{"id":62436,"date":"2025-11-20T19:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T19:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62436\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T19:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T19:00:08","slug":"long-beach-poly-boys-soccer-preview-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62436\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Poly Boys\u2019 Soccer Preview \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s high school soccer coverage for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Long Beach Poly soccer alum\u00a0Kennedy Justin.<\/a><\/p>\n

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits\u00a0Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the past three seasons, the Long Beach Poly boys\u2019 soccer program has amassed five playoff wins across three playoff divisions. Included in that stretch was a trip to a CIF-SS title game and a berth in the CIF State SoCal Regional playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits have been one of the top programs in the Moore League recently, a spot which has lent itself to playoff success in the competitive equity era. After tying for third in the league table a season ago, Poly knocked off the top seed in Division 4 and made a run to the CIF quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Every season presents a new challenge against the rest of the city\u2019s talented squads, but those battles prepare teams for postseason competition, and expectations are always high for the green & gold.<\/p>\n

With head coach Eric Leon taking a step back from his coaching duties this season\u2013while still remaining heavily involved with running the program\u2013it\u2019s a chance for Poly alum Carlos Casillas to step into a formalized role as head coach. Casillas has spent a decade coaching in the program\u2013including eight seasons as the freshman head coach\u2013so he knows the culture and is familiar with the players. He also gained valuable experience as the interim head coach last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know all these kids. I coached almost all of them as freshmen, so we know each other really well and I\u2019m excited,\u201d said Casillas. \u201cI just want to continue doing what Coach Eric did for us here at Poly. He\u2019s still part of our program, but I want to continue the success he\u2019s had. And being a Poly alum, I love this school and I love this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

It will be a bit of a youth movement for the Jackrabbits this season with just a half-dozen seniors on the roster, but there\u2019s valuable experience returning and some promising young talent looking to keep the Jackrabbits competitive now and into the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited for this year,\u201d said Casillas. \u201cBecause with this young team and the seniors that we have, after last year\u2019s run they\u2019ve definitely been getting ready for the season coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2025Forward Damian Gonzalez is a four-year varsity player for the Jackrabbits and a major threat in front of goal.<\/p>\n

Two of Poly\u2019s senior class have been four-year varsity players, going back to their CIF runner-up squad in 2022-23. One is Damian Gonzalez, who is expected to lead Poly\u2019s front line and be the main scoring target. He\u2019ll be joined up top by classmate Daniel Silva as they hope to form a dynamic duo to bring goals for the Jackrabbits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the box, I\u2019m confident enough to strike a ball, finish it, and I\u2019m a good enough player to hold up the ball and get my wingers in behind. I just like to score goals,\u201d said Gonzalez, showing classic striker\u2019s mentality. \u201cI think this year our chemistry is better. We know we lost talented players, but this year we\u2019re more talented together. It\u2019s not just one player being so good, it\u2019s the entire team being good, touching the ball and everything. It\u2019s more of a team effort this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Matthew Sanchez is back on the left wing, and the midfield will be a blend of new players looking to work together to form a strong connection and get the Jackrabbits moving forward. They may not wow you with their size, but their technical skill is there, and the hope is that having a variety of players on the ball will help diversify Poly\u2019s attack this season.<\/p>\n

Coach Casillas is high on the trio of Luis Quintero, Carlos Casillas, and Adan Davila stepping into bigger roles in the midfield this season.<\/p>\n

Defensively, returner Jonah Gershenson is expected to lead the back line. They\u2019ll work in front of returning goalkeeper Mekiah Twal, who got experience last season and Casillas says has improved over during offseason training.<\/p>\n

Casillas also has a pair of freshmen on the varsity roster who are challenging for playing time right away. One is Xavier Delouth, who has good size and a high soccer IQ making him a potential fit at center back. The other 9th grader that could see the field is Alex Gomez, who has the speed and skill to play pretty much any position on the field, according to Casillas.<\/p>\n

With some new players coming into important roles, the emphasis has been on preparing mentally for the rigors of the Moore League and being at or near your best every single night. And given how the roster lines up, a big focus for Poly has been on the defensive half.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I told the boys, it\u2019s gonna be the effort that we bring on defense,\u201d Casillas explained. \u201cBecause offensively, I know what we have. So it\u2019s the effort that we\u2019re going to bring defensively to win those 50\/50 tackles. You\u2019ve got to win those 50\/50 headers \u2026 I was trying to tell all our newcomers, it\u2019s not club (soccer). High school soccer and the Moore League, every game is a toss up. It\u2019s a fight. It comes down to those little battles on the field. You\u2019ve got to win those to make a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits will have some tough games in the non-league schedule, visiting Palos Verdes (Dec. 5) and Los Alamitos (Dec. 22) while hosting Sunny Hills (Dec. 10) in preparation for league play.<\/p>\n

Poly\u2019s Moore League opener is scheduled for Dec. 17 when they\u2019ll host Cabrillo before going on Winter Break.<\/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\u00a0Kennedy Justin.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-62436","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\/62436","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=62436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}