Off to an 0-3 start and missing one of Southern California’s top players, USC-bound running back Trajuan Briggs (broken foot), things couldn’t possibly look much bleaker for the Birmingham (Lake Balboa, Calif.) Patriots football team.
Unfortunately, arch-rival Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) and the reigning Gatorade State Player of the Year are coming to town in the Nike 5 Days 2 Friday Game of the Week, Western style. 
Notre Dame's Kasdorf was the 2008 Gatorade State Player of the Year.
File photo by Jim Redman
"We seem to be entering the gauntlet," Birmingham coach Jim Rose told MaxPreps on-the-scene reporters Nick Reasons and Karl Wilhelm.
Notre Dame quarterback Ryan Kasdorf and the then-nationally ranked Knights are just a couple weeks removed from being upset by Moorpark 27-14, so it’s not likely they are going to take Birmingham lightly. Not that they would anyway. These two teams play every year, and though they play in different sections — Notre Dame in the Southern and Birmingham in the Los Angeles City — you can almost always expect a tight, competitive game.
This year, Rose told Reasons, his team will need to play perfect to stay in the game. Then again, no matter what the result, his team, which opened the season with a shocking 25-24 loss to Garfield (Los Angeles) on the last play of the game, will take away something positive.
"That opener really stung," said Rose, whose team then dropped lopsided affairs to Southern Section powers Crespi-Encino (49-14) and Valencia (56-31). "Quite honestly, we should be 1-2 instead of 0-3. But this isn’t all that unusual for us. We’ve gone 0-4 to start and ended up in the quarterfinals of the City playoffs and gone 1-3 and won the whole thing.
"(Playing this tough schedule) is going to make us a stronger team in the long run."
This likely will be the Patriots' soundest opponent, led by Kasdorf, who last year threw for 3,291 yards and 36 touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior has more pedestrian numbers this year, having completed 57-of-82 passes for 638 yards and just three touchdowns against two interceptions. He has also rushed for 134 yards and a score and actually caught a 72-yard TD pass from himself, an utter oddity in the state book, when he threw a forward pass to Tyler Thomas, who fired a lateral back to Kasdorf.
Kasdorf then raced 72 yards for the score and was credited with the pass and reception because Thomas never went over the line of scrimmage.
All was done at fancy Cowboys Stadium in Dallas where Notre Dame handled Klein Oak (Texas) 37-7 as part of the Kirk Herbstreit Classic on Labor Day.
"He’s not just a good player; he’s a great player," said Birmingham starting quarterback Maxwell Smith, who himself is an impressive specimen at 6-5 and 217 pounds. "He runs their offense well. He’s the California State Player of the Year for a reason."
It doesn’t stop there for Notre Dame, which responded to the upset loss with a 45-27 win over Taft last week.
They have a dangerous running back in Kenneth Boggs (46 rushes, 360 yards, eight touchdowns), and Thomas is one of the state’s leading receivers with 30 catches for 330 yards and a touchdown.
It all adds up to a No. 13 spot in the state, according to the MaxPreps Freeman ranking, and No. 91 nationally.
"Notre Dame is a great team, and they have a great coach in coach (Kevin) Rooney," Smith said. "We’re going to definitely need to step it up."
Birmingham did two years ago at home, scoring a 28-21 victory before a national television audience. But the Patriots also had one of the city’s all-time leading rushers Milton Knox (2,210 yards and 39 touchdowns that year) and two Division I defensive ends, brothers Malik and Marquis Johnson.
Notre Dame came back to win last year’s game 45-27. Boggs had 221 yards rushing and four touchdowns.
"It would have been nice to play these guys with (Briggs)," Rose said. "But we don’t have him and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves."
Briggs rushed for 1,513 yards and 21 touchdowns last year, and then-senior quarterback Morey Croson passed for 2,468 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Croson’s dad, longtime coach Ed Croson, retired after last season and Rose replaced him. He reminds his squad that the Patriots were 0-4 to start last year and still won a city playoff game. They finished 6-6.
Colerain's Williams isn't very big but he's elusive.
File photo by Wayne Litmer
Rose has decided to throw a new wrinkle at Notre Dame and has promoted freshman receiver Taj Wheeler to the varsity. He’s the first freshman to play for Birmingham since Knox.
And in the East
The MaxPreps 5 Days 2 Friday reporting team of Adam Spencer and Casey Littlejohn is in Cincinnati to report on the Colerain (Cincinnati)-at-Hamilton matchup. Spencer and Littlejohn are at the camp of Colerain, which is seventh in the state despite a 2-2 record. The Cardinals opened with tough losses to St. Xavier (16-0) and Elder (20-7), the two top-ranked teams in the state, but have responded with big wins over DuPont Manuel-Louisville, Ky. (42-0) and Lakota East (48-24).
Hamilton (1-3) opened with a pair of losses before beating Taft (31-23). The Big Blue then dropped a 20-6 game to Lakota West. Hamilton returns 12 starters from last season, when the team finished 7-3. Colerain returns three of their top players from last year’s 11-2 team: quarterback Greg Tabar (6-0, 180), running back Tyler Williams (5-9, 150) and linebacker Tyon Dixon (6-0, 200).
