The562’s football coverage for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The562’s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.
The Millikan Rams (3-7) have new life this week and a chance to rewrite the story of the 2025 season as they travel to Aliso Niguel (7-3) for the first round of the CIF-SS Division 5 playoffs.
The Rams lost three games in Moore League play this season–as many as they’d lost over the previous four seasons combined–but all of those frustrations are behind them as things reset in the postseason.
It’s also a good time for Millikan to be playing their most important games, coming off a bye week and an impressive 42-14 win at Compton the week before that. With a freshman quarterback in Jonah Tuaniga, there have been ups and downs for the Rams’ offense, but their potential remains high with a bunch of weapons on the outside.
Rams head coach Romeo Pellum is excited about where his team is at heading into the playoffs, and acknowledges the importance of his team competing at the line of scrimmage to allow their playmakers to come through with big plays.
“We’re fired up on both sides of the ball,” Pellum said. “We’ve had our best week of practice on both sides of the ball. We have some stuff in there to help our guys up front on offense, and defensively, I think our front seven is pretty good, so I’m excited, man. Obviously they’re the higher seed, so no one expects us to win, but we’ve got to go in there and do what we know we can do. We believe we can win. We know we worked our ass off this week and we’re ready to go show it.”
The Millikan defense got a real shot in the arm with the return of linebacker Aisa Taeleifi, who came back for the Compton game, appearing in just his second game of the season while dealing with an injury. The Portland State commit provides a physical presence at the heart of the defense and is excited to be back out on the field.
“I’m just trying to help set the tone out there. I feel like we’ve been lacking that a little bit on both sides of the ball, and I’m just out there to do that,” Taeleifi said. “Sitting out has been really difficult, and I’ve just been having to pray a lot. But my boys have been holding me together and motivating me to go out there strong for them. So I play for them, and I play for my family.”
Aliso Niguel relies heavily on senior quarterback Carter Vestermark, who has 2,258 passing yards on the season, along with 22 TD passes and 13 INTs. He also leads the Wolverines in rushing attempts, carrying the ball 65 times for 240 yards and three more scores.
The Wolverines will look to spread things out and use the short passing game to march the field. They’ve got six players with double-digit catches and a touchdown on the year, led by senior Dane Malloy who has 35 receptions for 858 yards and 8 TDs.
Junior defensive end Cash Jackson leads the Aliso Niguel defense with 53 tackles (15 for loss) and five sacks.
Aliso Niguel went 3-2 in the Foxtrot League, with losses to a pair of Division 3 teams: Dana Hills and Laguna Beach. The Wolverines won their last two games of the regular season over Orange (17-10) and Fountain Valley (31-10).
The program is on an upward trajectory as far as divisions go. The Wolverines were in Division 6 last season after playing in Division 8 in the seasons prior. On the other hand, Millikan has been in Division 3 in each of the last two playoffs.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo.
