The562’s football and Poly coverage for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The Long Beach Poly football team (1-1) will try to bounce back after their first loss of the season, but the Jackrabbits have a tough test in front of them. They hit the road this Friday to face the Tustin Tillers (1-1), who are ranked No. 25 in the HS Ratings rankings used to make the CIF-SS playoff brackets (Poly is ranked 32).
The Jackrabbits have had an uneven start to the season, with a dominant, physical win on the road over Downey before dropping a frustrating, penalty-filled game against Yorba Linda last week.
Step one for the Jackrabbits is cleaning up the penalties, as they have more than 240 yards in flags over the first two weeks. Step two will be containing an impressive Tustin offense that features a number of Division 1 recruits. QB Ayden Edwards has been out with injury but has offers from Oregon and Michigan, and a big question will be if he plays or not; four-star lineman Jon Ioane, a Washington commit, is also injured and out for the year.
Still on the field for the Tillers is star receiver Hayden Koo, who also played some QB last week; Koo has offers from USC, Stanford and others. Jeremiah Williams is a stud defensive lineman committed to BYU but has also been a bruising running back for the Tillers, tough to bring down with a 6-1, 320-pound frame.
Of course, the Jackrabbits have plenty of star-power of their own. Poly’s skills can go toe-to-toe with anyone as Jayden Coley and Zion Anderson have both gotten off to a nice start catching the ball, with a three-headed rushing attack showing promises but still looking to establish itself. On defense, the Jackrabbits couldn’t stop the run consistently last week which will be tested against a physical Tustin team; they haven’t allowed much passing yardage through two games, as Miami commit Donte Wright has locked down his side of the field. UCLA commit JuJu Johnson missed last week with injury and will be a gametime decision to play this week.
The Jackrabbits played a thriller with Tustin last year and beat them 28-27.
The Jackrabbits will host Carson next Friday at Cabrillo High.
