City 4-A Final : Banning Is Beaten by Carson

With six seconds remaining in Friday night’s City 4-A championship game, the players on the Carson offense started running jubilantly toward the Wilmington Banning end zone.

It was the only time all night that the Colts didn’t run over or through Banning, the defending City champion, which came into the game as the nation’s top-ranked team by USA Today.

The Carson defense, overshadowed all season by the Banning defensive unit, forced six turnovers. The offense scored 14 points in the third quarter, and the Colts came away with a 21-11 win before 16,000 fans at East Los Angeles College.

This is the fourth year in a row that the team that lost the regular-season meeting between the schools has come back to win the championship. In November, Banning (11-1) beat the Colts, 37-10, to clinch the Pacific League title.

“Last time we played Banning, we were totally out of control,” said Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle, who won his eighth City title. “This time, we stayed under control, and the defense really did an excellent job shutting them down.”

Carson (11-1) was leading, 7-3, when Alvin Goree, the Colts’ senior running back and the school’s all-time leading rusher, broke off left tackle and went 52 yards for a touchdown two minutes into the second half.

The Colts scored again with 3:02 left in the third quarter on a 62-yard drive that followed a Banning fumble--the Pilots’ sixth turnover of the game.

William Pope, who had been moved to quarterback earlier in the season when George Maluulu injured his shoulder, threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Brian Treggs to give the Colts a 21-3 lead.

“We had that lead in the first half, but we had to simmer down,” said Goree, who rushed for 144 yards. “This is a sweet win, let me tell you.”

Goree’s performance spoke for itself, but it was the Carson defense that told the story.

Michael Helm and Abdul Harris each had two interceptions for Carson. The swarming, gang-tackling defensive unit shut down a Banning team that had been averaging 35 points in the playoffs.

“Banning likes to get out of the blocks early and score on that first possession,” Vollnogle said before the game. “I don’t think it would bother us much if they did.”

Banning did score first, but not before the teams each committed two turnovers.

Banning quarterback Ed Kapu had his first two pass attempts intercepted, but Carson was not able to convert either opportunity into a score.

Carson also showed some first-half jitters by fumbling twice. The second one led to Banning’s first score.

Carson had the ball with a first and 10 from its own 28 when Pope fumbled the snap and Banning’s Arley Anthony recovered. Four plays later, Tito Martinez kicked a 36-yard field goal to give the Pilots a short-lived 3-0 lead.

Carson, as Vollnogle had predicted, did not panic. Instead, the Colts came back on the ensuing possession and showed the kind of explosiveness that had characterized their attack all season.

Carson started its drive on its 26 and moved downfield behind Goree, who broke off runs of 15 and 17 yards to help move the ball to the Banning 43.

On the next play, Pope faked a handoff into the line, rolled to his left and broke down the sideline for a 43-yard touchdown to make the score 7-3 at halftime.