Cabrillo. (Photo by Cristian Vasquez)
LONG BEACH — Sixty-four first-half points summarized the offensive dominance of Long Beach Poly football Friday night in their 72-0 win over Cabrillo. From the get-go, the Jackrabbits were unstoppable.
Senior Kamarie Smith opened the night with a big 84-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Poly followed it with five more touchdowns in the first quarter.
“It’s been in me since my freshman year, since I was young,” Smith said.
Running back Tristan Ventura grabbed his first touchdown on a 3-yard run on the following possession to push the lead to 14.
On Cabrillo’s following drive, defensive back Aiden Matthews intercepted Fernando Leanos’ pass and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown.
Poly quarterback Legend Galeai followed it with three passing touchdowns. The first was to receiver Jayden Coley for a 45-yard touchdown to make it 29-0 thanks to a two-point conversion.
Galeai was making his third start at quarterback this season and finished the night throwing 10 of 12 passes for 190 yards and four touchdowns.
“It felt better than losing. From practice, everybody just locked in, we got it done,” said Galeai.
Poly came into this game after losing 22-21 against rivals Wilson last week.
“It’s always great to get in the win column,” Poly head coach Justin Utupo said. “What I was happy to see was our quarterback Legend [Galeai], games like this are huge for him and his development.”
Smith came back to score his second touchdown of the night on a 40-yard catch, and senior Keyonn Ray came away with an 11-yard catch to seal the 43 first-quarter points.
Jackrabbits’ sophomore running back Steven Hunter opened the second quarter with a one-yard touchdown.
Thanks to an interception by defensive back Deon Jackson, running back Tristan Ventura scored on another 1-yard touchdown run to make it 57-0.
Senior captain Jaden Hernandez pushed the Poly lead to 64 thanks to a 25-yard touchdown catch late in the half.
In all, Poly put up 229 yards of total offense in the first half.
Poly opened the second half with a safety thanks to a blocked punt by Armon Cagnolatti that rolled into the end zone. The offense followed it with an 8-yard run by Kasim Shepherd to make it 72-0.
The Jackrabbits offense tallied 291 yards of total offense, while the defense came away with four turnovers and held Cabrillo to just 12 total yards.
“Tonight was good, we won,” said Utupo. “But we can’t be complacent. We saw what that does late in games. We have to stay hungry and humble.”