The City Section used to produce lots of top running backs, from Charles White at San Fernando to Milton Knox at Birmingham. This season, Ceasar Reyes of Garfield set a school record with 420 yards rushing in a game and Darnell Miller of Santee set a City Section record with 502 yards rushing against Jefferson.
The talent level has dropped considerably at all positions, but this is a season quarterbacks are firing away and producing big numbers. It’s going to make for quite a competition to be an All-City quarterback.
The likely Open Division playoff quarterbacks are all having outstanding seasons: Chris Fields of Carson, Seth Osorio of San Pedro, Jack Thomas of Palisades, Liam Pasten of Eagle Rock, Kevin Hawkins of Birmingham and Diego Montes of Kennedy. Junior quarterback Bennett Dome of Venice had made major progress until an injury sidelined him on Friday.
Freshman Thaddeus Breaux of Hamilton has passed for 2,551 yards and 26 touchdowns. Michael Gonzalez, a junior at South Gate, is a two-way threat. Last week against Huntington Park, he passed for 305 yards and five touchdowns and ran for 131 yards and one touchdown.
All these competent quarterbacks mean when the playoffs begin in two weeks, no game is necessarily over because they are capable of running a two-minute drill to perfection and turning defeat into victory.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
