The562’s football coverage for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The Compton football team has been waiting to get into the playoffs. After a five-year hiatus, the Tarbabes made the most of their return, defeating Ramona 30-13 Friday night in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division 9 playoffs.
“It feels great,” Compton coach Calvin Bryant said. “Hats off to our team, our players, our coaching staff, our administration and everybody who helped us get this far. Our guys played really hard.”
After a scoreless first quarter where both teams struggled to put their best foot forward, senior Edward Rivera served as the sparkplug for the Tarbabes with runs of 12 and 13 yards to get the offense moving down field.
On the same drive Compton turned to freshman quarterback Nate Ramirez and he delivered, completing four passes to Jay’Rome Norwood, Trevon Fair and Ronnie Mixon to set the Tarbabes up inside Ramona’s five-yard line.
Rivera capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown and Compton converted a 2-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead with 4:45 left in the first half.
On the ensuing drive the Compton defense forced another punt, but a botched punt return was recovered by the Rams putting them at the Tarbabes’ 15-yard line. However, once again Compton’s defense came up big forcing a field goal attempt.
Blake Hockman cut Compton’s lead to 8-3 heading to the half when he connected on a 17-yard field goal.
In the second half, Ramona’s Jesus Gonzalez looked to get the Rams going and picked up a first down with his feet, but on the next drive Compton’s Devin Smith came up with a big tackle for loss to force a punt.
That’s when Rivera went right back to work and on the first play of the ensuing drive – he broke to the outside and went the distance for a 57-yard touchdown to make it a 16-3 lead three minutes into the half. Rivera finished the game with 12 carries for 140 yards and two touchdowns, he also had three catches for 26 yards.
Ramona continued to move the ball at a decent pace in the second half, but the Tarbabes defense bent, but didn’t break as they had to settle for another field goal as Hockman’s second field goal made it a 16-6 game with 3:29 left in the third quarter.
Compton had a short field on their next drive thanks to a nice return that set the Tarbabes up at midfield and with a mix of Rivera runs and Ramirez connecting with his receivers including Trevon Fair who has been battling his way back from injuries. Compton then drove down the field and Ramirez kept it himself for a 2-yard touchdown to push the lead to 23-6.
“Awesome kid,” Bryant said of Ramirez. “Nothing but hard work, a great student. He checks all the boxes, and we’re just excited to have a guy like that in our program who can execute our offense and make things work.
Ramirez added that he was able to be confident thanks to his coaches’ trust and belief in him.
With about eight minutes remaining in the game, there was a delay after a spectator came onto the field which led to a fight in the endzone near the Compton sideline. Fortunately, for Compton no athletes were involved and play was able to resume after security was able to get control of the situation.
““It’s very unfortunate because we love all of our players,” Bryant said of the incident. “I love them as if they’re ours. Things happen, but hopefully we can learn from all this and make sure everything goes well in the future. It’s just unfortunate, but we’re ready to move on and get ready for next week.”
After the delay, Compton forced a turnover on downs and after a big run by put the Tarbabes into Rams’ territory – Ramirez tossed his first touchdown of the game when he dropped a dime to Norwood for a 14-yard score to make it 30-6.
“Hard work pays off every time,” Norwood said of impacting the game on both sides of the ball. “It felt great to make a difference because it makes you feel it makes you want to push harder because when you do that, it makes you want to do something better than that.”
Compton will be on the road next week to take on San Marino in the quarterfinals.
