The562’s coverage of football and Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The562’s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.
This Friday marks the return of the Moore League championship game, a meeting of the last two undefeated teams in the league in Millikan (2-6, 2-0) and Long Beach Poly (4-4, 2-0). While neither team is in the midst of their best season ever, both are riding two-game win streaks and arrive with high expectations for Friday and beyond into the playoffs.
Also like last year, Nike LA has proclaimed this one of their Rivalry Games making exclusive merchandise and other surprises–at last year’s game hosted by Poly at Vets, DJ Mustard did a halftime set for a thrilled group of Poly and Millikan students. A local shoe store hosted a pregame pep rally last weekend with an appearance by Poly NFL legend DeSean Jackson and others.
Behind all that hype is a game–and it’s been a great game for the last half decade. Poly won by two last year, Millikan won the year before, Poly won in overtime by a field goal the year before that. When Rams coach Romeo Pellum took over at Millikan, he envisioned making an impact in the city like this, creating an annual game with some hype between Moore League teams.
“We’ve closed the gap,” he said. “We took them to OT and then we beat them, last year we lost by two–it just shows where we are in our growth as a program, that we’re not just a one-hit wonder. We wanted to build something sustainable.”
The goal for both teams has been to keep their teams focused on the game, and not on the hype around it and the excitement that comes with what’s expected to be a sellout crowd.
“We’re trying to keep them focused,” said Poly coach Travon Patterson “Because of the Nike Rivalry Game we know there’ll be excitement and attention, our main focus is to block out the noise and prepare for the game since that’s the only thing that actually matters.”
Poly has been dominant in a pair of Moore League games so far, shutting out Lakewood 55-0 and Wilson 44-0. Patterson said he’s pleased with the way his team has played.
“We have to limit penalties and be disciplined, our message to the team is playing mistake free football,” he said. “If we don’t do that we’ll make games tough on ourselves or we’ll lose. Millikan is going to come ready to play, they’ll be prepared and ready and we just need to play our game. Keep doing what we’ve been doing and play Poly football.”
After an 0-6 start, Millikan has picked up a big 32-28 win over Lakewood and a comfortable 60-14 W over Jordan last week, showing Pellum positive signs about his team now that they have a full roster available.
“I think we’re a good team,” he said. “We weren’t able to finish some of those games but we’re right there and we’ve got all our pieces now. We haven’t played many full games with our full roster, so every day we’re learning and we know what we need to work on.”
Poly’s defense has been dominant in the league season, so far allowing no points while putting consistent pressure on quarterbacks and doing an equally good job shutting down the run and pass. Millikan QB Jonah Tuaniga has looked strong the last two weeks and is over 600 passing yards this year, along with four touchdowns and two interceptions; RB Ryan Carter was limited by injury earlier in the year but has come on strong as well and is up to five yards a carry.
Tuaniga’s top passing options have been Kansas-bound Jay Williams (24 catches, two touchdowns) and Aden Taufa.
Millikan’s defense has come up with some key stops in their wins the last two weeks, and will need to play consistently to slow down a Poly offense that’s started rolling in league play. QB Trevor Scott has 608 yards passing on 73% completion with seven touchdowns and no turnovers. Jayden Coley and Zion Anderson have been consistent targets while Jeron Johnson and Elijah “Bubba” Dawson have been the workhorse backs with almost 1,000 yards and six touchdowns combined.
The Jackrabbits will wrap up the regular season next week at Jordan while Millikan will travel to Wilson for another pivotal game on the Rams’ schedule.
