The562’s football coverage for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The562’s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.
For the fifth consecutive season, the Millikan Rams (3-7) are in the CIF-SS football playoffs.
That fact was not guaranteed the last time the Rams took the field for their 42-14 win over Compton on Oct. 24, which in hindsight was a postseason play-in game for the Moore League.
With Friday’s announcement that Long Beach Poly was withdrawing from this year’s postseason, it bumped the Rams up to the No. 3 seed out of the Moore League, and the automatic playoff berth that comes with it.
Millikan still had a good chance to make the postseason as an at-large entry due to their ranking, but those spots are never guaranteed.
“It’s good. There was some uncertainty early on,” said Millikan head coach Romeo Pellum of his team’s playoff outlook. “Especially after Lakewood, with a bad call by the officials, and we didn’t know what was going to happen. And then obviously the stuff with Poly, we knew that we were in, it’s unfortunate for them. And we’re just blessed to be here, man, to be able to play. It’s a new season. We’re 0-0.”
But the time for speculation is over, and now it’s time for football. The Rams will be on the road to start the Division 5 bracket, visiting the Aliso Niguel Wolverines (7-3). They are the No. 3 team out of the Foxtrot League, winning three of their last four games to earn their playoff spot.
Friday night’s clash between the Rams and Wolverines will be their first meeting since 2015, which ended a five-year run of games between the two programs starting in 2011. Aliso Niguel won the first two meetings before Millikan responded to win the last three.
This will also be the fourth time in the last five years that Millikan has opened the playoffs on the road, with last season’s home game against Crean Lutheran the lone exception.
“I like that we’re on the road, because if we want to continue to play, we have to go win games like that. We need to show that we deserve to be here,” said Pellum of the draw. “We’re going out on the road to South Orange County, and if we’re able to put that together, we belong here. If we don’t, we don’t. But our group of guys are hungry, we’ve prepared for this. We went to Vegas and had tough games. And in Division 5, I like our chances.”
The Rams have also not appeared in Division 5 during the Pellum era, going from Division 6 to Division 4 and then consecutive seasons in the Division 3 bracket.
Thanks to their schedule construction, Millikan has had extra time to rest and recover before the playoffs thanks to their bye this past week. Coach Pellum said that’s given the team a nice boost as they look to turn the page to a new season.
“We got healthy, that was the big thing. We have some guys back,” said Pellum. “The big thing is, our kids are very confident right now. There’s a lot of confidence in (Freshman quarterback) Jonah (Tuaniga), that’s the big thing, our offense is confident in him and our team is rallying behind him. And that’s huge, especially if you talk about trying to make a run in the playoffs.”
Friday’s playoff opener is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Aliso Niguel High School. The winner will advance to play either La Serna or Millikan’s archrivals Lakewood in the quarterfinals.
