The562’s coverage of aquatic sports in Long Beach in 2025-26 is sponsored by Watersafe Swim School.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
Things couldn’t have gone much better for Long Beach Poly on Thursday evening at Cabrillo High. The Jackrabbits made the short trip down PCH for their CIF-SS Division 4 playoff opener against Estancia, coming away with a dominant 22-2 victory.
Senior Sequoia Newman led the way for Poly with eight goals in under three quarters in the pool, and was one of four Jackrabbits to score a hat trick in the win.
When asked what he liked from his team’s performance, Poly head coach Ali Landeros talked about what happened when Newman was no longer in the pool.
“For me, it was the fourth quarter when they all started to finish without our star player in there,” explained Landeros. “Clearly Sequoia is our gunner, and she does a lot of our action, so the real test was, can they do this without Sequoia? And we did beat this team without Sequoia earlier (in the regular season), which was a good trial run, and it was nice to have pulled Sequoia out and let them work their chemistry and have the same results.”
Freshman Liliana Camerino opened the scoring for Poly, on her way to a first-half hat trick and five goals in total. Pearl Taylor and Brooklyn Winterset each chipped in a hat trick for the Jackrabbits, while Elsa Plascencia added a pair of goals and Soriya Chheang added her name to the scoresheet in the final period.
Defensively, goalie Citlalli Flores made 14 saves in the cage and the Jackrabbits didn’t allow a goal in the second half as they pulled away.
Newman’s scoring night was a gradual build, starting with one goal in the opening quarter, three more in the second, and then four more in the third before she was pulled with just over two minutes left in that period. By then the Poly lead was a comfortable 15-2.
“We lost like all of our varsity team, so this has been a very rebuilding year, and it’s been a tough season figuring out where people go and building up team chemistry again,” Newman explained. “And I feel like this game really showed how much we’ve put into becoming a team that has chemistry. And I feel like this was one of the best games we’ve played.”
Last year’s Jackrabbits made a run to the CIF-SS Division 3 semifinals, and this team could be set up to make a similar run in a lower division. Landeros said he’s gone through several different scenarios in his team’s bracket, and he feels good about their chances if they bring a consistent focus and intensity each time they get in the water.
“I told them from the get go, ‘What coach doesn’t want to win CIF, right?’” Landeros said. “But they have to want it more than we do. And so far, the result shows that they’re stepping on the gas, and it looks like they want it. So we’ve just got to keep that mentality up.”
Poly will hit the road for their second round matchup, where they’ll face Walnut on Tuesday evening. The Mustangs defeated Norte Vista 13-6 in their opening-round matchup.
