The562’s Poly and 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 Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
For the first time ever, Long Beach’s oldest football rivalry between Long Beach Poly and Wilson was hosted at Cabrillo High in West Long Beach on Saturday night.
It was an unusual location for Poly’s 131st Homecoming festivities, but despite the change in scenery, “The Big Game” felt like a big game again. The defending Moore League champion Bruins entered with confidence after their thrilling comeback over the Jackrabbits last season, but Poly left no doubt on the scoreboard this time, delivering an emphatic 44-0 victory.
A sloppy first half from the Jackrabbits helped Wilson stay in the game, as the home team led 15-0 at the break, but Poly was able to clean things up and pull away in the second half with an imposing defense and a balanced offensive attack.
“We started off slow,” admitted Poly head coach Travon Patterson “Information came back to us that we had like 14 penalties for 145 yards in the first half, and that’s not the way you want to start a football game. We told them that we had to get back in and check ourselves first and correct those mistakes and come out firing in the second half, and we did just that. So I like the way the team responded in the second half.”
After that initial flurry of penalties over the first 24 minutes, the Jackrabbits committed six penalties for 45 yards in the second half to finish with 20 for 190 yards total. That’s an area where Poly will need to improve, but Patterson believes the emotions of the rivalry played into those early flags, especially after a heated exchange of words between players, coaches, and administrators during pregame warmups.
“I think that it was just a heat of the moment kind of situation,” Patterson said. “It was a little worse with the exchange among the teams at the beginning of the game, so that carried over into the game. But we’ve got to make sure that we control our emotions and make sure that we keep our composure throughout the game and just play Poly football.”
Poly football traditionally starts with defense, and the Jackrabbits delivered in that department with a second consecutive shutout, three interceptions, and 10 tackles for loss. Special teams also made an impact with a punt return TD from sophomore Landon Perkins and a blocked field goal by Donte Wright, Jr., who was honored pregame as a Navy All-American.
Senior defensive end Sevelino “Seven” Taliauli led the way up front with 5.5 tackles for loss, and consistently pressured Wilson’s rotating QBs, Logan Trafas and Jacob Powell, who finished with a combined line 3/11 for 52 yards and 3 interceptions.
“Since everybody came back it’s been fun,” said Taliauli, who was among an impactful group of starters who sat out the first six games of the year for Poly. “Because no one can stop us, and we just wanted to show other teams they better watch out … Sitting out those six games, I did not want to do that, but that’s life, it happens. But it’s fun being back, showing everybody what Poly defense is … And we showed who really runs Long Beach.”
Offensively, Poly got another terrific game from sophomore QB Trevor Scott who was 16/20 for 267 yards and 2 TD, while adding 48 yards rushing. His favorite target was Jayden Coley, who had six grabs for 103 yards. But the Jackrabbits leaned more heavily on their running game, especially in the second half, running it 28 times for 180 yards and 3 TDs.
All three of those rushing touchdowns went to Jeron “Lil’ Ron” Johnson, who found the end zone on his final three carries of the night and finished with 74 rushing yards on eight carries. He also had two catches for 24 yards and a score, giving him four total TDs on the night.
“All I can do is just thank my o-line, thank my coaches, and my team for coming out here and executing,” Johnson said. “I know we had a rough preseason, but we came back, my whole team’s locked in. We’re all together now, we’re all as one. We know Wilson defeated us last year, so we came back with a chip on our shoulder. We knew we had to come out, ball out, and we did that and we performed.”
On a roster with multiple All-Americans and a handful of national recruits, Johnson is one of the unsung players on this year’s roster who has been a consistent force in the offense. He lobbied his head coach for more carries at halftime, and certainly delivered, averaging over 12 yards per carry in the second half.
“I’m balling, I’m coming,” Johnson said. “I know I’m an underrated underdog, but I can’t do it without my line. No line, no shine–that’s all.”
Wilson got the ball first and had a promising opening drive, marching to the Poly 9-yard-line with the benefit of five Poly penalties. Running back Jemel Grigsby opened his night with a 10-yard run, a 5-yard run, and a 25-yard reception for the Bruins, but was mostly shut down for the rest of the evening, finishing with 82 total yards on 19 touches.
An offsides on Wilsno’s field goal try set up a 4th & 1 situation for Wilson, and head coach Raudric Curtis was aggressive in going for it, but Sevelino stuffed Grigsby in the backfield for a three-yard loss to turn the ball over to the Jackrabbits and shut down Wilson’s early momentum.
“The reality was, that was a very explosive team. High talent, and they showed it,” said Curtis of Poly. “They came out, they were clicking on all cylinders. Took the energy to the game, made plays early and kind of rode that for the rest of the game.”
Poly cashed in for a TD on its opening drive when Scott connected with Zion Anderson for a 23-yard score. Then the Jackrabbits went up 15-0 on an unconventional TD pass to Johnson, who caught a pass intended for Kasim Shepherd that popped up into the air and was up for grabs.
The Jackrabbits got an interception from Dezmen Howard in the second quarter to set them up in the red zone, but a blocked field goal by Wilson’s John Chapman denied their scoring chance, and Kingston Meyer returned it all the way to the Poly 21 to set up another scoring chance for the Bruins.
However, a Toa Cagnalotti interception in the end zone kept Wilson off the scoreboard and preserved a 15-0 halftime lead for the Jackrabbits.
Shepherd added a second-half interception for the Poly defense, and the Jackrabbits scored on their last four possessions of the night to pull away for the running clock victory.
Long Beach Poly (4-4, 2-0) is on the bye next week before visiting Millikan on Oct. 23. Wilson (2-6, 1-1) will be back in action after a short week to host Lakewood on Friday.
