CIF STATE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS
DIVISION 4-A
El Cerrito (12-2) vs. Beckman (12-3)
Where, when: Buena Park High, Saturday, 7 p.m.
Live coverage: NFHS Network
Tickets: $16.75 at GoFan.co
Parking: $10
Outlook: Both teams are playing in their first CIF State championship game. Beckman has won 11 consecutive games and beat Hillcrest of Riverside 46-40 in its regional championship game.
The Patriots possessed the ball for the final 7:46 of the game after converting a risky onside kick in the final five minutes of the game with a 46-40 lead.
Makhi Czaykowski has run for 1845 yards with 22 touchdowns and has 813 receiving yards with 10 touchdowns. He is the only player in Orange County to have multiple passing, rushing and receiving touchdowns.
Noah Nam has thrown for 2,553 yards with 25 touchdowns and has 10 rushing touchdowns. Aidan Tran has also been a big part of Beckman’s offense with 6.2 yards per carry.
Julian Rosa and Sawyer Nicholson are Nam’s top receiving targets on the outside and Czaykowski leads the team in receiving.
Nathan Garcia leads Beckman’s defense with 140 tackles and Tran has 99. Skyeler Knight has 14 tackles for a loss and Xavier Musselman-Cano has nine interceptions which is the second most in the Southern Section.
El Cerrito beat Ukiah 32-21 to win the North Coast Section Division 3 championship. The Gauchos rallied in the fourth quarter last week to beat Menlo-Atherton 20-16 in its regional championship game.
Sophomore quarterback DeJuan Compton Jr. threw a game-winning 54-yard touchdown pass to Cannon Jenkins with under four minutes remaining in the game against Menlo-Atherton.
“They have a very good defense,” Giuliano said of El Cerrito. “They have a couple of high-impact players in the front that cause a lot of disruption and they’re very athletic on the back end. As you would expect from a team with their winning streak, they are very well-coached, play to their identity and know how they want to win games.”