The562’s coverage of football in 2023-24 is sponsored in part by the MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Foundation and Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Foundation
The562’s coverage of Millikan athletics in the 2023-24 school year is sponsored by Curtis Boyer.
Millikan continued its recent dominance with a 56-7 win over Compton on Friday night at Compton College while senior playmaker Ryan Pellum scored four touchdowns for the Rams.
It only took one play after kick off to start the “Pellum Party”, as junior quarterback JP Mialovski found Pellum on a post route for 40 yards and the opening score 18 seconds of the game.
Compton’s opening drive was something out of a horror film, on Friday the 13, as miscommunications would find a pitch attempt to a “ghost” running back, and Millikan’s Ethaniah Steffany recovered the ball.
Set up on the 35-yard line going in, Mialovski found junior receiver Jude Nelson to set the Rams up on the 5-yard line. On the next play, Mialovski connected with sophomore Landon Ross for the second Rams’ score less than two mintues into the game.
Compton’s second drive looked more on track, especially with some hard running by senior Tyree Sheppard. They faced a 4th and 6 at the Rams’ 35, but a turnover on downs stopped momentum. In one play, Pellum flipped the field, as he went 62 yards for his second score. Millikan led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Compton’s offense would find some magic, yet could not complete a drive. As a result, they relied on punter and kicker Michael Vallejo to flip fields which he did successfully, pinning Milikan at their own five yard at the nine minute mark.
Despite this field position, the Rams would march down the field with big plays by Pellum and junior running back Xavier Jones. Jones would cap off the drive with a 25 yard run, to give Millikan the 28-0 lead with 7:25 left in the first half.
Compton tried to run out the clock on their last first half drive. However, a turnover on downs at midfield provided the Rams another scoring opportunity with under a minute left in the half.
Millikan senior receiver Gregory McClendon III would help move the chains on the ensuing drive with a catch in traffic over the middle. Mialovski and Pellum would connect one more time for a 35-yard score and the Rams led 35-0 going into halftime.
Compton came out firing in the second half with a huge return to Millikan’s half by freshman Nate Willard. Using that momentum, Compton would feed Willard, junior Dionate Dill and Sheppard the ball to drive down the field. However, Compton found itself in a 4th and goal on the Rams’ one yard line. With a “brotherly shove”, Compton quarterback Francis Madera dove into the endzone with 2:20 left in the third quarter.
However, in under a minute, Pellum and the Rams struck again for his fourth and final score of the night at the 1:42 mark. The Rams led 42-7 at the end of the third.
Millian would score two more times before the night ended. Senior Charlie Broughton would go 55 yards at the 9:24 mark, and Nelson finalized the scoring, with a 15 yard catch, after a botched Compton kick off return, at the eight minute mark.
“We’ve just got to keep working on us and focusing on us,” Millikan coach Romeo Pellum said. “Every game there are going to be things that we can clean up, which can be the difference between a good team and a great team, or a quarterfinal, semifinal, or championship team. Our goal is to win at a very high level, so we just gotta keep practicing at that level.”
“We played a very good team tonight, but we did not bring the focus,” Compton coach Calvin Bryant said. “We came out flat and made mistakes… we unfortunately lost the turnover battle today as well. With us being a ‘grind it out’ team, we need to grind it out on both sides of the ball. We just need to continue to keep working and to continue to keep grinding.”
Millikan (5-3, 3-1) has a bye next week, and their last game is on Oct. 27 against Cabrillo at DeHaven Stadium.
Compton (3-5, 1-3) travels to Veterans Memorial Stadium on Oct. 20 to face the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits.
