Calabasas football rolls to victory over Birmingham

VAN NUYS — It’s never easy to achieve perfection. The Calabasas football team nearly achieved it in its win over Birmingham on Friday.

At Birmingham Community Charter School, the Coyotes faced off against the Patriots. The Patriots had a valiant effort despite battling injuries, but the Coyotes scored six touchdowns on their first six drives en route to a 49-28 victory.

Coming off a 31-17 loss to Agoura, this is precisely the bounce-back game the Coyotes needed.

“We needed that win after a tough one last week,” said Coyotes coach Cary Harris. “We knew last week we were down 10-3 on the scoreboard, and we needed to help our defense get the win. We came out with a sense of urgency, and our offense produced. We didn’t want to leave any points off the scoreboard. They knew what they had to do, and we knew (Birmingham) was tough, so we needed a complete game to come out with the win.”

While the Coyotes were preparing for their offensive onslaught, the Patriots were unafraid and scored the first points of the game with a 4-yard touchdown from Brayden Morgan.

The scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story, as it was a back-and-forth affair in the beginning, but the Coyotes’ offense proved too much, and their defense made just enough stops. In the first half alone, the Coyotes were a perfect four-for-four on touchdown drives while the Patriots scored twice.

After the opening possession touchdown, the Coyotes marched down and scored off a 29-yard pass from Dominik Hardy to Dezmyn Hardy. Dominik’s night was far from over.

On the next Coyotes drive, Dominik found Kingston Celifie for a 38-yard touchdown. The Patriots managed to stop the bleeding with a touchdown drive of their own, thanks to a 1-yard rushing touchdown from Kevin Hawkins, but of course, the Coyotes had an answer.

On their third possession, the Coyotes scored their first rushing touchdown of the game with a 10-yard rush from Kayne Miller. The way the offense was moving, all the Coyotes had to do defensively was make sure the Patriots didn’t find the end zone, and that’s precisely what they did.

Right before halftime, the Coyotes scored again with a 12-yard pass from Dominik to Celifie, their second touchdown connection of the night.

“I thought we played better than we were going to after this week’s practice,” said Patriots coach Jim Rose. “A lot of guys got valuable reps against a quality opponent, so in the long run, the goal is for that to help us. We aim to be the deepest team possible. If you look, it’s not always the other team that beats you; it’s sometimes self-inflicted. So we just had to do our job, and the goal is to get better week in and week out. Next week, we should get better just in terms of health alone.”

Before the Patriots could make some noise, the Coyotes scored again off the first possession out of halftime as Miller scored his second touchdown of the night from 17 yards out. Of course, the Coyotes could not be stopped and scored on their sixth touchdown drive with a 6-yard rush from Dominik.

Dominik ended his night with 300 total yards and four total touchdowns. However, the Patriots showed some life near the end, scoring from 67 yards on a Morgan rush and another huge 56-yard rush from Hawkins.

The ground game between Hawkins and Morgan combined for 212 rushing yards and three touchdowns, but it was not enough to overcome the Coyotes’ offense. For the Coyotes, Miller ended his night with 93 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

Dezmyn finished with nine catches for 117 yards and one touchdown. Celifie ended with nine catches for 136 yards and two touchdowns as Dominik put the offense together all night long.

“First and foremost, I want to give all the glory to God because nothing can be done without him,” said Dominik. “We came out and executed on all cylinders. We practiced hard. I felt like we slacked off a bit in previous weeks, but after a loss, we had the killer mindset and were focused in practice. I try to be the best player I can be every night and be someone my team can rely on, and that’s a fact. We just have to build off this win, keep practicing, no days off, and keep stacking the wins.”