SAN DIEGO — On the final play of the game, Kingston Tisdell found Devyn Jackson on a 52-yard Hail Mary pass to give Birmingham a 30-28 victory over Del Norte in the CIF Southern California Regional Division 3-AA championship game.
The pass was intended for Peyton Waters and deflected off a Del Norte defender. The ball fell right into Jackson’s hands and he was able to run it in for the game-winning score.
With the win, Birmingham will move on to its second state championship game with a chance to win its first state title. The Patriots will take on Acalanes on Dec. 8 or 9 at a Southern California location.
Birmingham’s leading rusher and starting running back, Ronnell Hewitt, did not suit up for the game, but the Patriots were still able to do a nice job of controlling the time of possession with backup running back Dredon Fowles leading the way in the run game.
Fowles finished the game with 28 carries for 154 yards.
On Birmingham’s first possession, the Patriots built a 13-play drive that was capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass from Tisdell to Maynor Morales.
Birmingham had multiple long drives in the game and ran 66 plays from scrimmage compared to Del Norte’s 33.
Del Norte tied the game at 7-7 with an Anthony Mattar short touchdown run early in the second quarter.
Del Norte took a 14-10 lead into halftime after Jack Schneider found Tyler Becker for a 64-yard touchdown pass and Andy Bailon hit a 27-yard field goal for Birmingham.
On Birmingham’s final series of the first half, Javen Hall replaced Tisdell at quarterback and drove the Patriots inside the Del Norte 20. But Birmingham didn’t score any points on the possession.
Tisdell took back over as starter in the second half after not playing for the one series.
Del Norte took a 21-10 lead in the middle of the third quarter on a Ryan Remigio touchdown run. The scoring drive started on the Patriots 24 after Birmingham had a late hit on the Del Norte punt return.
Birmingham regained the lead, 24-21, early in the fourth quarter with the defense starting to step up and Tisdell throwing his second and third touchdown passes of the night.
Tisdell’s second touchdown pass was a 33-yard strike to Waters and his third touchdown was a 11-yard pass to Jomar Adams.
Following the Adams score, Del Norte took a 28-24 lead when Ty Olsen returned a kick 75 yards for a touchdown. Following the Olsen score, Del Norte missed a 47-yard field goal.
After the missed field goal, Birmingham drove it inside the Del Norte 40, but was unable to score and Del Norte took possession again with two and a half minutes left. Del Norte had the ball with under a minute left and would have been able to run the clock out but they ran the ball out of bounds and Birmingham saved a timeout and forced Del Norte into another long field goal attempt instead of being able to take a knee to win the game.
Del Norte missed the 45-yard field goal and Birmingham took back possession with 28 seconds left in the game.
On the final possession, Tisdell completed two passes, to Jackson and Waters, before finding Jackson again on the 52-yard Hail Mary for the win.
Tisdell finished the game 13 of 30 passing for 224 yards and four touchdowns and zero turnovers. Waters, who has committed to Washington, had seven catches for 108 yards and a touchdown, Jackson had three catches for 73 yards and the game-winning score. Dominic Jefferson had two sacks for Birmingham on defense.