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Miramonte airs it out in NCS Division V championship victory: “It’s awesome, just awesome”

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

LAFAYETTE – Miramonte, which all season relied on a tough running game and relentless defense to grind out victories, opened up the playbook in the Matadors’ 42-20 NCS Division V championship victory over visiting St. Bernard’s. Sophomore Carson Blair aired it out against the visitors from Eureka, throwing for four touchdowns, two to sophomore Andrew Bjornson and another pair to Jack Quinnild, who caught his ninth and 10th touchdowns of the season to help give Miramonte its first section title since 2013. “It’s awesome, just awesome,” Miramonte coach Jack Schram said. “The guys did an unbelievable job.”LAFAYETTE – Miramonte guard Harry Smith (58) celebrates with Andrew Bjornson (18) after Bjornson caught a touchdown in the first half. Miramonte and St. Bernard’s-Eureka played in the North Coast Section Division V high school football championship at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, Calif. on Nov. 25, 2023 (Joseph Dycus/Bay Area News Group) Playing at nearby ...

No comeback this time: Christopher falls to Soquel in CCS Division IV final

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

SAN JOSE – After two straight successful comebacks against higher-seeded opponents, Christopher’s playoff run came to an end in the Central Coast Section Division II championship game Saturday night.The eighth-seeded Cougars were stymied by an outstanding defensive effort and lost to second-seeded Soquel 28-0 at San Jose City College.“We’ve faced Live Oak, Mitty, Menlo. We’ve faced some great football teams all year. This, by far and away, is the best football team we’ve seen,” said Christopher coach Darren Yafai, who is stepping down after three seasons as the Cougars’ coach. “We’ve never seen … as ferocious a pass rush. They don’t need to blitz at all. Their front four is incredible.”The Knights (11-2) sacked Christopher quarterback Jaxen Robinson four times and limited the Cougars (11-2) to 102 total yards. They also caused three turnovers.Soquel coach Dwight Lowery pointed out his defense’s play, as his team won the first CCS football title in school history.Soquel head co...

McClymonds celebrates retiring coach Michael Peters with Silver Bowl victory

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

OAKLAND — The party at McClymonds High School, one celebrating the career of longtime coach Michael Peters, began long before the Warriors won their 13th consecutive Silver Bowl with a 56-0 victory over Oakland Tech on Saturday night. The entire day, starting in the early afternoon with girls flag football playoffs and championships, was an opportunity for visitors and well-wishers to congratulate the man who has won four state titles, six NorCal crowns and 11 section championships with the Oakland school. Peters, 55, announced two weeks ago that he was stepping down after the season. “I got a chance to coach at the place I went to school at, and fortunately we had a great time,” said Peters, who graduated from McClymonds in 1986 and began his coaching career at Mack as an assistant in 1992. “I couldn’t ask for anything better. I had a great group of coaches and kids.”OAKLAND – McClymonds coach MIchael Peters looks towards his assistants in the first quarter. McClymonds ...

Sierra Leone declares nationwide curfew after gunmen attack military barracks in the capital

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) (AP) — Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio declared a nationwide curfew Sunday after gunmen attacked military barracks in the West African nation’s capital, raising fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region.The unidentified gunmen attacked a military armory within the barracks in the capital, Freetown, early morning, Bio said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that they were driven back by security forces and “calm has been restored.”“As the combined team of our Security Forces continue to root out the remnant of the fleeing renegades, a nationwide curfew has been declared and citizens are encouraged to stay indoors,” he wrote.Bio was reelected for a second term in June in a disputed vote in which the main opposition party accused Sierra Leone’s electoral commission of conspiring with his party to rig the results.It was the country’s fifth presidential election since the end of a brutal 11-yea...

How South San Francisco went from not having a varsity team to winning the CCS Division V championship

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

Two years removed from having no varsity football team, South San Francisco completed a remarkable ascent Saturday with a 13-7 win over Santa Teresa for the Central Coast Section Division V championship at newly-opened MacDonald High School.“A great win,” SSF coach Kolone Pua said. “These guys hung in there. I told them all year we can make history.”The Warriors did it Saturday the way they’ve done it all season, with a physical style both offensively and defensively.South City ran 67 plays from scrimmage, 55 on the ground using a throwback full-house T-formation with two tight ends for a significant portion of the game, compared to 38 total plays for Santa Teresa.“That was the hardest hitting game I’ve ever been around,” Pua said.South San Francisco head coach Kolone Pua reacts after defeating Santa Teresa during their CCS Division V high school football championship game at MacDonald High School in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, Nov....

MLB Notes: What we know about Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s free agency

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has become one of the most highly coveted players to ever come out of Japan, and this week the 25-year-old right-hander officially hit the market.Yamamoto was formally posted by Nippon Professional Baseball on Monday, kicking off what is expected to be a highly competitive 45-day window for MLB clubs to bid on his services. Teams will have until 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 4 to sign Yamamoto, who is expected to command a deal worth in excess of $200 million.Outside of Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto is the top free agent on the market. It’s not hard to see why.Yamamoto has posted preposterous numbers since making his professional debut as a teenager in 2017. Over seven NPB seasons, he’s gone 70-29 with a 1.82 ERA and 922 strikeouts in 897 innings. He has won the Sawamura Award, Japan’s equivalent to the Cy Young, each of the last three years, and this past season he posted a career-best 1.21 ERA over 164 innings with the Orix Buffaloes.Scouts believe Yamamoto̵...

Russia says it downed dozens of Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow, following a mass strike on Kyiv

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

Russian authorities on Sunday claimed that Ukraine tried to attack Moscow with dozens of drones overnight, just a day after Russia launched its most intense drone attack on Kyiv since the beginning of its full-scale war in 2022, according to Ukrainian officials. Russian air defenses brought down at least 24 drones over the Moscow region — which surrounds but does not include the capital — and three other provinces to the south and west, the Russian Defense Ministry and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported in a series of Telegram updates. Neither referenced any casualties. Andrei Vorobyev, governor of the Moscow region, wrote on Telegram that the drone strikes damaged three unspecified buildings there, adding that no one was hurt. Russian Telegram channels reported that one drone crashed into a 12-story apartment block in the western Russian city of Tula, about 180 kilometers (113 miles) south of Moscow, injuring one resident and frightening others, Moscow’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo a...

Pope Francis to skip weekly window appearance a day after Vatican described him as having a mild flu

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday was skipping his weekly appearance at a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, a day after the Vatican said he had come down with a mild flu. In a brief statement, the Holy See’s press office said Francis would still recite the noon prayer, which is followed by his traditional blessing, from the chapel of the hotel on Vatican grounds where he lives. His prayer will be televised live and shown on big screens in the square, where thousands of people generally flock to see the appearance at the open window. On Saturday, the Vatican said the pope, whose 87th birthday is next month, was taken to a Rome hospital to have a CT scan to rule out pulmonary complications and that the exam was negative. Francis earlier this year was hospitalized for three days for what he later said was pneumonia and what the Vatican described as a case of bronchitis necessitating treatment with intravenous antibiotics. This weekend has been very windy and unusually chi...

A senior Hamas commander in charge of northern Gaza was killed in the war, the militant group says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas says one of its top commanders has been killed in the war with Israel.The militant group announced the death of Ahmed al-Ghandour on Sunday, without saying when or where he was killed. He is the highest-ranking member of the group known to have been killed in the war, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel.Al-Ghandour was a high-ranking member of the group’s armed wing and Hamas’ top commander in northern Gaza.He had survived at least three Israeli attempts to kill him, going back to 2002, according to the Counter Extremism Project, an advocacy group based in Washington.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The tense cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be back on track early Sunday after the release of a second group of militant-held hostages and Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but the swap followed an hourslong delay that underscored the truce’s fra...

Letters: Do they not have anything to contribute to the well-being of our country?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:08:18 GMT

They do not have the common good in mindI have so much to be thankful for this year. Yet, we’re a year from the next ‘big’ election and already the evil rhetoric has begun.  Apparently the people behind the “big money” movements don’t have anything to contribute to the well-being of the country or the state. So they denigrate.Then there are the recent revelations of lies and cover-ups in our twin city several years ago — cover-ups of malfeasance at the highest levels of city and state government committed with no accountability to the electorate. We can’t blame that on those mentioned above. That is by our people who display no ethics or morals. They do not have the “common good” in mind. And we accept it?I have recently re-read some of the works of Alexis de Tocqueville and Thomas Paine. Mr. Tocqueville lost most of his family, not because of anything they had done but because of who they were. Thomas Paine, in his “...