CALABASAS — If one had looked at Birmingham and Calabasas in the prism of last season, they would have predicted the former would blow out the latter.
Nine months ago, Calabasas was reeling from a 2-8 season, its worst under head coach Cary Harris. Birmingham was fresh off winning its fourth consecutive L.A. City Section Open Division championship, followed by a victory over Del Norte in the CIF Southern California Regional Division 3-AA championship game.
That win, which came on December 1, 2023, remains the most recent for the Patriots as they dropped their fourth straight game to start the 2024 season: a 38-27 loss to Calabasas (4-1).
Last season, Birmingham dusted teams perfecting coach James Rose’s vision. They’d jump on opponents with Kingston Tisdell and Peyton Waters’ dynamic connection. Then close the door with downhill running back Ronnell Hewitt. That trio is gone, and with their departure went the Patriots’ composure.
“The players have to get more gamesmanship,” Rose said. “They have to know football more.”
The Patriots fumbled on a kickoff return while trailing by 10 with 6:30 left in the game. Four mintes later, they committed a penalty, negating Dredon Fowles’ 25-yard catch that would have set up first-and-goal and a sniff at a comeback. They mishandled snaps and blew coverages.
Coyotes quarterback Dominik Hardy pranced around, keeping plays alive, hitting receivers in stride, and tearing up that undisciplined secondary. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 228 yards and four touchdowns. He connected with his brother, Dezmyn Hardy (six catches for 84 yards) for two scores.
The first came on the Coyotes’ opening drive. They faced third-and-14 from the 22-yard line. Dominik threw to the spot he knew his brother would break on his deep corner route, their reps and chemistry paying off as Dezmyn rose above two defenders to snag it.
The second came on the play directly after Birmingham’s King Exusdus fumbled the kick return. Dominik found a streaking Dezmyn across the middle of the field for a 20-yard strike to increase the lead to 38-21, essentially putting the game away.
Dezmyn is older than Dominik. The two have rarely shared the field in game settings, but their synergy has seen consistent growth in their first year playing at the same level.
“(Their chemistry) has been improving,” coach Harris said. “It’s been a work in progress, but they really worked hard this offseason.”
While this is really the first year on varsity for each of the Hardy brothers, the rest of the Calabasas group has shared countless reps together. It showed in their consistent play down the stretch, their fear nonexistent against a program with a sturdy history. They executed in plays such as a fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line halfway through the third quarter where they easily could have taken three points to make it a 10-point game.
Instead, Harris kept his offense on the field and Hardy rolled to the right and found Dylan Hein for a toe-tap touchdown.
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It’s that experience that separates these two programs, that means more than their results in recent past seasons, that was present in that 11-point margin.
Credit to the Coyotes. They were sound. That margin, though, could have easily been erased if not for youthful mistakes from a Patriots squad that’s still experimenting.
“Wake me up when September’s over,” he said. “That’s always been our motto.”
Rose believes his team is improving as it heads into West Valley league play. To his point, Friday was Kevin Hawkins’ first game, and Fowles, who rushed for 144 yards, left briefly because of a cramp. But they had four games and a bye to work out kinks. Instead, like Rose said, they slept right through the month.