City 4-A : Banning Has Little Trouble With Rival Carson : Saunders and Kapu Help Lead the Pilots to an Easy Victory Over Colts, 31-6

Asked earlier in the week what it would mean for his team to come back from a very un-Banning like start of the season to win the City 4-A championship, Pilot Coach Chris Ferragamo thought for a moment and then stared at the big piece of jewelry that dominated one of his fingers.

“What it would mean,” he said, looking at a reward from one of his seven previous City titles, “is another trip to Gold Ring City.”

They left Friday night.

Banning beat rival Carson, 31-6, before a crowd of 15,000 at East Los Angeles College.

For Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle, who has stressed the team concept for 29 years, the loss cost him a personal goal--beating Banning and Ferragamo, his former player, three straight times and twice in the same year.

Banning (9-3) got big games from running back Earl Saunders and quarterback Ed Kapu.

Saunders, who started the season playing only defense and was touted as one of the top prep linebackers in Southern California, rushed for 110 yards on 13 carries and scored 3 touchdowns. Kapu, who began the night averaging about 80 yards passing a game, completed his first 5 passes for 112 yards and finished 6 of 7 for 133 yards.

Banning built a 21-6 lead at halftime. Kapu completed a 62-yard pass to Leonard Hernandez to set up the first touchdown, a one-yard run by running back Eric Sharp. Martin Manzano’s extra point kick was wide to the right.

The Pilots made it 14-0 on their next possession as Saunders scored from the 12 and Kapu ran for the two-point conversion.

Meanwhile, Carson quarterback Marc Waters was being victimized by some bad breaks. He was 6 of 13 for 88 yards and 1 interception at halftime, but several passes for big gains were dropped.

With 9 1/2 minutes remaining in the half, Saunders made the big defensive play. He took the ball right out of the hands of Carson running back Alvin Goree and ran 75 yards for a touchdown. The play was ruled a fumble recovery.

Carson (10-2) finally scored with 35 seconds left before intermission when Waters lofted a nice 15-yard lead pass to wide receiver Myron Freeman in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. The kick was blocked, which left the Colts down, 21-6, at halftime.

But they never made a run at Banning, as the Pilots pushed it to 28-6 on Saunders’ 59-yard run and Manzano’s extra point with 2:21 left in the third quarter.

All that was left was a 46-yard field goal by junior Jose Rocha with 1:32 to play.