The562’s football coverage for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
Photo by John Napalan
When first-year Long Beach Poly coach Travon Patterson talked before this season about having the community behind him, he did it with a laugh. As a Poly and USC football player, he said he knew that the onus was on him and his team to win, or that support would dissipate quickly. Well, it won’t be going anywhere after week one, as the Jackrabbits opened the Patterson era with an impressive 24-7 road win over Downey.
Patterson received a little shower of Gatorade from some of his players, who clearly were as happy for their coach as they were for themselves.
“I feel good, man, getting the dub on the first one,” he said. “It feels real good, and as y’all can see, the boys are behind us. So that’s just the standard now. So we understand what winning is, and we’re gonna keep on doing it.”
He said he appreciated the show of support from his players but also hoped that there would be a Gatorade bath at the end of the season that meant a little bit more.
“I told them we don’t celebrate that here, this is what we’re supposed to do,” he said. “I’ll take it for the first one, but this is a championship culture and we expect to win games like this.”
The Jackrabbits defense came out and made a statement on the first drive of the game and season. On third and long for the Vikings, Poly safety Toa Cagnolatti read a tipped ball by a Vikings receiver, and closed on it with speed to pick it off. He took a long return down the left sideline but had the ball popped out by a Vikings tackler—but the ball landed in the hands of the trailing Poly lineman Sammy Timu, who grabbed it and ran it in for a touchdown.
“Nobody would have believed that I would have scored (the first touchdown of the year for Poly),” said Timu with a laugh. He left his fingerprints all over the game with the touchdown and dominant line play on both sides of the ball, including a drive-ending sack on defense. It was a welcome experience after missing almost all of last year with an injury.
“I just continue to stay humble, this is just game one,” he said. “I’ve been wrestling and grinding and just feening to get back.”
It took the Jackrabbits offense some time to get going, but their defense was elite throughout the first half. They held the Vikings passing game to 26 yards as QB Chase Watkins had a first-half line of 5/12 for 26 yards with an interception, while they held Downey’s rushing game to just 30 yards in the first half as well.
The Jackrabbits added to their lead with a five minute drive into the second quarter, as QB Ace Fa’agata led the Jackrabbits 78 yards with completions to Zion Anderson, Julius JuJu Johnson, and Jayden Coley, ultimately finding Anderson for a 25-yard touchdown that made it 14-0 early in the second.
The Jackrabbits continued to move the ball in the second quarter, but penalties (seven for 50 yards) stymied any other first-half scoring.
In the second half, Poly had a chance to put the game away early on a kickoff return for a touchdown by Coley but it was called back on a holding penalty. They would then end up stalling out three and out, followed by Downey’s best drive of the night, which saw them go 60 yards for a score, capped by a three-yard pass from Watkins to New Mexico commit Damani Parras.
Parras had made comment on a social media channel that Poly’s star cornerbacks Tae Wright and JuJu Johnson wouldn’t be able to cover him, a clip that was widely viewed among the Poly team. Wright pointed out after the game that they held Parras to three catches and under 20 yards, a storyline that got a lot of attention by the Poly players.
The Jackrabbit defense was otherwise able to stifle the Vikings’ offense aside from the hookup between Watkins and Parras, as they limited the Vikings to under 60 yards passing and 91 yards on the ground.
Patterson liked that his team displayed some old-school Poly physicality, and credited strength coach Gregg Washington’s return with Poly’s toughness.
“I have to give credit to coach Gregg, he was our strength coach during the heyday when we were winning championship, and you can see the work he and the team have been putting in and how it pays off on this field,” he said.
Poly’s offense wasn’t done yet either as they responded immediately to the touchdown. Fa’agata continued to find Coley downfield and then finally got it to him in the end zone on second and goal to make it 21-7. The Jackrabbits defense continued to hold Downey scoreless including on a drive-ending sack by Timu. Kicker Jonas Mendoza nailed a 41 yard field goal to put Poly up 24-7 with seven minutes left in the game. Their defense ended things strong with a turnover on downs on the next drive.
“I’m overall really happy with what I saw,” said Patterson. “The good thing is when you get wins, the kids start believing in themselves, and that’s all that really matters. Once the kids believe in themselves they buy in, and once they’re bought in the sky is the limit.”
Fa’agata looked solid in his first start, going 16/26 for 160 yards and two touchdowns and an interception, plus 30 yards rushing; Coley had 10 catches for 92 yards and a score and Anderson had four for 43 and a score. Running back Jeron Johnson was one of the breakout stars with 60 yards rushing off of some hard running; Elijah “Bubba” Dawson had 23 yards including an impressive cutback first down conversion.
Asked how he went about trying to re-establish a proud Poly tradition, Patterson again credited his coaching staff.
“Coach Tyae (Burford) put together a video of the 2008 championship team, not even about what was on the field but the off the field things, the way they bonded in the weight room,” he said. “We’ve had coach Merle Cole and coach Don Norford come and talk to them. We want all the alums back around the program so we can get that feel back.”
High school players don’t always love being lectured to about how soft they are compared to older generations–actually, they never love that. But the buy-in from this team comes in part from the fact that so many of them are kids of Poly players and alums, so those words haven’t fallen on deaf ears.
“We’re bringing the old Poly back,” said Timu. “We want to bring that physicality.”
Long Beach Poly (1-0) will host Yorba Linda next Friday at 7pm in the final high school game to be played at Veterans Memorial Stadium, the Jackrabbits’ home of 70 years. Downey (0-1) will travel to Capistrano Valley.
