The562’s high school soccer coverage for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Long Beach Poly soccer alum Kennedy Justin.
The562’s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.
Throughout the season the Millikan girls’ soccer program has made defense their calling card.
With that tenacious defense, the Rams won 13 straight clean sheets on their way to a CIF Southern Section Division 2 title and a CIF State Division 3 regional final appearance with the chance to make it to the state title game.
On Saturday at DeHaven Stadium, the Rams were on the receiving end of that formula after Quartz Hill’s Alexia Lear scored a goal in the opening minute of action as the Royals leaned on their defense the rest of the way to defeat Millikan, 1-0.
“We made history,” Millikan coach Tino Nunez said while reflecting. “This group will always have that to look back on. It hurts right now, but when they get a chance to reflect, they’ll see how much they actually accomplished.”
It was a heart-breaking moment for the Rams who were part of four 1-0 contests throughout the postseason, but were the victors before Saturday. Millikan made the big play when it mattered and then let their defense take care of the rest.
With their opening-minute goal, the Royals ended Millikan’s run of more than 1,000 minutes of holding opposing teams scoreless.
“We had a slow start,” Nunez said. “We had a slow start the last game as well. It just felt like one of those ‘here we go again’ moments. We were trying to liven up the warmup, but we just seemed a little slow and quiet.”
While Millikan wasn’t able to score the equalizer it was clear that the Royals wanted to keep extra defenders whenever junior Alexandra Rios had the ball and made possessions difficult for the Rams.
“A lot of times they were initiating contact and winning the second balls. Second balls are important, and when they win those, the ball comes right back to our side.”
Millikan had one clean look at goal in the first half, but Rios’ shot was handle. In the second half, the Rams came out on the front foot and multiple free kicks and set piece opportunities on corner kicks, but Quartz Hill made the stops as they parked the bus comfortable settling for their one-goal lead.
“They didn’t take many risks defensively. Anything that came their way, they cleared it out or played it safe.”
While Millikan made history and will have plenty of seniors that will be playing collegiate soccer, the Rams’ have a foundation with a bright future that includes six sophomores and two freshmen that saw action on Saturday.
“Our depth helped us all year,” Nunez said. “Being able to bring in five or six players off the bench is something we’ve never really had before.”
“I love this group,” Nunez added. They fought and battled for each other all season. A lot of times we were the ones getting that one goal. Tonight was just one of those games – that’s soccer sometimes.”
Quartz Hill will head to Sacramento next Saturday when they will take on the No.1-seeded Salinas at Natomas High.
