{"id":124833,"date":"2026-01-08T06:53:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/124833\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:53:06","slug":"long-beach-poly-holds-off-millikan-for-scoreless-draw-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/124833\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Poly Holds Off Millikan For Scoreless Draw \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s high school soccer coverage for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Long Beach Poly soccer alum Kennedy Justin.<\/a><\/p>\n

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\n

The562\u2019s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was an odd feeling for both Millikan and Long Beach Poly as they walked off the field after their Moore League boys\u2019 soccer matchup Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

For Millikan, the Rams were left disappointed in their inability to take advantage of opportunities at the goal, a familiar feeling after a season-opening draw against Wilson last week. On the other end, a night of injuries plagued what was otherwise a huge defensive effort for Long Beach Poly at home.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the Jackrabbits were able to walk away at ease, minimizing any damage from a potent Millikan offense by holding off the Rams to earn a scoreless draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want the win, but at the end of the day this is the Moore League, and every game is going to be like this,\u201d said Poly coach Carlos Casillas. \u201cWe know what to expect in these league matchups. As much as we wanted the win, we\u2019ll take the 0-0 draw, move on, and try to build on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The visitors heavily outshot the Jackrabbits 13\u20133 for the match and had four corner kicks to just one for Poly. Millikan was by far the more physical team, doubling the Jackrabbits in fouls, but none of those advantages turned into goals for the Rams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we had significantly more opportunities, but that\u2019s the way it goes,\u201d said Millikan head coach Jeff Schofield. \u201cIt\u2019s the second straight game where we\u2019ve had more chances and haven\u2019t been able to put them away. That part is a little bit frustrating, but it\u2019s also a positive that we\u2019ve been able to create chances\u2014so you can look at it one of two ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credit can go to Poly goalkeeper Mekiah Twal, who was kept busy all night against Millikan\u2019s attack. The junior kept a clean sheet while racking up a half dozen saves and swallowed up a handful of shots and corner kicks in the final 20 minutes to help secure the draw for his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst off, I just have to give some praise to my defense,\u201d Twal said. \u201cIt\u2019s just confidence as a team to come out and be ready for anything that is coming our way. Millikan wasn\u2019t playing for a tie and neither were we, so I just had to stay on my toes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millikan found its opportunities early and often, including a pair of first-half shots from both Vonnae Ocegueda and Ivan Cervantes Vega. Vega had a quality look down the middle in the 17th minute, followed by another close opportunity off Millikan\u2019s only corner kick of the half. The Rams then had a shot split wide off the head of Grant Johnson in the 31st minute.<\/p>\n

The Rams had two of their three second-half corner kicks in the final minutes of the game, including one from Pablo Lica that sailed off the head of a Poly defender. Lica had another corner kick just moments later, which ricocheted to the feet of Jesse Torres for a shot from 10 yards out, but Poly was able to get a foot on it to avoid any damage.<\/p>\n

Regarding those scoring opportunities, Schofield said it\u2019s up to his team to work through the frustration that comes with a lack of production, noting that he\u2019s seen enough on the field to know they\u2019re more than capable of finding a rhythm on offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not creating chances then you have to do something different, but our two guys up front scored a bunch of goals earlier in the year,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know they have the ability to do that, and we just have to keep training it and building confidence. It\u2019s one of those things where once the first one goes in, we\u2019ll get some momentum going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poly\u2019s handful of chances at breaking the scoreboard came around the midway point of the game, but the Jackrabbits were forced to play shorthanded after having a pair of players carted off the field with injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, those injuries took a couple of our players off the field that bring a little extra to the team, so we had to play it a little more defensively,\u201d Casillas said. \u201cWe got a little bit healthier towards the end, which helped a little bit, but honestly we just need to get healthy. It\u2019s been big injuries that we\u2019ve been dealing with, and it\u2019s made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, guys like Twal have assured the team that it\u2019ll be a collective effort on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a team and we\u2019re a family, and if our offense isn\u2019t producing then that means our defense will step up until they can,\u201d Twal said. \u201cWe\u2019re one unit and we play together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits will be back in action at Wilson on Friday, while Millikan will be hosting Jordan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s high school soccer coverage for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Long Beach Poly soccer alum Kennedy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-124833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}