Birmingham football edges Granada Hills Charter

GRANADA HILLS — Birmingham football defeated Granada Hills 23-16 to earn at least a share of an eighth straight West Valley League title. Birmingham clinched the win with a stop on a Granada Hills fourth-and-4 play with a little bit over a minute left in the game, with a group of defensive linemen and the team’s leading tackler and safety Ray Worthen making the tackle.

With the win, Birmingham has now won 53 straight games against CIF L.A. City Section opponents and 39 straight games against their West Valley League foes.

“Sometimes you gotta win games like this, we haven’t won every game pretty,” Birmingham coach Jim Rose said. “I’m hoping this wakes us up now and we gotta win one more next week and then here we go in the open playoffs and we’re after another title.”

Granada Hills dominated the time of possession in the game, running the ball every single play and also having 66 offensive snaps compared to only 24 offensive snaps for Birmingham. Birmingham quarterback Kevin Hawkins was able to take advantage of his limited time with the ball in the game, rushing eight times for 57 yards and a touchdown. Through the air, he went 4 of 7 for 66 yards with a touchdown.

“We could’ve done a lot better tonight. We came out here with a mission to stop the run, and we didn’t do that very well.” Hawkins said, who also plays defensive end.

The Granada Hills’ offense did a nice job keeping Hawkins and the Patriot offense off the field, having consistently long drives with lots of three and 4-yard runs to grind out the clock and running for 273 total yards. Unfortunately for the Highlanders, they were only able to find the end zone twice and also struggled the few times in the game when Birmingham was able to get them behind the sticks with third or fourth and long.

There was also a controversial ruling on what looked like a Granada Hills fumble that was recovered by Birmingham at the end of the first half, which was then overturned by the officials. Rose and a couple Birmingham assistants also felt there were several Granada false start and cut block penalties missed throughout the game.

“The officiating was not very good tonight, in my opinion. Granada played tough tonight though, I’ll give them that,” Rose said.

Birmingham scored all of their points in the first half. It was 23-8 at halftime. Birmingham’s scores in the half came on a touchdown run from Braylen Morgan and then Hawkins’ two touchdowns, with his touchdown pass going to Paul Turner. Turner was the lone patriot to catch a pass in the game and finished with four catches for 65 yards.

The Highlanders’ offense ran through wildcat quarterback Dean Rosales and running back Michael Osuna, who carried the ball on 55 of Granada’s 66 offensive plays. Rosales finished the game with 33 carries for 115 yards and a touchdown. Osuna had 22 carries for 120 yards and a score as well.

The Patriots’ offense only ran 13 plays in the second half. Granada Hills forced a fumble in the third quarter, but couldn’t capitalize. They were forced into a three-and-out on the ensuing possession. The only points in the second half for the Highlanders came from a 4-yard touchdown run from Rosales in the third quarter.

The Patriots will look to improve to 7-3 and clinch an eighth straight outright league title next week when they travel to Chatsworth. The Highlanders will look to bounce back and end the regular season 5-5 when they take on Cleveland on the road next week.