DEFICIT SUITS BRAVES FINE; BIRMINGHAM STARTS SLOW, WINS : BIRMINGHAM 30 GRANT 21.Byline: Gary Washburn Daily News Staff Writer It's not as if the Birmingham High School Birmingham High School is a public coeducational high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of the city of Los Angeles, California. The school is a part of District One of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). football team didn't give Grant its chances. The Braves did not play like the team some expect to compete for the Northwest Valley Conference title. But when it counted, the Braves' talent and defense took over in a 30-21 nonconference win over upstart Grant on Friday in Van Nuys. The Lancers lanc·er n. 1. A cavalryman armed with a lance. 2. A member of a regiment originally armed with lances. 3. lancers (used with a sing. verb) a. A kind of quadrille. b. (1-1) took a 13-0 lead in the second quarter. But it wasn't until late in the fourth that Grant would score again. As in last week's 26-13 win over Canoga Park, Birmingham (2-0) took 1-1/2 quarters to get started and despite five turnovers, still had enough big plays to score 30 unanswered points. Emmanuel Evans, the Braves' 6-foot-3, 235-pound tailback tail·back n. Football The back on an offensive team who lines up farthest from the line of scrimmage. tailback Noun Brit a queue of traffic stretching back from an obstruction , had 162 yards in 24 carries and a touchdown. It was his four fumbles - two recovered by Grant -that consumed con·sume v. con·sumed, con·sum·ing, con·sumes v.tr. 1. To take in as food; eat or drink up. See Synonyms at eat. 2. a. his thoughts after the game. ``I've got to learn how to hold onto the ball,'' Evans said. ``We started real slow. That's the way we do things in practice. We don't get going until the end of the week. We've got to improve our consistency.'' After a power outage Noun 1. power outage - equipment failure resulting when the supply of power fails; "the ice storm caused a power outage" power failure equipment failure, breakdown - a cessation of normal operation; "there was a power breakdown" postponed the game 20 minutes, the Braves responded from the 13-point deficit with a 63-yard drive capped by a 23-yard pass from Scott Doherty to Jerome Riley. Riley, a starting guard on the basketball team, caught six passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Doherty, a three-year starter, completed 13 of 20 passes for 200 yards and three scores. With Evans running effectively, Doherty was able to throw the ball downfield down·field adv. & adj. Sports To, into, or in the defensive team's end of the field. Adj. 1. downfield - toward or in the defending team's end of the playing field; "he threw to a downfield receiver" with ease. Dropped passes, however, marred the Braves' first half. ``We can't do this against really good teams because they aren't going to let us comeback Comeback Australian breed of wool sheep, bred by crossing Merino with Corriedale, Polwarth or Zenith sheep; wool is 21 to 25 microns. It is a registered breed, but the term is more commonly used in the sense of a type of sheep produced by crossbreeding a crossbred Merino back to Merino. ,'' Doherty said. ``We did some good things and we made plays. But we need to start earlier.'' Grant, a downtrodden down·trod·den adj. Oppressed; tyrannized. downtrodden Adjective oppressed and lacking the will to resist Adj. 1. program the past few years, proved it was much improved by scoring twice in the first half to take a 13-0 lead. On the Braves' opening drive, Gus Schuster, Grant's 6-foot-3, 230-pound linebacker, scooped up Evans' fumble and ran it 50 yards to the Birmingham 19. Four plays later, David Smith scored from four yards out for a 7-0 lead. Grant then recovered a Doherty fumble and drove 59 yards as Smith scored again from six yards. The Birmingham defense, however, stymied Grant the rest of the way, even without starting linebacker Bobby Davis (torn elbow ligament ligament (lĭg`əmənt), strong band of white fibrous connective tissue that joins bones to other bones or to cartilage in the joint areas. The bundles of collagenous fibers that form ligaments tend to be pliable but not elastic. ). Grant had just 76 yards on the ground, 40 of those on a fake punt by Schuster with Birmingham ahead 17 points. Grant quarterback Lawrence Monroy, who completed four of his first five passes, finished just 10 of 22 for 117 yards. Grant is better than previous years, but Birmingham simply had more athletes, which made the difference. ``We depended on our defense to pull us through,'' Doherty said. ``And that shows we have a good team. All we have to do is not sit around and fall behind.'' CAPTION(S): Photo, Box Photo: EMMANUEL EVANS Birmingham tailback rushes for 162 yards and a TD but fumbles four times in win. Box: FRIDAY'S RESULTS |
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