LONG BEACH >> Soccer is about the only thing that comes easy for Rey Angulo.

The Millikan High senior is a captain of one of the best boys soccer teams in the CIF Southern Section. As an attacking midfielder, Angulo, 18, plays with a quiet confidence and makes everyone around him better, those who know him say.

Or, as Cabrillo High School head coach Pat Noyes said of Angulo after his team fell to Millikan’s Rams last month, “He’s like Steve Gerrard out there,” referring to the star professional player.

Angulo remains a standout despite his new role as the sole breadwinner of his household. His mother, Aide, has taken time off from her housekeeping job to take care of her 1-year-old son Jonathan and her husband, Juan, who was diagnosed with stage 4 gallbladder cancer nearly two years ago. Juan had worked at Whole Foods for 25 years before being forced into chemotherapy treatments and bed rest.

In order to help support his family, Angulo now works part time at Whole Foods an average of 20-25 hours a week.

“We’ve had to make tough decisions,” Aide says of the past year. “(Rey) was dependent on me and now I’m dependent on him. He’s becoming a man.”

Millikan head coach Rod Petkovic said the team is fully behind Angulo.

“I’ll balance it out for him as much as I can,” Petkovic said of sharing Angulo with all of his responsibilities. “He’s more than worth it.”

It’s very difficult for everyone involved on game days but Aide, Jonathan and Juan try to make it to every Millikan match in Long Beach.

“My favorite part is watching Rey look for his mom in the stands,” Juan says. “If he doesn’t see us before the game he’ll be looking for her until he finds us and he’ll get this big smile.”

Angulo was born in Mexico and learned his love for soccer from his mom’s side of the family. By the time he was 3, coaches and scouts were telling Aide that her son had a natural talent and “vision” for the game.

Aide, then a single mother, moved her family to Southern California as Angulo entered fifth grade. It was difficult for him to make friends since he was all alone with his mother in a new country and he didn’t speak any English.

“They used to send me to the second-grade class because the teacher spoke slower and I could understand better,” recalls Angulo. “When I got home from school my mom would turn off Spanish television and let me watch cartoons so I could get used to the new language.”

Angulo helped Marshall Middle School win multiple soccer city titles and returned to Mexico as a 13-year-old to tryout for a youth affiliate of Club America in Mexico City. He made the team, but Aide didn’t want her son stay in his native country.

Angulo had all the talent necessary but came to Millikan as a relative unknown until the first team tryout in the summer of 2012.

“It was his field vision,” says Petkovic of what impressed him enough to put Angulo on the varsity team as a freshman. “He’s always willing to learn, adjust to anything and he fit right in.”

That 2012 season was a special one in Rams history as they won a third CIF Championship that gave Petkovic his 600th victory in dominant fashion, 7-2, over previously undefeated Ventura. Angulo came off of the bench in that game to score the seventh and final goal, which is a CIF record for goals in a championship game.

One of the most interesting stories of that season was the self-proclaimed “lab rats” second team unit. As a freshman coming off of the bench Angulo, was a big part of the scout team and still recalls those practices fondly.

“The lab rats always beat the first team,” Petkovic says. “They were the reason we won that championship because they had the team ready for every playoff game.”

Angulo, who missed most of last season with an injury, says he thinks about 2012 fondly but wants desperately to get back to a championship game. Millikan is currently ranked atop the CIF Southern Section Division 2 poll with a 20-1-4 overall record and undefeated season in the Moore League.

“If anyone can lead us back (to a championship) it’s Rey,” Petkovic says. “I love that kid. He’s just a genuinely nice, caring and compassionate kid. That’s why he was voted a captain.”

“Rey always tries hard for everything no matter how hard it is,” his mother says with a smile. “I’m very proud of my son.”