The562’s football and Poy coverage for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Long Beach Poly alums Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The Long Beach Poly football team came up a few plays short in a thrilling back-and-forth defensive contest with Tustin on the road Friday night. The Jackrabbits took the lead with four minutes left in the game only to see the lead slip away late and then a last-second comeback bid fall just short in a 16-13 defeat to the Tillers.
“I thought we fought hard, but we gotta fix the little stuff, we gotta do the small things right and we’ll be moving in the right direction,” said Poly coach Travon Patterson. “We’re going to keep working.”
The loss spoiled a phenomenal effort from the Poly defense, which allowed just one touchdown and took the ball away three times in the game; the Jackrabbits offense gave up a touchdown to Tustin on a sack fumble recovery in the end zone, and a snap over their punter’s head gave another two point to Tustin on a safety.
“The defense is going to fight, they’re going to be stingy,” said Patterson. “They did that today–offensively, we have to help them out. We gotta get the offense rolling and put some points on the board.”
The Jackrabbits defense played a flawless first half, holding Tustin scoreless and getting an interception from Dezmond Howard, a pick by Zion Anderson and a fumble recovery from Sammy Timu. Poly allowed just 71 yards in the first half. Offensively, the Jackrabbits managed just a pair of field goals from Jonas Mendoza after two long drives stalled out.
Their opening drive saw them reach the Tustin 15 before being unable to convert a third and two, and the final drive of the half saw them start at the Tustin 25 with 2:06 left after Timu’s fumble recovery. The Jackrabbits ran twice, then had a short completion, and then had QB Ace Seve elect to try and run it; he was stopped short and Poly settled for a fourth and goal field goal on the five. The Jackrabbits ran plays plays on the drive but never threw it into the zone.
That hard-fought 6-0 halftime lead quickly disappeared in the second half as Seve was hit by Rufai Azeez in the end zone, jarring the ball out as Tustin fell on it for a touchdown. He fumbled again on a sack on their next drive, but Steven “Budda” Hunter was able to recover and dive out of the end zone to avoid a safety. The Jackrabbits offense was listless for much of the second half, as they went three and out or turned it over multiple times.
Meanwhile their defense kept holding Tustin out of the end zone, stopping the run game and limiting emergency QB Hayden Koo, a WR converted to QB due to injuries.
Finally the Jackrabbits got it going as time was getting late. Seve hit Zion Anderson and running back Jeron Johnson to bring the Jackrabbits into Tustin territory. Then Johnson ran 14 yards to the one, and finally punched it in from one yard out to make it 13-9 Poly with 4:27 left in the game.
The Tillers were the beneficiaries of a Poly unsportsmanlike penalty that started their next drive at the 50; Poly had 65 yards of penalties (down 100 from the previous week) to Tustin’s 150 yards on Friday, but that 15 yarder was costly. The Tillers looked like they might be stuck after Elijah Day sacked Koo and forced a fumble, but the Tillers recovered for second and long at the Poly 47. After that a botched snap hit the turf and Koo had to scoop it up, making guys miss on a long broken play that put them at the Poly 10. Two runs later, it was fourth and goal at the one, allowing Tustin to use defensive tackle Jeremiah Williams, a 6-2 300-pound BYU commit. Williams lined up at running back and plowed into the end zone with three Poly defenders dragged along with him.
The Jackrabbits trailed 16-13 and still had one more shot at it. Jayden Coley had a long return that ended up with a face mask tacked onto it to start Poly at the Tustin 46 with 1:05 left. Seven completed a pair of passes to Johnson and spiked it, then found Kasim Shepherd for 11 yards to the Tustin 11 with 11 seconds remaining. The Jackrabbits needed a shot into the end zone that would either put them up or leave them time to kick a field goal; instead Seve was pressured as he often was Friday and threw short of the end zone, where it was intercepted by Amir Moorehead to end the game.
“We have to execute on offense, execute that play, not think about the pass but lock in on the next play,” said Patterson.
Seve was 13/15 for 101 yards prior to the interception, and Poly outgained Tustin 166 total yards to 128 yards, but fell due to the sack fumble for a touchdown and the safety.
Long Beach Poly (1-2) will host Carson at Cabrillo High at 7pm next Friday while Tustin (2-1) will host Damien on Thursday.
