To know where we are is to understand how we got here.
Long Beach Poly and Mater Dei are two of the most iconic and recognizable programs in the nation. No school has sent more players to the NFL than Long Beach Poly. Mater Dei is one of two high schools to have two Heisman Trophy winners.
When the two historic programs collide for the Pac-5 championship on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on FOX Sports West, it will be a meeting that is 13 years in the making.
Both teams will walk onto the field in their home uniforms on Saturday night inside the same stadium - albeit with a different name - they last met in for a sectional final in 1999.
The 1999 meeting concluded the trilogy of three consecutive CIF Division I championship games between the two programs. Those three matchups were the stuff of legends.
1997 - Long Beach Poly 28, No. 1 Mater Dei 25 - Los Angeles Coliseum
Mater Dei, the No. 1 team in the nation, entered the game riding a 27-game win streak. The previous year, the Monarchs beat Poly 42-14 in the semifinals on their way to the 1996 crown and a national championship.
Poly was carrying 12 years of frustration into the game at the Los Angeles Coliseum. They hadn’t won a CIF title since 1985.
For all of the frustration the Jackrabbits carried that night, Herman Ho-Ching was there to relieve it all.
The Jackrabbits scored on the first play from scrimmage that night when Chris Lewis connected with Andre Cyrus for a 76-yard touchdown. Lewis threw three touchdowns on the night, but the story of the game was Ho-Ching.
“We got a dose of Herman Ho-Ching that I’ve never even (imagined),” Mater Dei head coach Bruce Rollinson recalls. “That kid was -- and they had a whole bunch of guys -- but I looked at him and said ‘Wow, look at this guy.’ I mean, he was just a dude.”
The talented tailback carried the ball 13 times for 69 yards and caught two passes for 98 yards. He had three touchdowns on the night as the Jackrabbits found success against a Mater Dei defense that had only allowed 9.8 points per game on the season in a 28-25 win.
“It was kind of like knocking off Goliath,” said former Long Beach Poly head coach Jerry Jaso.
Ho-Ching’s big night helped Poly get over the hump.
“We were struggling during the late ‘80s and ‘90s getting out of the second round and then we finally get to the semi's, and then we couldn’t get out of the semi's, and then we finally made that championship game and then we’re playing the No. 1 team in the country which was Mater Dei at that time,” said Raul Lara, who was the defensive coordinator at the time. “All I remember (about) that game...is going up to Jaso before the game started and I said ‘Hey, let’s have fun.’ I think when we said that, all of us calmed down. We just laid it all out and next thing you know, we beat them and (there was) just the joy of finally winning it.”
1998 - Mater Dei 33, No. 2 Long Beach Poly 26 - Edison Field
The teams met again the following year, but the setting changed to Edison Field in Anaheim.
This time it was Poly carrying the 27-game winning streak and they were the No. 2 team in the nation. Poly was loaded with players like future USC Trojans Kareem Kelly and Darrell Rideaux.
Future Stanford Cardinal Chris Lewis, the last great quarterback to come out of Poly, led the state in touchdown passes and was largely considered the No. 2 quarterback in the nation behind Chris Simms.
It was the rematch. But for all of the glitz and glamour the favored Jackrabbits brought into the game, they couldn’t stop the train that was Matt Grootegoed, another future USC Trojan.
Grootegoed put together one of the most epic performances in CIF history. The running back/linebacker made plays in all three phases of the game.
He carried the ball 33 times for 244 yards and two touchdowns to lead Mater Dei to a 33-26 win. It was the fourth title of the 90s for the Monarchs and their third in five years.
“You can’t measure the heart of a Matt Grootegoed,” Rideaux told Scout.com in 2004.
“I’ve never seen someone in a zone and so focused as he was that night. It seemed like as the game went along he just got stronger and stronger and his teammates fed off that. We just didn’t have an answer for him. He changed the dynamic of the whole game.”
Added Mater Dei head coach Bruce Rollinson: “’98 was about Grootegoed …There are people that claim that the ‘98 game could have been, in the history of the CIF, one of the greatest games that has been played or one of the greatest individual performances that has ever been played. I mean, he was spectacular on both sides of the ball.”
It was a game Rideaux believes transcended the game of high school football into what we know it to be today.
On a personal level, Grootegoed’s performance made being his teammate an adjustment for Rideaux when Grootegoed joined him at USC two years later.
“It was strange when he first got to USC because he was now my teammate but Mater Dei was our primary rival, and it was hard at first for me to be his teammate,” he told Scout. “I mean you have to respect his efforts and it was an honor to play with him but he was just our enemy for so long.”
1999 - Mater Dei 21, Long Beach Poly 21 - Edison Field
The Rubber Match.
Edison Field was the backdrop once again for these titans to settle the score. Grootegoed’s opportunity to duplicate his epic performance from the year prior was ended abruptly after he suffered a sprained ankle in the first quarter.
Poly led 21-10 at the half but was scoreless in the second half. Mater Dei kicker Bryan New tied the game on a 30-yard field goal with 7:45 left in the fourth quarter.
When the clock hit triple zeros, the game was tied 21-21. There was no overtime and Poly and Mater Dei were named co-champs.
It was the first tie in a final since Poly tied Edison 14-14 in 1985. Both teams were left stunned.
“The ‘99 (game) is still like, I mean, we looked at each other and said ‘Well, you got to be kidding me.’ I remember saying well let’s just go out in the parking lot and finish it if they don’t want to legally finish it here,” Rollinson said. “It was this hollow feeling. We were all just standing around going ‘Well, what do we do now?’ And I know they wanted to continue to play.
“It was weird walking out of that locker room that night. You didn’t know how to feel. I had some regular season ties but not in the championship game.”
Poly running back Hershel Dennis carried the ball 17 times for 144 yards.
Future Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart went 15-30 for 240 yards and two touchdowns for Mater Dei. The Monarchs became the first school to repeat since Servite in 1982-83. It was their fifth title in the 90s but all the talk after the game was about the tie.
“I mean, literally, probably the majority of the postgame interviews and stuff weren’t about the kids who just played 14 games and were co-champions, it was about we can’t have this happen again,” Rollinson said. “I remember saying, ‘Look guys, we got the rest of the week to talk about the tie. Let’s play tribute to the great Poly players and the great Mater Dei players that just played to this tie.’”
Here we go again
Whenever Poly and Mater Dei get together it’s a big deal. Lara and Rollinson like to say the two programs are “playoff rivals.” With so much history between them, the question is often asked why don’t they play every year.
“Raul and I just laugh at that and say ‘Why? We’re going to get matched up (in the playoffs),’” Rollinson said. “There’s no doubt in my mind if there’s a way to manipulate the bracket fair and legal this is what they want.”
After the ’98 game Rideaux said if there was a team Poly had to pass the torch to, he was glad it was Mater Dei.
There is a tremendous amount of respect between the two programs. Lara loves the story of how both teams were in Oregon for a 7-on-7 tournament and they shared a bus.
“Our kids and their kids were having a great old time,” Lara said. “Our coaches and their coaches – great old time. You tell me, how many rival schools would do that?”
Unlike the matchups in the late 90s where it was expected Poly and Mater Dei would collide in the finals, nobody expected this in 2012. Sure the teams have combined for 28 CIF championships (18 for Long Beach Poly and 10 for Mater Dei), but the Monarchs were coming off of a 4-6 season and Poly started this season 1-3. However, on Saturday, these two “playoff rivals” will write another chapter in their historic rivalry.
Mater Dei holds a 6-5-1 edge all-time.
They last met in the postseason in 2010 – a 26-10 first round win for Mater Dei. On Saturday, they’ll play for it all.
“It’s a respected rivalry but I’ll tell you what, at 7:37 it’s going to be full tilt boogie,” Rollinson said.
Here we go again.
