LAKE BALBOA — A signature performance from the Birmingham Charter High School flag football team’s defense paved the way for the Patriots to capture the inaugural CIF City Section Open Division championship on Saturday evening.
The Patriots bested top-seeded San Pedro, 14-6, at Rick Prizant Stadium to take home the first ever flag football Open title.
“At the end of the day we went undefeated and were the first Open champs ever,” said Birmingham coach Jim Rose. “How cool is that — the first ones ever? I think it’s the coolest thing. And they did it going undefeated. That one’s gonna be hard to top.”
It took Birmingham’s offense nearly the entire first half to get going and they were being shut out until the final play of the second quarter.
Sophomore Bella Gonzalez pulled in a touchdown pass as time expired, sending the game to halftime tied at 6.
The six points for San Pedro came on a tipped pass that resulted in an interception returned for a touchdown with just under two minutes left in the first half. Otherwise, the Pirates were kept out of the red zone until their final drive of the night, which resulted in a game-sealing turnover on downs forced by the Patriots defense.
“This is only the third game we’ve given up a point in, so we expected to play real good defense,” said Rose. “Coming in, I think we had nine shutouts in 11 games. We kind of hung our hat on that.”
Flag Football Open Division:
Birmingham 14 🏆
San Pedro 6
Congratulations to the Lady Patriots on securing their first #CIFLACS title. Great game to end the inaugural season! pic.twitter.com/Kzb50lyPOW
— CIF LA City Section (@CIFLACS) November 19, 2023
The Patriots went ahead with 3:55 left in the contest when senior speedster Mya Oliveros took a backward pass into the flats 20 yards up the right sideline for a score.
“She’s a flyer,” said Rose. “She doesn’t cut much but she can really giddy up and go.”
Rachel Lowery added the 2-point conversion on a similar play to the left side.
Both plays initially started with Jessica Rose — daughter of Jim, scorer of 27 touchdowns this year — drawing the defense in before throwing the backward passes on the touchdown and conversion.
The senior standout has anchored the defense all year; her impressive cover skills making passes over the middle against the Patriots a bad idea.
She will represent Birmingham in the Orange County versus Los Angeles County All Star game, and at least one person expects to see more postseason awards for Rose.
“She should be the player of the year,” said Jim Rose. “She leads the city in picks. She leads the city in rushing. She had 15 picks in 11 games.”