<\/div>\nIt was a game of opportunities that never materialized for the battered Millikan Rams, as the Compton Tarbabes took advantage to win 39-13 Thursday night, remaining undefeated and focusing their sights on Long Beach Poly in next week’s first-place showdown. <\/p>\n
Tarbabes Byron Walker and Gerald Dill each ran for two touchdowns as the juggernaut Compton offense racked up 438 rushing yards and did not complete a single pass. The team may have been dealt a crucial blow, however, as senior running back Curry Williams went down clutching his ankle in the 2nd quarter and did not return. Williams is Compton’s feature back and the extent of the injury is unknown, as is his status for next week’s game at Veterans Stadium.<\/p>\n
“With or without him, we’ve gotta play,” said Compton head coach Calvin Bryant. “Hopefully he’s healthy and can step up, but if not then we’ve got some other guys.”<\/p>\n
Happy with his team’s performance, Bryant was quick to point out that his team has work to do before they’re ready for Long Beach Poly, one of the nation’s highest-ranked teams and best defenses. Compton is strictly a running team, and Poly possesses a choking run defense. But every team that has played Compton has planned to stop the run, and none have succeeded. Against Millikan, Compton’s 438 yards came on just 34 carries and produced 6 touchdowns. Junior back James McConico certainly didn’t hurt with 175 yards on 10 carries, including an electrifying 77-yard touchdown run to break the game open. Even for a daunting defense like Poly’s, those are shocking numbers.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be a game,” coach Bryant said with a smile.<\/p>\n
Bryant was also quick to acknowledge Millikan’s play – particularly their ball control and time of possession on offense. In fact, Millikan had several opportunities to take control of the game that fell short. Two crucial turnovers and three heartbreaking fourth-down failures negated a well-played game that saw the Rams control the ball against a tough Compton defense.<\/p>\n
“The final score was 39-13, but it came down to about five plays,” said coach Kirk Diego.<\/p>\n
On two separate fourth-downs, Rams quarterback Jake Holtz found receiver Alden Darby in the endzone, but to no avail. Darby was just inches from a touchdown on one catch, but on the other, he caught the ball in the back of the endzone and immediately spun it on the ground. The referee called an incomplete pass, and turnover on downs.<\/p>\n
“Darby learned a lesson tonight,” said a frustrated coach Diego. “There’s no doubt he caught it.”<\/p>\n
Holtz threw 17-26 for 162 yards, a touchdown and an interception, while Darby led the team with nine catches and 72 yards. Silver Vaifanua scored on a 64-yard touchdown reception, and sophomore tailback Darius Handy ran for 51 yards on 16 carries.<\/p>\n
Contributing to the bad luck, Millikan recovered a fumble in Compton territory only to fumble it right back, threw an interception in the Compton redzone, and could not convert on fourth-down after recovering an onside kick. All three turnovers led to Compton touchdowns.<\/p>\n
All things considered, Millikan played impressively and had several shots at stealing control of the game. All this, while playing without 23 players that coach Diego suspended for the game. After last week’s loss officially knocked Millikan from playoff contention, the players did not show up to practice during the week, and Diego told them to take a week off. Several junior varsity players saw time against Compton to fill the void. Coach Diego was understandably proud of his team’s efforts, praising their toughness and commitment.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Millikan played tough but Compton capitalized on opportunities, remaining undefeated (along with next week’s opponent).<\/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-5401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5401","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=5401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5401"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5401"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}