Birmingham Takes Positive Step

Birmingham High went backward the past three seasons in the City Section boys’ soccer playoffs.

In 1995, the Braves advanced to the quarterfinals. In 1996, they exited in the second round. Last season, they were upset in the first round.

Birmingham (9-1-5), hoping to reverse the trend, defeated Marshall, 4-0, on Thursday in a first-round game at Birmingham.

Erick Reyes and Bobby Pouya scored in the first half and John Wall scored twice in the second, a bonanza for a team which has struggled to find the net.

“This was a chance for us to score and really play some soccer,” Birmingham Coach Jose Freire said. “If we had scored even two goals a game we would have won the [Northwest Valley Conference].”

The Braves finished second this season after winning the last three conference titles.

Scoring was a weakness but team defense and goalkeeping were strengths, and those qualities often carry teams in the postseason.

“Nobody’s going to score too many goals on us, that’s the good news,” Freire said. “Now if we can just get some ourselves. . . . “

Marshall, seeded No. 22, found itself down, 1-0, in the 24th minute after Reyes outran a defender to a loose ball and chipped it over charging goalkeeper Daniel Medrano from 10 yards.

Birmingham, seeded No. 11, took a 2-0 lead with eight minutes to play in the half. Bobby Pouya’s corner kick bounced out of the goalmouth to teammate Jonathan Moreno. Moreno passed back to Pouya on the left sideline, from where he drilled a 30-yard shot over Medrano and into the right side of the goal.

Ortega scored on pass from Adonay Jovel and headed in a free kick from Carlos Herrera.

In other City Section boys’ first-round games:

Palisades 3, Chatsworth 2--The 24th seeded Chancellors, the third-place representative from the Northwest Valley Conference, gave ninth-seeded Palisades all it could handle before falling in a shootout at Palisades.

Abdul Sufdari tied the game, 1-1, and assisted on a goal by Roque Hernandez with five minutes remaining to forge a 2-2 tie for Chatsworth. Hernandez took a through ball from Sufdari, dribbled in and scored from 10 yards.

Chatsworth fell in the ensuing shootout, 4-3.

North Hollywood 2, Jefferson 1--Najib Benjelloun scored twice in the first half and the No. 17-seeded Huskies (8-4-3) advanced to a second-round meeting with top-seeded Manual Arts.