Birmingham Bounces Back to Beat Granada Hills

Lake Balboa Birmingham showed its youth with three turnovers and a number of mental and physical mistakes in its West Valley League opener against Granada Hills on Friday night.

The defending City Section champions showed a lot more in the game’s final minutes.

The junior-laden Patriots made their only real scoring drive of the game count at the end, when tailback Brian Stuart scored from one yard on fourth down with 29.3 seconds left to pull out a 28-24 victory at Birmingham.

The touchdown capped a 12-play, 90-yard drive aided by two critical 15-yard penalties by Granada Hills (4-2, 0-1). With standout tailback Bryan Baylor on the sidelines with leg cramps, Stuart gained 25 of his 42 yards on the Patriots’ final four running plays.

Birmingham (3-3, 1-0) got two big receptions over the middle by Benny Ward but picked up another 15 yards when the Highlanders were called for pass interference on a pass that Ricardo Salcedo intercepted.

Granada Hills co-Coach Tom Harp said he didn’t see the play but put the blame on an offense that didn’t score after halftime.

The Highlanders failed to finish a late drive and turned the ball over on downs at the Birmingham 10 with 3:58 left.

“We had the ball down there and we didn’t put it away,” Harp said.

Eric Stephens

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Woodland Hills Taft 25, Reseda Cleveland 14 -- The Toreadors scored touchdowns on plays of 95, 63, 55 and 20 yards in winning the West Valley League opener at Cleveland.

Taft (4-2, 1-0) scored its first touchdown on a 55-yard pass from punter Shelton Banks to Ian Bell less than two minutes into the game, and the Toreadors’ second score came on a 95-yard interception return by Jason Haywood for a 13-6 lead. Quarterback Josh Portis scored on a 63-yard scramble with 25 seconds left in the first half to give the defending league champions a 19-6 advantage.

Cleveland (4-2, 0-1) narrowed its deficit to 19-14 with 6:39 left to play when Joey Morales caught a five-yard touchdown pass from David Contreras and Kenny Niaki added the two-point conversion run. But Taft drove 65 yards in three plays on the ensuing drive, capped by a 20-yard pass from Portis to Brandon Anson.

Portis completed six of 14 passes for 72 yards and gained 58 yards in five carries.

Cleveland ran 60 offensive plays to Taft’s 28, but the Cavaliers turned the ball over on downs four times inside the Taft 30-yard line.

-- John Ortega