Friday was just another day at the office for Darnell Miller.
Senior running back Santee arrived on time, rushed for 190 yards, scored three touchdowns and finished the game early as the Falcons edged Hawkins 35-6 to win the Division III City Section championship at Birmingham High.
Watching from the sidelines, as he does almost every game, was Darnell's 10-year-old brother, Frederick, a fifth-grader at Twenty-Eighth Street Elementary School whom Darnell picks up from school and brings to practice every day.
“What I love most about this sport is the friends I've made… I'm a shy person, but it's made me more vocal and taught me discipline and being responsible for my responsibilities,” said Miller, who enjoys football the most, even though he plays guard on the basketball team in the winter and runs for the track team in the spring. “I just do what I do. It's my senior 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 Division III win.
(Steve Galluzzo/For The Times)
Miller entered the day averaging 15.1 yards per carry while rushing for 3,103 yards and 37 touchdowns, and wasted no time in increasing that total against the second-ranked Hawks (10-3). He capped Santee's first drive with an 11-yard touchdown, added five yards in the second quarter and nine yards in the third quarter to make it 35-0. Quarterback Dainian Alvarado scored the Falcons' other two touchdowns on runs of one and 13 yards.
“Darnell is a very hard-working, humble young man and he is everything a captain should be,” said Santee coach John Petty, who led the Falcons to their only other City title in 2018. “He's the first person in the locker room and the last one to leave.”
The victory capped a dominant run for the No. 1 seed Falcons (10-4), who defeated their four playoff opponents by an average margin of 29 points.
The Hawks averted a shutout midway through the fourth quarter when Justin Cortez completed a 10-play, 55-yard drive with a five-yard score.
Having done his job, Miller had to sit out the entire fourth quarter after increasing his total to 43 touchdowns this season (40 rushing, one receiving and two on kick returns). Despite his impressive stats, Miller only received one scholarship offer, from Pikeville, an NAIA program in Kentucky.
“My goal is to keep playing wherever that is,” Miller said.
