City Section Championship Football Games
Friday was just another day at the office for Darnell Miller. Santee’s senior running 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 almost every game, was Darnell’s 10-year-old brother, Frederick, a fifth-grader at Twenty-Eighth Street Elementary who Darnell picks up from school and brings to practice 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 football best despite also playing guard on the basketball team in the winter and running for the track team in the spring.
Miller began the day averaging 15.1 yards per carry, having rushed for 3,103 yards and 37 touchdowns, and wasted no time adding to those totals against the second-seeded Hawks (10-3). He ended Santee’s first drive with an 11-yard touchdown 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 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)
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 goal 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 ensuing possession with another one-yard touchdown, his sixth of the playoffs, to make it 14-0.
San Fernando running back Melvin Pineda tries to break free from the grasp of Cleveland linebacker Joseph Hurtado during the first quarter of the City Section Division II championship game on Friday night at Birmingham. (Steve Galluzzo / For
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