The562’s football coverage for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums 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.
Friday night’s meeting between Millikan (0-3) and Downey (1-2) devolved into chaos, with a flurry of personal foul penalties forcing the game to be stopped with more than seven minutes left on the fourth quarter clock.
Tempers flared on both sidelines, and personal foul penalties were thrown on five of the last seven plays as things got completely out of control. The Vikings scored more points, and led 39-10 when the referees stopped the game, but it’s hard to feel like there were any winners leaving Allen Layne Stadium.
Millikan head coach Romeo Pellum voiced his frustrations after the game, feeling that the officiating crew had not adequately protected his players throughout the night. The Millikan sideline repeatedly voiced its displeasure about missed calls for late hits against his players, which Pellum said led to the skirmishes later on in the night.
“We’ll watch the film, but there were times where they were hitting our players or punching our quarterback on the ground, and none of that stuff was getting called,” said a frustrated Pellum. “I told the refs in this third quarter that they need to make sure they keep the game under control–they didn’t.”
During that third quarter, a late hit resulted in a scary moment for the Millikan program as junior running back Ryan Carter was brought down to the turf well after the whistle, resulting in a late hit penalty called against the Vikings. Carter stayed down after the play, and received medical attention on the field before being taken off the field in an ambulance.
“On the play where Ryan got hurt, it was clearly a late play, and again, that’s from them not having the game under control, stopping the play when they should have stopped the play,” Pellum said. “Now a kid hit his head on the ground and he had a seizure because they didn’t want to stop the play. That’s unacceptable.”
Fortunately, Coach Pellum shared that Carter was doing well late Friday night, and was set to be released from the hospital, saying that the medical care he received was mostly precautionary.
The game was competitive in the first half as both teams traded scores consistently, with Downey holding a 20-10 lead at the break.
The Vikings struck first on their first play from scrimmage, getting a 36-yard TD run from Jayden Diaz to go up 6-0 less than three minutes into the game.
Millikan drove the other way behind new quarterback Garrett McLeod, who was added back to the roster this week to fill in for sophomore Jonah Tuaniga, who was unavailable due to injury. McLeod is a baseball player at Millikan, but still knows the playbook and Pellum said he has been working out with the team during the offseason.
His favorite target on the night was Jay Williams, who had six grabs for 54 yards and a touchdown, all in the first half. Their 11-yard scoring connection early in the second quarter made it a 13-10 Downey lead, and Millikan had a chance to tie things up a few minutes later, but a missed field goal kept Downey in front.
Downey increased their lead to double digits at intermission thanks to a 25-yard TD strike from Chase Watkins to Damani Porras, who finished with seven catches for 164 yards and three TDs on the night.
The Vikings received the second-half kickoff and quickly drove for a score as Watkins ran one in from 10 yards out. On the ensuing kickoff, the Rams were slow to react to a pooch kick and Downey was able to fall on it for an extra possession. That ensuing drive ended with a 22-yard TD run from Diaz, who had 65 yards on seven carries and a pair of TDs.
“We’ve got to finish drives offensively,“ Pellum said of his team’s performance. “We’ve got to get better, man. We’re a young team. I’ve got to get better. Our discipline has to go through the roof, and that’s on me. But things will look a lot different (next week), I promise you that.”
Downey will host Los Alamitos next week while Millikan will host Capistrano Valley.
