Quintanilla Leads the Way as Walnut Wins School's First Championship

BELLFLOWER – Sal Quintanilla accounted for three of Walnut’s scores enroute to the school’s first ever championship, defeating hosts Bellflower 27-14 in the CIF Division 11 championship Friday night.

Walnut lost to South Hills in their other finals appearance in 2002.

“This was everything we could ask for,” Quintanilla said. “It’s literally a dream come true. “

Quintanilla went 6 of 10 for 143 yards and two touchdowns, as well as gaining a game-high 93 yards on nine carries and a score.

Demitrius Stampley added 43 yards on nine carries and a score, while Elias Rojas chipped in 27 on six carries.

Walnut drew first blood, consuming almost half of the first period, culminating in a 14-yard scoring run by Stampley to take the early 6-0 lead. Walnut converted on third down three times to keep the drive going.

After forcing Bellflower’s Tray Pinkney, who is usually surehanded, to fumble, Quintanilla struck again, this time hooking up with Phil Cotton for the first of two scoring passes, this one for 45 yards.

“They were a bit tougher on defense than we had anticipated.” Bellflower head coach Jason Miller said. “They ran a defense that we hadn’t prepared for, and by the time we got our bearings, they were up two touchdowns.”

Bellflower finally found its offense when Pinkney broke for 69 yards to open the second half.

He finished with 91 yards, most of which came on that one run. Freshman William Taylor IV added 69 yards on 11 carries.

Walnut responded behind the running prowess of both Rojas and Quintanilla, in addition to numerous penalties, culminating in a 1-yard keeper up the middle to increase the lead to 20-7.

Quintanilla’s counterpart, Akida Warmsley, Jr then scored on a keeper to bring Bellflower to within 20-14.

Walnut continued the trend of converting third and fourth downs. While facing a fourth down at the 50-yard line, Quintanilla, who also serves as the punter took the ball, then faked the punt and instead made a 15-yard pass to Raymund Katchur to extend the drive.

“Hey, fortune favors the brave,” Peralta said of the fake punt call that kept their final drive going. “We knew we had to make plays. We knew we couldn’t give the ball back and had to be able to execute our offense and keep them off the field. If they don’t get the ball they don’t score, so we had to be able to execute our offense and play solid defense.”

Quintanilla then found Cotton on a 36-yard scoring pass to seal the Championship for Walnut.

Coach called the plays and I trusted they would be there and they were,” Quintanilla said. “It’s a testament to good coaching.”

Walnut’s season continues in the state playoffs Saturday as they host Shafter, the Central Division IV champions. Kickoff is at 6pm.