<\/p>\n
When the Millikan Rams go to Orange Coast College tonight at 7:30pm to face a top-seeded Edison team, they’re going to be underdogs.\u00a0 <\/span>Big <\/em>underdogs\u2014playing the one-seed in the first round is effectively like CIF telling you you’re the bottom-ranked team\u2026which is exactly what the Moore League told the Rams when local coaches prognosticated they’d finish seventh in the league.\u00a0 <\/span>And, as anyone who’s been around a Millikan coach or player for the last three months can tell you\u2014they noticed.<\/span><\/p>\n The Rams have already embraced the role of the underdog once this year, and played with heart and passion to the extent that they went from being picked to finish last to a playoff berth, a true accomplishment at a school not known for its football program.\u00a0 <\/span>Now, the team will try and embrace their role once more\u2014there is after all, something incredibly freeing about everyone expecting you to lose.\u00a0 <\/span>As one Ram fan told me in the grocery store this week, “Hey, we’re playing with house money.”<\/p>\n They are also legitimately playing against a great football team.\u00a0 <\/span>The Chargers haven’t lost this year\u2014at all.\u00a0 <\/span>Not in passing league, not in a rigorous nonleague schedule that saw them face Dana Hills, Servite, and Mater Dei (the game against the Monarchs was the only <\/em>game they played all year decided by a touchdown or less). We saw them firsthand against Wilson, and they looked that good, too\u2014they have a high-powered offense that is perfectly balanced (51% run, 49% pass), and a defense that’s allowed more than one touchdown just twice in those eight games.\u00a0 <\/span>In short, on paper, they’re as close to a perfect football team as you can get.\u00a0 <\/span>There really aren’t a lot of weaknesses to exploit\u2014their offensive line is huge, their quarterback Matt Viles is a smart, quick decision-maker who’s thrown 16 TDs and just 5 picks this year.\u00a0 <\/span>Their running back Wade Houston is shifty, explosive, and fresh with just 148 carries this season. On defense, yikes\u2014Jordan Zumwalt is the hardest matchup.\u00a0 <\/span>He’s a middle linebacker who’s 6’4″ 218 pounds, and is virtually unblockable.\u00a0 <\/span>He’s their tackle leader, and has three sacks (the Chargers have 34, most in the Southern Section, to go along with 8 picks and 9 fumble recoveries).\u00a0 <\/span>Their defense plays with a level of physicality Millikan won’t have seen in any team they’ve played besides perhaps Lakewood, who beat them 60-7. In other words, things look grim for Millikan’s chances.\u00a0 <\/span>But it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve sized up those odds, and overcome them\u2014it would just be the most spectacular. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Rams are longshots when they go to Huntington to face top-seed Edison tonight\u2014so what else is new?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2721"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2721"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}