Birmingham Made Most of Rematch

Eddie Arreola fell to the Coliseum turf and started crying. Later, he started pulling up grass from the field and put it into a paper cup.

For the Lake Balboa Birmingham senior offensive lineman, it will be a souvenir of one of the most surprising City Section championship games in its 89-year history.

“Nobody believed we could be No. 1,” Arreola said Friday night after the Patriots’ 35-7 victory over previously undefeated Woodland Hills Taft (13-1). “It’s been my dream in my four years of [high school] football.”

Few believed the Patriots (11-3) had a chance. After all, Taft dealt Birmingham its worst defeat of the season on Nov. 15, a 30-6 decision that left the Patriots dismayed. But it would also serve as motivation for the rematch.

“Much of the way everybody perceived the game was based on that first time we played,” Birmingham Coach Ed Croson said. “The more we watched that film, the more we thought we were a better team than on Nov. 15. We realized we weren’t that far away from them.”

Taft hadn’t been challenged during the season. Only once did a team hold a fourth-quarter lead on the Toreadors. Nobody held them to fewer than 30 points.

Birmingham put them on the defensive right away with an 80-yard drive capped by a 28-yard pass play from Ryan Lombardo to Brian Baylor. The Patriots stuck to their plan and controlled the game with a dominant performance by their offensive line.

Those linemen -- Arreola, Robert Elisha, Ernesto Mena, William Ramirez and Phillip Cerda -- paved the way for 239 yards on the ground. Dennis Keyes and Baylor were the beneficiaries with 133 yards and 92 yards, respectively.

The dominance showed in the Patriots’ five scoring drives, which consisted of six, 13, seven, eight and 21 plays. The Patriots attempted only one pass in the second half and had the ball for all but eight seconds of the fourth quarter.

“They’ve got a great defense,” Croson said of Taft. “I think we made enough movement in the front to let our running backs get upfield. I believe we’ve got the best running back in Los Angeles in Dennis Keyes, and with Baylor back there, they’re not going to get stopped behind the line of scrimmage often.

“It was the right game plan for that opponent and I think they executed it perfectly.”

For Taft, it was a night of despair. The Toreadors, who lost the City final last year on the final play of the game to Dorsey, looked helpless as the deficit grew larger.

Taft’s best chance to make it a game came in the third quarter trailing, 28-7. But after reaching the five-yard line, Ian Bell was stopped for no gain, Steve Smith dropped a pass from Cary Dove and Keyes broke up two passes.

“We just didn’t play our game from the start,” said Dove, who was 16 of 30 for 214 yards with an interception. “We never got any momentum our way.”

Defensive back Mike Pratt said the hardest thing was not being able to get the ball back because of the Patriots’ sustained drives.

“When they went up three, four touchdowns, you can just run the ball like that,” he said.