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High School Sports

HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK

By STEVE HENSON

Is James Bethea of Cleveland for real?

Earlier big games by the senior running back had come against weak defenses. Not so Friday against El Camino Real, which had allowed only 487 yards rushing in seven games.

Bethea rushed for 255 yards and five touchdowns in the Cavaliers’ 47-23 victory over the Conquistadores, giving him 1,415 yards and 23 touchdowns in 144 carries.

Cleveland has scored 312 points, an average of 39 points a game, the most of any City Section team in the region.

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A Cleveland victory over Birmingham on Friday will set up a game for at least a share of the West Valley League title against Taft on Nov. 12.

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High School Sports
Steve Henson

Steve Henson is a breaking news and enterprise reporter at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as an editor and reporter in the Sports department. Henson was a leader in digital-only newsrooms from 2007-19 as a senior editor and columnist at Yahoo Sports and as senior editor at the USA Today Sports Media Group. This is his second stint at The Times, having covered the Dodgers and UCLA as well as doing enterprise, investigative and features writing from 1985-2007. Henson was awarded first place in sports features in 2023 and in 2021 by the L.A. Press Club. He has been honored several times by APSE — most recently in 2023 and 2021 — and also by the California News Publishers Assn., the Football Writers Assn. of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Assn.

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