The state banner was unveiled, Dylan De Silva rushed for three touchdowns and had an interception and the defending CIF (D-VII AA) State champions Denair High kicked off Friday’s season home opener with a definitive win over Millennium High, 49-14.

“Excited to get the win. We have some things we need to fix and our guys will agree, but to have a home opener 49-14 win and unveil the state banner was pretty freaking cool,” said Denair head coach Anthony Armas. “I think we started off slow, maybe first game jitters and I think the kids got a little frustrated but we fixed it, started to do our job near the end.”

It was a bit slow of a start, but it didn’t matter so long as they finished strong—and they did.

In the final three quarters Denair outscored Millennium, 42-7.

Dating back to last year, Denair has scored 39 points or more in the last five games.

They are also 13-1 over the past 14 games going back to last year as they are off to a 1-0 start to this season.

“We’ve been practicing hard all summer and all week and we were just ready. It was our first game since winning state and we wanted to make a statement,” said De Silva.

The Coyotes made their statement as they went up at the half 28-14 after De Silva notched three scores (3, 12 and 1 yards) and tallied 185 all-purpose yards, including 130 rushing, all in the first half alone.

“We lost some key guys and we have some guys now who have to step up and it is just amazing and we all came together today, that is what a football team is all about,” said De Silva.

Denair’s Jorge Yanez had the fourth touchdown of the first half after running it in from two yards with three seconds left till halftime.

Following their first turnover on downs of the game to start the third quarter, the defense responded almost instantly.

Elvis Silva got an interception and returned it to the endzone from 60 yards out which made the score, 34-14, after a missed extra point.

“We didn’t really expect this kind of result, we know who we compete against every week, we just want to perform better each and every day,” said Silva. “At first, we started off slow then once we got our rhythm, what they did wrong and we did right, we were able to capitalize on it. I think our running backs are so tough and our lineman never give up, I think that will lead us to greatness.”

Damien Peral ran in the sixth touchdown from 18 yards out and Pablos Flores notched the final score from four yards out with 5:41 left in the game.

De Silva finished Friday’s game with 21 carries and 185 rushing yards, three touchdowns, an interception and 244 all-purpose yards.

Next for Denair (1-0) will be a road contest at Woodland Christian at 7 p.m. Friday.