LONG BEACH — The Millikan football team will not be intimidated when it steps on the field to play Long Beach Poly on Friday night in a showdown for first place in the Moore League.
Under Rams coach Romeo Pellum, the team has a body of work, dating back several seasons, that shows they can compete with and even beat Long Beach Poly.
“The confidence is there,” Pellum said. “That’s never a question with us.”
Since 2021, the Millikan vs. Long Beach Poly has become a true rivalry, with the Rams pulling off a 53-40 win in 2024 to secure their first outright league title since the 1970s.
“I think it’s starting to become the rivalry that everyone wants it to be,” Millikan senior receiver Jay Williams said. “I think coming into this game, I’m really confident. We should come out on top.”
The Rams began the season 0-6 in nonleague play, losing to quality opponents like Huntington Beach, Loyola, Downey, Capistrano Valley, Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks and Palos Verdes. Five of those teams will be in Division 2 or Division 3 for the CIF-SS playoffs.
“We faced a lot of adversity,” Williams said. “I think during league we’re dominating and we should continue to keep doing that.”
Loyola’s Zion Phelps (4) tries to stop Millikan’s Jay Williams (8) as the Cubs take on the Rams in Long Beach, CA, on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (Photo by Tracey Roman, Contributing Photographer)
The 6-foot-5, three-star recruit who is committed to Kansas believes his squad, which is 2-6 overall and 2-0 in the Moore League, will be ready to compete against team it plays the rest of the season.
“We got the hard part out of the way, that’s what I was telling my teammates,” Williams explained. “I think when you’re playing those hard games and just getting roughed up, it prepared us to get to where we’re at right now. We’re on a two-game win streak and trying to make it three.”
“It showed that we’re going to bend, but we’re not going to break,” Pellum added. “A lot of people, still to today, count us out and we just block all the noise out and worry about us.”
Williams was a sophomore on Millikan’s team that it won the Moore League title. He said he will never forget that feeling and wants to share it with the team’s underclassmen.
Meanwhile, senior defensive lineman Jesse Laumasima is also an experienced leader who wants to keep the team undefeated in the Moore League.
“I feel like we have to be able to motivate each other to be there for each other when times get hard,” Laumasima said. “That we just stay in our heads. That we don’t let anything get to us, no matter what the trash talk is or whatever it is, that we stay disciplined.”
Williams said he wants nothing more than to win.
“I’ve shown stuff of how we were feeling after the game to some of the younger guys,” Williams continued. “I think them seeing how it was everyone holding that trophy will motivate the whole team to just want to go out there and win again and get our trophy back.”
Pellum said he’s fired up for the opportunity to host the rivalry game that has produced five of the past six league champions.
“We’re not putting too much on the game,” Pellum said. “We’ve played tough teams this year. We have another tough match in front of us. But the big thing is just what can we do better, what we need to do to win the game.”
Millikan football coach Romeo Pellum explains how his team’s tough nonleague schedule and 0-6 start prepared them for Moore League play.
Coach Pellum also reveals what Millikan needs to do to beat Long Beach Poly. pic.twitter.com/hrQjcJxah4
— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) October 23, 2026