Darnell Miller leads Santee to City Section | College News
Friday was just another day at the workplace for Darnell Miller.
Santee’s senior working back arrived on time, rushed for 190 yards and three touchdowns, and clocked out early as the Falcons soared past Hawkins 35-6 to win the City Section Division III championship at Birmingham High.
Watching from the sideline, as he does nearly every recreation, was Darnell’s 10-year-old brother, Frederick, a fifth-grader at Twenty-Eighth Street Elementary who Darnell picks up from college and brings to observe every day.
“What I love most about this sport is all the friends I’ve made. … I’m a shy person, but it’s made me more vocal, taught me discipline and to take care of my responsibilities,” said Miller, who likes soccer best despite also taking part in guard on the basketball group in the winter and working for the monitor group in the spring. “I just do what I do. This is my last year, so I want to finish strong.”
Darnell Miller and his 10-year-old brother, Frederick, pose with the City championship trophy and plaque after Santee’s victory in Division III.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Miller started the day averaging 15.1 yards per carry, having rushed for 3,103 yards and 37 touchdowns, and wasted no time including to those totals against the second-seeded Hawks (10-3). He ended Santee’s first drive with an 11-yard landing run, added a five-yarder in the second quarter and a nine-yarder in the third quarter to make it 35-0. Quarterback Daynian Alvarado scored the Falcons’ other two touchdowns on runs of one and 13 yards.
“Darnell is a very hard working, humble young man and everything you want a captain to be,” said Santee coach John Petty, who guided the Falcons to their only other City title in 2018. “He’s the first person in the locker room and the last to leave.”
The win wrapped up a dominant run for the No. 1-seeded Falcons (10-4), who defeated their 4 playoff opponents by an average margin of 29 factors.
The Hawks averted the shutout halfway through the fourth quarter when Justin Cortez capped a 10-play, 55-yard drive with a five-yard scoring run.
His job performed, Miller bought to sit out your entire fourth quarter after upping his landing rely to 43 touchdowns this season (40 speeding, one receiving and two on kickoff returns). Despite spectacular stats, Miller has acquired only one scholarship offer — from Pikeville, an NAIA program in Kentucky.
“My goal is to keep playing, wherever that is,” Miller said.
DIVISION II
Junior cornerback Ayden Celis recovered a fumble at San Fernando’s 22-yard line with 1:27 remaining and the second-seeded Tigers held on to beat No. 1-seeded Cleveland 21-14 at Birmingham High.
It was the ninth City title for San Fernando (11-3) and its first since 2017.
Melvin Pineda plowed into the end zone on fourth and aim from the one-yard line to end San Fernando’s first drive and, after teammate Brandan Marshall recovered a fumble at the Tigers’ 46, Pineda capped the following possession with another one-yard landing, his sixth of the playoffs, to make it 14-0.
San Fernando working back Melvin Pineda tries to break away from the grasp of Cleveland linebacker Joseph Hurtado during the first quarter of the City Section Division II championship recreation on Friday evening at Birmingham.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Cleveland marched to San Fernando’s eight-yard line late in the second quarter but a 25-yard field-goal attempt by Samael Cerritos hit the left upright.
Oluwafemi Okeola intercepted an overthrown move at the San Fernando 46 early in the third quarter and 9 performs later quarterback Domenik Fuentes scored on a three-yard keeper to pull the top-seeded Cavaliers within eight.
Three runs by Brandon Maldonado gained 37 yards to set up Fuentes’ one-yard plunge and a two-point conversion run by Joseph Hurtado that tied the rating, 14-14, with 9:33 left.
San Fernando responded with a 75-yard drive, regaining the lead on a two-yard run by Andrew Newchurch, his sixteenth landing of the season, and a clutch further level by Isaac Ortega with 4:36 remaining in the sport.
“It was probably my last [high school] football game and we got the win,” Newchurch said. “The play was overload left and it was wide open. We’re proud to add to the school legacy — we hadn’t won City in a long time.”
The Tigers misplaced to eventual-champion Chatsworth in the first spherical of the Division II playoffs last season.
Cleveland (5-9) was looking for its first City title.
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