By Ronnie Flores, Senior Editor CalHiSports.com

It took the California Interscholastic Federation 79 years to implement state championship bowl games in 2006 after discontinuing the state format following the 1927 season amid financial concerns.

It took Polytechnic High School of Long Beach even longer, 89 years, to return to a state football championship game. The Jackrabbits were looking to make history as the first program to win CIF state titles in the early era and the modern CIF State Championship Bowl Games, but Grant of Sacramento made history of its own as the Pacers pulled out a thrilling 25-20 victory over the Jackrabbits in front of 14,122 at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

The win was not only the first for five Northern California teams that traveled South in the first year of the expanded bowl games that included the addition of a small schools and an open division, but the biggest win ever for a Sacramento area prep football team.

"We won this football game because of our character," said Grant head coach Mike Alberghini.

The Pacers were a surprise pick for the open bowl game going up against a Poly team that came in ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 2 in the nation in the ESPN RISE FAB 50, but they came in well-prepared and with confidence fueled by those that felt De La Salle of Concord should have played the Jackrabbits.

The Pacers proved they were more than a deserving selection and scored the game-winning touchdown on a 15-yard touchdown reception by Darvin McCauley to cap a eight-play, 65-yard drive that began with 1:11 remaining in the game.

"They shut down our run and we felt early on we had to go to the pass," Alberghini explained. "We just had the answers. We felt the one thing coming in here is everyone said they're more athletic. Well, we're athletic, too."

The game didn't start out too well for Poly (14-1) as the Pacers drew first blood. On the second offensive possession for Grant (14-0), quarterback Kipeli Koniseti caught Poly cornerback Lazari Middleton looking into the backfield and hit McCauley in stride on an out and up pattern for a 54-yard touchdown with 6:59 remaining in the first period.

The CIF Sac Joaquin Div. II champions had great field position throughout the first half as Poly played its customary game of catch up. The Jackrabbits actually dodged two major bullets as Grant had two great opportunities to put points on the board and came away with zero. Following a fumble on a kickoff return by Poly's Jordan Johnson that Grant recovered at the 20-yard line, the Pacers were facing a fourth and four from the 16-yard line and Koniseti just over shot a wide open receiver who got behind Middleton in the corner of the end zone.

With 1:30 remaining in the first quarter, Poly allowed a 40-yard reception by Ronald Fields in the middle of the field, but its defense toughened up and forced a fourth and 10 from the 15-yard line to cap a eight-play, 65-yard drive that began with 1:11 remaining in the game.

"They shut down our run and we felt early on we had to go to the pass," Alberghini explained. "We just had the answers. We felt the one thing coming in here is everyone said they're more athletic. Well we're athletic, too."

The game didn't start out to well for Poly (14-1) as the Pacers drew first blood. On the second offensive possession for Grant (14-0), quarterback Kipeli Koniseti caught Poly cornerback Lazari Middleton looking into the backfield and hit wide receiver Darvin McCauley in stride on an out and up pattern for a 54-yard touchdown with 6:59 remaining in the first period. The CIF Sac Joaquin Div. II champions had great field position throughout the first half as Poly played its customary game catch up. The Jackrabbits actually dodged two major bullets as Grant had two great opportunities to put points on the board and came away with zero.

Following a fumble on a kickoff return by Poly's Jordan Johnson that Grant recovered at the 20-yard line, the Pacers were facing a fourth and four from the 16-yard line and Koniseti just over shot a wide open receiver who got behind Middleton in the corner of the end zone. With 1:30 remaining in the first quarter, Poly allowed a 40-yard reception by Ronald Fields in the middle of the field, but its defense toughened up and forced a fourth and ten from the 15-yard line. On fourth down, junior wide receiver Xavier Amey hauled in a pass near the left corner on the end zone but came down out of bounds. Poly has not been known as an offensive juggernaut in recent seasons, but its offense was just plain anemic in the first half. The ground-oriented Jackrabbits gained a total of six rushing yards and picked up five first downs. It was only a matter of time before a team as talented and tough as Grant capitalized on the Jackrabbits' lethargic play.

Again the Poly defense forced a third and long (15 to be exact), but again Middleton allowed a wideout just enough space to pull down a Koniseti pass as Howard Warren hauled in a 38-yard reception down to the Poly one-yard line. On the next play, Koniseti scored on a quarterback sneak to give Gran a seemingly commanding 13-0 lead with 10:44 remaining in the second quarter.

"Everyone said I'm not a passer," remarked Koniseti, who finished with 236 yards passing on 13 of 26 pass attempts with two touchdowns. "That's all I needed was motivation by the doubters. We may have a lot of different guys on this team, but we have a lot of chemistry and we all speak the same language."

Poly eventually made a defensive adjustment by sliding safety Stan McKay over to right cornerback and placing senior Tylor Showe at McKay's safety spot. The adjustment didn't allow Grant to execute long pass plays, but it still took an extraordinary defensive effort to help Poly get on the scoreboard. With Grant driving once again towards Poly's red zone, all-state defensive end Iuta Tepa not only stripped the ball from junior back Devontae Butler, but actually ripped the ball right from his possession and began rumbling downfield the other way. Tepa actually fumbled on his return, but the ball was recovered by teammate Juwuan Brown at Poly's 35-yard line.

With the Jackrabbits not able to run against Grant's strong defensive front, quarterback Morgan Fannell went to the air. He finally converted on a 65-yard touchdown reception to a streaking Kaelin Clay after misfiring downfield on first and second down. That made the score 13-7 in favor of the Pacers, but the Jackrabbits failed to gain any rhythm offensively. Only another fumble recovery, this one by Corey Walker after Koniseti scrambled and coughed up the ball on third and nineteen play, kept Grant's off-balance and unable to put up any more points in the first half.

In the third quarter, the tables were turned and it was Poly that enjoyed the good field position. On one possession Grant took over at its own two-yard line and escaped with a punt. But on the Pacers' next possession that started at the eight-yard line, disaster struck when Grant had its punt blocked on a surge led by Brown, linebackers Kenny Tuiloma and Matthew Jones. The ball was scooped up and returned six yards for a touchdown by 'backer George Dailey-Lyles to give the two-time CIF Southern Section Pac-Five champions a 14-13 lead with 3:16 remaining in the third quarter.

"I was on the weak side and thought I might have a shot and just went for it," Jones said. "I'm glad I did. I was even happier to see George pick it up."

The Pacers got the break it needed to put itself in scoring position after Poly's special team touchdown when Fennell (11 of 28, 164 yards passing, 1 TD, 1 INT) had a pass picked off. It was returned to the Jackrabbits' 15-yard line by defensive back Marvin Lamb when Johnson, the intended receiver, slipped and the ball floated up in the air for much too long for one of Grant's speedy skill position players not to pick it off.

The Pacers capitalized and took a 19-14 lead when Butler, who finished with 114 yards rushing on 22 carries, scored on a six-yard touchdown run on fourth and inches with 10:36 remaining in the game. The two-point conversion attempt failed.

Poly, accustomed to playing from behind in this year's playoffs, finally found daylight on the ground and answered Grant's score with a 55-yard touchdown run by senior back Melvin Richardson. The 5-foot-10, 210-pound bulldozer, who entered the game with eight postseason touchdowns, accounted for most of Poly's rushing yards on his scoring gallop that gave Poly a 20-19 lead after Fannell over shot a wide open Corey Westbrook on a two-point conversion attempt.

On Poly's other 24 rushing attempts, the Jackrabbits gained 49 yards as their vaunted defense was wearing down from being on the field much too long in the second half.

Poly, the state's all-time winningest program with 684 football victories, was trying to win the school's second CIF state title so it was only fitting that its defense was on the field to perhaps secure the win.

In 1919, coach Eddie Kienholz led Poly to a 21-14 victory over Berkeley at Tournament Park in Pasadena. Similar to Keinholz's team, which allowed just 13 points in its first 11 games heading into the title game with Berkeley, head coach Raul Lara's club was spearheaded by its defense. They allowed a paltry 8.9 points per game heading into the open division bowl against the Pacers, but all that didn't matter as Grant kept it composure and exploited Poly's fatigue in trying to cover McCauley.

Defensive back Darius Williams-Fox was giving the 5-foot-11,180-pound receiver much too cushion and outside of one tackle for loss by Daily-Lyles, the interior defense was not crisp in tackling a relatively fresh Butler on the game-winning drive. Koniseti drove the Pacers down to the 15-yard line of Poly and hit McCauley on a pass where he split Williams-Fox and Showe to score the biggest touchdown in the history of Grant's program.

"I could have done this all year, but we're not a passing team so I sat back and waited for my chance," said McCauley, who finished with eight receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns. "Coach A (Alberghini) gave it to me tonight and I did what I had to do."

Grant, which came into the game ranked No. 5 in the state, will move to at least the No. 2 spot with its five-point victory when the CalHiSports.com final state ratings for the 2008 football season are released next week.

Centennial of Corona, which recorded a 21-16 over previous No. 3 De La Salle in the Div. I bowl game, could be the team to take over the top spot.

After recording a win of this magnitude, Alberghini and his troops probably won't be worrying much about it after the magnitude of Saturday night's victory is felt when they return home.

"Our defense was worn out," Lara said. "Usually we move the ball in the second half and are able to rest our defense, but Grant did a great job. We were No. 1 and they beat us so I guess they're No. 1 but Centennial is very good, too. We didn't execute, we had our chances, but Grant came to prove something."

And prove they did.