Three-sport star Alina Argueta leads Banning to City Section flag football finals

Alina Argueta is quite a renaissance girl at Banning High. She plays point guard on the basketball team, catcher and shortstop on the softball team and Wednesday afternoon she quarterbacked the school’s first flag football squad into the City Open Division championship game.

The senior captain threw four touchdown passes — two each to Adelaida Ibanez-Eddy and Sara Gonzalez — and rushed for 25 yards in the Pilots’ 33-25 semifinal triumph at Eagle Rock, setting up an All-Marine League final against San Pedro at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Crenshaw High.

“I didn’t play [flag] last year because we didn’t have a team,” said the athletic Argueta, who completed 17 of 21 attempts for 169 yards. “We played them [Eagle Rock] in our first-ever scrimmage over the summer and no one knew what to do. We got whooped. It’s a good thing we weren’t keeping score. We’ve gotten so much better since then.”

Have they ever. The Pilots won 14 games in the regular season, finishing second to San Pedro in the Marine League, and were awarded the No. 7 seed in the eight-school Open bracket. They upset second-seeded Marshall 19-6 in the first round on Nov. 13 and showed up at No. 6 Eagle Rock brimming with confidence, in large part because they have kept their routine the same.

“We’ve been wearing white for the playoffs, we’ve sat in the same spots on the bus, we’ve worn the same clothes to school — we’re all superstitious,” Argueta said. “We lost to Marshall [in September}, we lost to Eagle Rock in the preseason, so the last two weeks its been a lot of redemption games. Hopefully we have one more.”

The final presents the ultimate challenge as Banning will meet No. 1 San Pedro, the opponent that has dealt them three of their six losses, twice in league and once in a tournament.

“To be honest I don’t care who we play but we definitely know them better than most teams,” Argueta said. ”We’ve lost to them four times if you count a scrimmage … but the last one was only by a touchdown. Our coaches push us hard in practice and we push each other. We’re looking forward to it.”

Eagle Rock quarterback Marysol Jernigan had only been picked off twice in 376 throws entering Wednesday’s contest but the Pilots intercepted her twice, the first of which by safety Kali Sue was returned 35 yards for a score. Kourtney Talanoa had six receptions for 67 yards, Ibanez-Eddy had five catches for 43 yards (she also had three one-point conversion catches) and Melony Bernabe had four grabs for 45 yards.

Jernigan had four touchdown tosses, raising her season total to 70, while all-purpose back Haylee Weatherspoon caught her 35th and 36th touchdown passes while going over the 100-catch mark for the Eagles (16-4). Alina Albuia also had a pair of scoring catches, the second trimming Banning’s lead to eight points with under four minutes to go. The Pilots forced an incompletion on fourth down at their own 23 with 15 seconds left and Argueta took a knee to run out the clock.

San Pedro will return to the finals with an impressive 33-7 victory over No. 4 Verdugo Hills (20-2-1), last year’s inaugural Division I champion. The Pirates (25-2-1), who lost to Birmingham 14-6 in last year’s Open Division championship game, are riding a 15-game unbeaten streak.

The glass slipper fits for King/Drew, the Cinderella story in Division I. The 13th-seeded Golden Eagles upset No. 1 Jefferson 6-0 in the semifinals Wednesday and will take on No. 2 Narbonne (a 7-6 winner against Panorama) for the title Saturday afternoon at 4.

In the 2:30 game of Saturday’s triple-header at Crenshaw, El Camino Real faces West Valley League rival Cleveland in the Division II final. The No. 1-seeded Royals won all three regular season meetings.