The562’s coverage of football and Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2026-27 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell “WoWo” Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.
The562’s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser.
The Long Beach Poly football team had two goals for their Moore League season: take back the league championship they lost the last two years, and do it in emphatic fashion. The Jackrabbits achieved both goals with a fourth straight shutout on Friday night, going on the road and blanking Jordan 58-0 in a game that saw the clock run the whole second half.
With the win, the Jackrabbits close the book on a historic league season that saw them go 4-0 by a combined score of 199-0. They become the first team in Moore League history to go a whole season in league without giving up a point–Millikan in 1973 and Poly in 2013 only gave up six points all year.
“Every time you take the field the goal is a shutout,” said Poly coach Travon Patterson. “Our defense is relentless. Once they had the idea they could accomplish this they were all in. We got off to a slow start, our defense has been fighting all year long. To get this shutout means a lot, we know about the rich tradition here at Long Beach Poly, all the teams that had the opportunity to do this and haven’t done it–it says a lot about this team.”
Even with history on the line, Patterson made the call to coach the game straight up, taking his starters out at halftime and letting a team of mostly freshmen and sophomores try to secure the historic accomplishment in the second half.
“We got a great team,” he said. “Our younger guys give us a scout look week in and week out, they’re a part of why the defense has been so good. They play their butts off like everybody else and they deserve to be out there.”
The game was all Poly literally from the beginning, as UCLA commit JuJu Johnson ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, putting Poly up 7-0 13 seconds into the game. After a three and out by the Poly defense, Jeron Johnson blocked a Jordan punt to set up a TD pass from Trevor Scott to Zion Anderson. Johnson would go on to block Jordan’s next punt as well, although Scott’s next pass was intercepted by Jordan’s Chance Johnson.
The very next play, Seven Taliauli sacked the QB in the end zone to make it 15-0 Poly; they scored on another pass from Scott to Anderson on the next drive. After a pick by Kasim Shepherd, Poly scored immediately on another TD pass from Scott to Anderson that made it 30-0 early in the second quarter.
The next Jordan drive made it deep into Poly territory, aided by a few Jackrabbits penalties, but a sack would force a turnover on downs–the Poly defense’s fourth red zone stop of the league schedule. Johnson immediately ran a 62-yard touchdown to make it 37-0 at halftime.
In the second half, Scott hit Anderson for a fourth touchdown, and then Landon Perkins for another. Anderson finished with five catches for 116 yards and four scores while Scott went 10/15 for 172 yards, five touchdowns and a pick.
“We talked about the shutout every day,” said Anderson. “We didn’t care what team we were playing we just wanted to dominate and execute everything we did with no mistakes.”
“The goal was to bring Poly back, and we’re back,” said Taliauli.
Anderson said he was happy Patterson chose to put the team’s reserves in.
“I was happy to get my young guys in,” said Anderson. “I wanted to go crazy and then have those younger guys get in and get them some shine too.”
The Jackrabbits capped the scoring on a 10-yard touchdown by Logan Ngork.
There were some bright spots in the tough loss for Jordan including the interception by Johnson, a 20-yard completion from QB Caydyn Hampton to Tuli Aunei, and a few nice defensive plays from safety/receiver Samajay Jackson.
Poly (6-4, 4-0) will prepare for the release of the CIF-SS playoff brackets on Sunday while Jordan (0-10, 0-4) will begin to prepare for next season.
