{"id":505585,"date":"2026-10-23T17:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T17:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505585\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T17:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T17:48:09","slug":"millikan-footballs-confidence-for-long-beach-poly-clash-forged-by-0-6-start-press-telegram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505585\/","title":{"rendered":"Millikan football\u2019s confidence for Long Beach Poly clash forged by 0-6 start \u2013 Press Telegram"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LONG BEACH \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe confidence is there,\u201d Pellum said. \u201cThat\u2019s never a question with us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s starting to become the rivalry that everyone wants it to be,\u201d Millikan senior receiver Jay Williams said. \u201cI think coming into this game, I\u2019m really confident. We should come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe faced a lot of adversity,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI think during league we\u2019re dominating and we should continue to keep doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"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)\" width=\"5137\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-HSFB-LOYO-MILLIKAN-0830-TR16.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"5416093\" \/>Loyola\u2019s Zion Phelps (4) tries to stop Millikan\u2019s 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)<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got the hard part out of the way, that\u2019s what I was telling my teammates,\u201d Williams explained. \u201cI think when you\u2019re playing those hard games and just getting roughed up, it prepared us to get to where we\u2019re at right now. We\u2019re on a two-game win streak and trying to make it three.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt showed that we\u2019re going to bend, but we\u2019re not going to break,\u201d Pellum added. \u201cA lot of people, still to today, count us out and we just block all the noise out and worry about us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams was a sophomore on Millikan\u2019s team that it won the Moore League title. He said he will never forget that feeling and wants to share it with the team\u2019s underclassmen.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, senior defensive lineman Jesse Laumasima is also an experienced leader who wants to keep the team undefeated in the Moore League.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like we have to be able to motivate each other to be there for each other when times get hard,\u201d Laumasima said. \u201cThat we just stay in our heads. That we don\u2019t let anything get to us, no matter what the trash talk is or whatever it is, that we stay disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams said he wants nothing more than to win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve shown stuff of how we were feeling after the game to some of the younger guys,\u201d Williams continued. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pellum said he\u2019s fired up for the opportunity to host the rivalry game that has produced five of the past six league champions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not putting too much on the game,\u201d Pellum said. \u201cWe\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Millikan football coach Romeo Pellum explains how his team\u2019s tough nonleague schedule and 0-6 start prepared them for Moore League play.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Pellum also reveals what Millikan needs to do to beat Long Beach Poly. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hrQjcJxah4\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/hrQjcJxah4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/johnwdavis\/status\/2113670625483170062?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">October 23, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH \u2014 The Millikan football team will not be intimidated when it steps on the field to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,5479,2043,2044,131,133,132,137,127],"class_list":["post-505585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-high-school-all-sports","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505585","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=505585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}