{"id":504735,"date":"2026-10-22T23:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504735\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T23:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T23:14:08","slug":"auto-draft-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504735\/","title":{"rendered":"Auto Draft – The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of football and Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2026-27 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 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This Friday marks the return of the Moore League championship game, a meeting of the last two undefeated teams in the league in Millikan (2-6, 2-0) and Long Beach Poly (4-4, 2-0). While neither team is in the midst of their best season ever, both are riding two-game win streaks and arrive with high expectations for Friday and beyond into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Also like last year, Nike LA has proclaimed this one of their Rivalry Games making exclusive merchandise and other surprises\u2013at last year\u2019s game hosted by Poly at Vets, DJ Mustard did a halftime set for a thrilled group of Poly and Millikan students. A local shoe store hosted a pregame pep rally last weekend with an appearance by Poly NFL legend DeSean Jackson and others.<\/p>\n

Behind all that hype is a game\u2013and it\u2019s been a great game for the last half decade. Poly won by two last year, Millikan won the year before, Poly won in overtime by a field goal the year before that. When Rams coach Romeo Pellum took over at Millikan, he envisioned making an impact in the city like this, creating an annual game with some hype between Moore League teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve closed the gap,\u201d he said. \u201cWe took them to OT and then we beat them, last year we lost by two\u2013it just shows where we are in our growth as a program, that we\u2019re not just a one-hit wonder. We wanted to build something sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal for both teams has been to keep their teams focused on the game, and not on the hype around it and the excitement that comes with what\u2019s expected to be a sellout crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep them focused,\u201d said Poly coach Travon Patterson \u201cBecause of the Nike Rivalry Game we know there\u2019ll be excitement and attention, our main focus is to block out the noise and prepare for the game since that\u2019s the only thing that actually matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poly has been dominant in a pair of Moore League games so far, shutting out Lakewood 55-0 and Wilson 44-0. Patterson said he\u2019s pleased with the way his team has played.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to limit penalties and be disciplined, our message to the team is playing mistake free football,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t do that we\u2019ll make games tough on ourselves or we\u2019ll lose. Millikan is going to come ready to play, they\u2019ll be prepared and ready and we just need to play our game. Keep doing what we\u2019ve been doing and play Poly football.\u201d<\/p>\n

After an 0-6 start, Millikan has picked up a big 32-28 win over Lakewood and a comfortable 60-14 W over Jordan last week, showing Pellum positive signs about his team now that they have a full roster available.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re a good team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t able to finish some of those games but we\u2019re right there and we\u2019ve got all our pieces now. We haven\u2019t played many full games with our full roster, so every day we\u2019re learning and we know what we need to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poly\u2019s defense has been dominant in the league season, so far allowing no points while putting consistent pressure on quarterbacks and doing an equally good job shutting down the run and pass. Millikan QB Jonah Tuaniga has looked strong the last two weeks and is over 600 passing yards this year, along with four touchdowns and two interceptions; RB Ryan Carter was limited by injury earlier in the year but has come on strong as well and is up to five yards a carry.<\/p>\n

Tuaniga\u2019s top passing options have been Kansas-bound Jay Williams (24 catches, two touchdowns) and Aden Taufa.<\/p>\n

Millikan\u2019s defense has come up with some key stops in their wins the last two weeks, and will need to play consistently to slow down a Poly offense that\u2019s started rolling in league play. QB Trevor Scott has 608 yards passing on 73% completion with seven touchdowns and no turnovers. Jayden Coley and Zion Anderson have been consistent targets while Jeron Johnson and Elijah \u201cBubba\u201d Dawson have been the workhorse backs with almost 1,000 yards and six touchdowns combined.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits will wrap up the regular season next week at Jordan while Millikan will travel to Wilson for another pivotal game on the Rams\u2019 schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of football and Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-504735","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\/504735","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=504735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}