The562’s football and Poly 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 (1-2) will try to get back to .500 as they open up their new temporary home at Cabrillo High on Friday night against LA City Section powerhouse Carson (2-1). The Colts are the runaway favorite to win the City Section Open Division this year and defeated Lincoln and Dorsey before falling last week to Palos Verdes.
HSRatings.com predicts a close game with Poly favored to win 28-19 as the Jackrabbits are ranked just ahead of the Colts in their state power rankings.
The Colts are led by Georgetown commit Chris Fields III, a dual-threat quarterback with 10 total touchdowns in three games, including seven rushing. The Colts feature senior Nathan Williams at receiver, an Idaho State commit, as well as Darren Panton. Fields is the team’s leading rusher but they also feature Eric Myers and Tytus Salagi out of the backfield, both of whom average five yards per carry.
The Colts’ defense is led by defensive end Kingston Sula, who carries several Division 1 offers, as well as Division 1-bound defensive back Bennie Saulter.
The Jackrabbits have gotten off to a mixed start that included an impressive win at Downey, a tough loss to Yorba Linda, and a narrow loss last week to Tustin. Neither Yorba Linda nor Tustin are big “brand name” schools, but both are highly-ranked CIF-SS programs. Poly improved enormously in terms of sideline culture and discipline last week, halving the number of penalties from the previous week and committing less penalties by number and yardage than Tustin, a trend they’ll need to continue.
Offensively, Poly has seen a mixed bag from quarterback Ace Seve–his completion percentage has been high, but he’s also shown a lack of willingness to throw the ball downfield, resulting in short yardage completions (including some impressive conversions on third and fourth down) but few homerun plays. The Jackrabbits feature homerun playmakers in Jayden Coley and Zion Anderson, who could go off for a big play at any moment. The Poly running backs have shown some spark, with Jeron Johnson, Elijah “Bubba” Dawson and Steven “Budda” Hunter all claiming some big plays so far this season.
Defensively, the Jackrabbits have been way ahead of their offense. The team only gave up one defensive touchdown last week and completely dominated Downey in their opening game. Teams have had very little success passing on the Jackrabbits’ loaded defensive backfield, despite injuries that sidelined Miami commit Donte Wright and UCLA commit Julius Johnson last week.
Poly’s increased physicality up front served them well against Downey and Tustin, and they’ll be tested this week by the mobile Fields. Sammy Timu and Elijah Day have been playmakers along the defensive line.
After hosting Carson this week Poly hits the road for a pair of games at Inglewood and Rancho Cucamonga before beginning Moore League play.
