{"id":97992,"date":"2025-12-17T07:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T07:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97992\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T07:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T07:50:07","slug":"long-beach-poly-wilson-battle-to-scoreless-draw-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/97992\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Poly, Wilson Battle to 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\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

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by\u00a0Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

Whenever Long Beach Poly and Wilson girls\u2019 soccer square off, you can bet you\u2019re in for a physical, emotional matchup\u2013usually one that comes down to the final whistle.<\/p>\n

Tuesday night\u2019s meeting between the Jackrabbits and Bruins was no exception, and all that was missing was a goal. The visitors from Wilson generated more looks at goal\u2013especially in the first half\u2013but the hosts from Long Beach Poly were able to hold off a potent Bruin attack to secure the draw with their Moore League rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super proud of the girls,\u201d said Poly head coach Angel Zavala. \u201cWilson is always a hard battle \u2026 We have a young team, and for them to build chemistry, I think it\u2019s starting to come together. They were fighting for each other, they\u2019re understanding that they\u2019re sisters out here, and I\u2019m very proud of the game that they played \u2026 We\u2019ll take the draw. At the end of the day, it was a great game to watch for both teams, they definitely put up a great fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson outshot the Jackrabbits 10-1 over the first 40 minutes, and held an 18-3 edge in shots for the game. The dynamic duo of Zoie and Kai Fontenot each had a team-high five shots, with six of those 10 shots on target.<\/p>\n

They led the charge against the Poly goal, but couldn\u2019t quite get past senior Zadie Kuykendall, who totaled 10 saves for the Jackrabbits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was frustrating,\u201d admitted Wilson head coach Brian Irvin after the draw. \u201cFirst off, I\u2019m proud, the girls are battling, and we\u2019re close, we\u2019re just missing that goal that we need \u2026 I think we did generate some good chances. It would have been nice to put one in in the first half. So now you\u2019re not pressing as much, and can play a little bit freer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zoie Fontenot had the best chance for the Bruins in the first half, as she outmuscled her defender to get a clear look on goal in the 17th minute. However, Kuykendall was able to get her fingertips on the shot, sending it careening off the crossbar and out of harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

The Fontenots threatened again just before halftime, as Kai\u2019s shot from distance forced a save from Kuykendall, and the keeper was able to make a second save by stifling Zoie\u2019s shot on the rebound.<\/p>\n

After a halftime chat, the Jackrabbits were able to play their best soccer, getting three corners in the first 12 minutes of the half. Joanna Rodriguez had Poly\u2019s best go at goal from outside the penalty area, forcing Wilson keeper Emma Jade Garcia to push the ball wide of her post.<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits were able to get much more possession over the second 40 minutes, and won more balls in the midfield to slow down WIlson\u2019s attack. A key in that effort was a formation shift to get more players in the middle of the field and keep the ball more of Wilson\u2019s side of the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to throw all the marbles in and take the chance, you know?\u201d said Zavala. \u201cAnd if we take the loss, at least we took the chance, and we didn\u2019t play comfortable. We\u2019ve got to throw everything out there, and we played well. We just made sure that we were trying not to let them breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits brought the physicality that\u2019s expected from this rivalry, racking up 14 fouls compared to just five for Wilson.<\/p>\n

Over the final 10 minutes, the visitors were on the front foot, with some more quality chances at goal. Kai Fontenot put a left-footed strike on target but Kuykendall was able to make the stop above her head. In the dying minutes, a sliding shot from Liya Gilbert went over the crossbar, hitting the football goalposts before returning to the field of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost there,\u201d said Irvin of how his team is playing. \u201cOur girls are not gonna back down from the physicality. They\u2019re gonna battle, they\u2019re gonna play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson (3-2-2, 1-1-1) will be back in action on Thursday when they host Jordan. Long Beach Poly (1-3-1, 1-1-1) will be at Cabrillo on Thursday in their next time out.<\/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":97993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-97992","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\/97992","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=97992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}