Prep Football : Unbeaten Carson Faces San Fernando Tonight in City Semifinal

The City high school football playoffs enter the semifinal round tonight, with all three of the top-seeded teams still alive, among them unbeaten Carson in the 4-A Division.

The Colts (10-0) will play San Fernando (7-1-1) at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach, and Granada Hills (7-3) will play host to Reseda Cleveland (5-5) in the other semifinal. Cleveland made it by becoming the first Valley team to beat Banning of Wilmington since 1978, when John Elway and Granada Hills won.

In the 3-A, Woodland Hills Taft (8-2) is at top-seeded Palisades (8-2) in a contrast of run vs. pass. Palisades has quarterback Perry Klein and a slew of receivers, but Taft has used the ground game with positive results--five games of 300 yards or more rushing, including 313 in a 33-14 win over San Pedro last week, and an average of 268.1 an outing. Taft suffered its losses when the Toreadors were held under 200 yards.

Chatsworth (7-3) travels to meet L.A. Franklin (8-1) in the other 3-A semifinal. The host Panthers would be the defending champions but were stripped of the title for using an ineligible player in the first round of the 1986 playoffs.

In the 2-A, Reseda (9-0) continues its title defense with a home game against Huntington Park (6-2-1). Both teams are coming off close wins last week, Reseda 18-13 over South Gate and Huntington Park 7-3 over L.A. Lincoln.

Westchester (8-2), which plays at L.A. Roosevelt (7-7-1), will be short of rest and preparation, having played Monday because of the weekend rains.

All games are set for 7:30.

Tonight’s schedule for Southern Section championship games:

--Fontana (13-0) against Fountain Valley (9-4) in the Big Five Conference at Anaheim Stadium.

--Channel Islands (11-2) at Thousand Oaks (11-1-1) in the Coastal.

--Chaminade of Canoga Park (11-2) against Woodbridge of Irvine (12-1) at Irvine High in the Desert-Mountain.

--Arroyo of El Monte (10-3) at Cajon of San Bernardino (12-1) in the Southeastern.

Kickoff for all four games is 7:30.