AMBITION: Poly’s varsity football team has high hopes of winning a CIF title this year.
By Jack Weggeland, Staff Writer
With nine offensive and eight defensive players returning for their senior year at Riverside Poly High School, the Bears hope to bring home a CIF Championship this season. Quarterback Chandler Drachslin (12) stated, “CIF is our main goal as a team and as a program. That’s what we have practiced for since March. With our hard work, we’ll be paid off in the end—be paid with a ring!”
After defeating Colony High School, city rival King High School and three other opponents, Poly now stands at 5-0 this season. This impressive string of victories now places Poly at the top of the rankings in the Inland Valley football standings, ahead of Rancho Verde, Valley View, Canyon Springs, John W. North and Arlington.
In their division, Poly is currently ranked fourth, sitting anxiously behind Perris, San Jacinto and Heritage. Despite this ranking, Drachslin expressed, “We aren’t worried about them at all, just about our opponent this week. We are looking at the season one game at a time. We have to be 1-0 every week.”
Riverside Poly started off the 2014 season with a bang. The Bears’ first victory this season was against CIF rival Colony High School with the final score of 24-14. As it was the first game of the season, Poly sought to set a tempo that would lead it to success and seek redemption for its loss against them at CIF. Starting safety Pary Townsend (12) stated, “It was exhilarating to beat the team that knocked us off [of] CIF, but it was also a game that proved to [us] that this year would take a one-hundred percent effort on every down. The team we faced this year [was] mostly returners from last year’s team, so knowing we walked away from the game with a W was a great triumph for us!”
According to Mr.Wiley, an assistant coach of Poly’s only undefeated CIF champion team, “This team, of all I’ve seen since, has all the pieces: a balanced offense, strong defense and superb coaching to become CIF champs.”