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Football: Birmingham continues to roll in West Valley League

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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De’Von Flournoy had four catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. Trajuan Briggs had 150 yards and three touchdowns in 10 carries and added a receiving touchdown. Morey Croson completed eight of 14 passes for 204 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.

Sound like some impressive stats for resurgent Birmingham during its 44-6 West Valley League victory over host Cleveland on Friday? Well, consider they were piled up in only the first half.

The Patriots (4-4, 3-0) were so dominant that they scored four touchdowns in their first seven plays from scrimmage. With five minutes left in the first quarter, Birmingham was up, 30-0. The lead was 44-0 at halftime, at which point Coach Ed Croson eased up on the accelerator.

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Up next for the Patriots is a game at Chatsworth (3-5, 1-2) on Friday followed by a showdown at Birmingham on Nov. 13 against Taft (7-1, 3-0) for the league title. Birmingham has won four consecutive games, reasserting itself as a City Section title contender.

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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