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 Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The landscape of Moore League football has changed and Lakewood coach Mario Morales has put together a schedule that will challenge the Lancers during the 2026 season.
With the departure of Cabrillo and Compton, who will compete in the inaugural season of the Hub City League, Lakewood will have five new programs on their schedule that they didn’t play last season.
“We’re gonna miss them,” Morales said of not playing Cabrillo or Compton. “It’s been nice to have them on our schedule, because at the end of the day, a lot of the guys still know each other, you know, coming up and playing in camps and the familiarity with each other. So we’re gonna miss that part of it.”
With two less teams in the league, Lakewood didn’t shy away from scheduling tough opponents knowing that there will only be two automatic playoff berths now that the league has dropped to five teams, based on last year’s playoff formatting.
“There’s no slouch,” Morales said of Lakewood’s schedule.
Looking to get more looks at teams from around the southern section, the Lancers added two Bravo League teams with Corona Del Mar and Villa Park, who finished in second and third out of one of Orange County’s top leagues. CDM was a division two team last year, while Villa Park made it to the division four semifinals.
The Lancers will open the season at John Ford Stadium against CDM on Aug. 21 – a game that will be a good early-season indicator for Lakewood. They’ll follow that contest with a road game against Paramount, the last-place team out of the Gateway League, on Aug. 28.
“Paramount is a local school for us and Matt Howard’s a good guy,” Morales said. ”I think he stepped down, but he’s now the athletic director, but nonetheless, the familiarity, once again, right? Paramount, close to home those are things we like.”
The Lancers will then have another tough test on Sept. 4 as they host Ventura, who won the CIF-SS Division 6 title and the CIF State 3-AA regional final before losing in the state title game last season.
“I believe that when you play against really good programs, then you know, it prepares you not only for league, but of course, for the playoffs,” Morales said. “So that’s not taking anything away from Carlsbad or Edison, but we just felt that going a little bit out of the area, would help us and just kind of see what was going on, especially when, they had all the success in Division 6 and we’re Division 5. So, we’re pretty comparable to each other.”
Lakewood will then have a renewal of the Milk Bucket game as they look to keep the trophy when they take on the Mayfair on Sept. 11.
“Mayfair, you know, whatever the record was this past year, they had a down year, but they’ll be back as well,” Morales said. “We feel good just getting out and playing good programs. That’s a big thing for us.”
Lakewood finished third in the league last season and ended up in Division 5 for the second-straight season. So, after scrimmaging them last season it was easy for the Lancers to add Torrance to their schedule and will face them on Sept. 18.
The Tartars went undefeated in the regular season before losing their playoff opener as the top-seeded team in the division 5 playoffs.
“Our relationship with the Torrance coach,” Morales said about why they added the Tartars. “We scrimmaged them last year. We have a couple former coaches on that staff. So a lot of guys know each other, so there was some talk already that, you know, if there was an opportunity to play each other, let’s consider it.”
The Lancers will wrap up their 6-game, non-league schedule when they travel to take on Villa Park, another playoff team that reached the Division 4 semifinals.
“We want to take it one game at a time, and that’s a big thing,” Morales said. “But again, to be able to be prepared, to play hard for every game, to prepare us for the league, right? For our league schedule, which is going to be tough.”
With league action starting, Lakewood will be on the road to take on Long Beach Poly (Oct. 2) and then will host Millikan (Oct. 9) and then will be on the road against reigning Moore League champion, Wilson on Oct. 16. They’ll wrap up the regular season on Oct. 23 against Jordan.
“Our league schedule, is going to be tough,” Morales said. “We got a lot of good teams left in our league, and the other thing is, kind of the caveat they’re only going to take the top 2 teams and the 3rd place team or whoever’s going to earn a wild card or at-large bid. So it’s going to be pretty interesting dynamic this year.”
2026 Schedule:
8/21 vs. Corona Del Mar
8/28 at Paramount
9/4 vs. Ventura
9/11 at Mayfair
9/18 vs. Torrance
9/25 at Villa Park
10/2 at Long Beach Poly
10/9 vs. Millikan
10/16 at Wilson
10/23 vs. Jordan
