Can Long Beach Poly get a three-peat in the CIF Southern Section Pac-Five Division or can the Jackrabbits even hold on to win their league title once again? In addition to Poly, today other three schools in the spotlight are Castlemont of Oakland, Paso Robles and Escalon.

Note: A coach or representative of the school should email or fax in a questionnaire in order for that school's team to be included in this feature. You can CLICK HERE to print out a questionnaire or make a photo copy of the one printed in the back of the seventh edition of the ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com Record Book and Almanac we sent to schools last March. If you can't print a questionnaire, review the categories below and simply fill in the blanks. We will add our own comments and analysis. Please fax completed questionnaire to (209) 463-1219 or email info to mark@studentsports.com.

Team Name: Poly (Long Beach)
Head Coach: Raul Lara (54-14 overall)
Last Year's Records: 14-1, 8-2 for J.V.
Returning Starters: 5 (5 offense, 0 defense)
Players Most Deserving of Preseason Honors: WR Kaelin Clay, OL-DL Wilson Edwards, RB Cory Westbrook
Newcomers Who Could Make An Impact: RB Markus Johnson, WR Alex Cannon, OL Phillip Moses
Coach's General Outlook: Despite being young and inexperienced at many positions, we should be very talented.
Other Teams To Watch From The Area (listed by coach): Lakewood and Servite (Anaheim)
All-league level players with GPAs above 3.50: None Listed
CalHiSports.com Comments: Anyone watching the Jackrabbits last year knows how talented Westbrook is as a running back. He has just been waiting for his chance to become a star and should be a major Division I prospect. Clay also is receiving mid-level Division I interest while Edwards could end up with a ride as well based on a recent offer from Hawaii. The Jackrabbits are not likely to win a third straight CIF Southern Section Pac-Five Division title due to all the holes that need to be filled, but the tricky part of their preseason ranking is that they've completely dominated Lakewood in recent years in the Moore League and Lakewood seems to be the choice by many to be the preseason No. 1 team in the Pac-Five. Should Lakewood be ranked higher than Poly despite losing more than 20 straight times to Poly? That entirely depends on how one views preseason rankings and on how one views the role of recent results in determining those rankings.

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Two freshmen crack the all-state underclass rosters along with a number of sophomores. Leading the way for medium school and small school all-state honors are Notre Dame of Belmont, Bear River, Rodriguez, Sutter and Francis Parker. Together with baseball, we've now honored nearly 300 of California's top young athletes in the last three days.

Compiled by Mark Tennis, Executive Editor
Contributing: Paul Muyskens, Steve Brand, Harold Abend

Congratulations to the following players for earning all-state softball honors for medium schools. Players eligible were from schools that were considered Division III for our state rankings as well as a few other schools with similar-sized enrollments:

Catchers
Olivia Alvarez (North, Torrance) Sr.
Hayley Miles (Center, Antelope) Jr.

Pitchers
Andriana Collins (Rodriguez, Fairfield) Jr.
Michelle Gascione (Benicia) Sr.
Stevie Goldstein (Aquinas, San Bernardino) Sr.
Stephanie Menzel (Notre Dame, Belmont) Sr.
Alex Newman (Rio Linda) Sr.
Julia Rice (Oak Park, Agoura Hills) Sr.

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By Paul Muyskens, Special to CalHiSports.com 

Going into the night, the stage was set for a historic night in Escalon as Cougars' head coach Mark Loureiro had a chance for career win number 200 while his team could remain undefeated and clinch at least of a share of the Trans Valley League championship.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, they had to face the preseason favorite Crusaders from Modesto Christian, who quickly looked to ruin the festivities jumping out to an early 14-0 lead on the way to a 21-7 lead after a quarter of play.

Still, that quick start was not enough to blunt history and Escalon. Loureiro reached No. 200 as his team came back to post a 40-21 triumph.

"This isn't just for me," said Loureiro after the game about his milestone victory, which has only been reached by Max Miller (Cordova), Frank Negri (Sacramento Foothill), Wayne Schneider (Tracy) and the late Tom Zunino (Vacaville) in Sac-Joaquin Section history. "This is for all the guys that have played for me and given their all. I really couldn't have written a script any better for the way tonight went. For such a major night, it really couldn't be any better than this."

Taking advantage of the first turnover of the game, the Crusaders quickly drove 51 yards in just three plays capped off by a six-yard touchdown run from David Sjelin. Sjelin once again found the end zone on the next Modesto Christian drive on a fourth down three-yard carry.

Escalon set the stage for what would be a common sight in the first half by needing just one play to answer back as running back Charlie McDonald swept around the left side of the line and wasn't touched until he reached the end zone for a 78-yard score.

Modesto Christian continued the shootout first quarter with its third touchdown as two Isaiah Burse passes and two Kevin Roya carries set up Pat White for an eight-yard jaunt up the middle to increase the Crusader lead to 21-7 with just under a minute remaining.

"We took their best shot in the first quarter and still were able to respond," said Loureiro.

After both teams traded punts, the Cougars started getting the momentum back in their direction as they took over with under six minutes remaining in the half at their own 34-yard line and had senior quarterback Spencer Franceschetti throw a long pass down the right sideline to Dan Thompson, who outran his defender down the sideline and caught the pass in stride for a 66-yard score sending the dead crowd into a frenzy.

After scoring three touchdowns in the opening quarter, the Crusaders struggled to move the ball as they were unable to even record a first down on their next two offensive series and after a poor punt, Escalon got the ball near midfield with just under a minute remaining before halftime.

The normally run-oriented Cougars' offense once again went into pass mode and Franceschetti completed two long passes for first downs and then with just 15 seconds left got lucky. His screen pass Jason Diniz was tipped by a defender but still found the arms of his wideout, who found his way down the left side of the field for a touchdown. After the extra point, the game was tied at 21-21.

Just when both sides figured it would tied at the haltime break, the ensuing kickoff by Diniz was a linedrive that went right off the Crusaders' upman and bounced back to Diniz, w

Figuring they might as well take a shot at getting their third one-play touchdown drive of the half, Franceschetti once again looked long down the right side of the field and found a leaping McDonald in between three defenders near the 25-yard line who managed to bounce off the tackle into the middle off the field where he was all alone for the stunning 50-yard touchdown.

The Cougars had scored twice in under 20 seconds before halftime and instead of trailing 21-14 were suddenly ahead by 28-21. The crowd went crazy.

Modesto Christian looked to tie the game immediately in the third quarter and opened the second half with a nine-play drive. That possession, though, was stopped on a fourth-down play.

Taking over at its own 20, Escalon showed its normal strength of running the ball in the wing-T. The Cougars picked up 46 yards on ten rushing plays before Franceschetti and Thompson once again hooked up on an eight-yard pass to set up a 34-yard touchdown strike to cap off a drive that took almost seven minutes off the clock while increasing their lead to a 34-21 score.

McDonald capped the scoring with the lone touchdown of the final quarter on a 25-yard carry with just under 12 minutes remaining.

Francheschetti entered the game with just seven touchdown passes and 364 yards in seven games, but had a career night with over 200 yards passing and four touchdowns.

The loss was Modesto Christian's second of the season and likely drops the Crusaders from the top spot in the CalHiSports.com CIF Small Schools North bowl game rankings.

Escalon is just over the cutoff line between Division II and Division III so it doesn't yet appear in any of the divisional bowl game rankings despite its 8-0 record. One scenario to keep in mind, though, should Louriero's team win the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Div. IV title (which probably would have to include a win over Central Catholic of Modesto) is that Central Catholic has a win over Div. II ranked St. Mary's of Stockton.

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