Prep Wrapup : Carson Again Falls to Bishop Amat

The predicted rain never came, but the Bishop Amat Lancers lowered the gloom on Carson for the second year in a row. This year the Colts came back from a 17-0 halftime deficit only to lose, 24-23, in an intersectional game, the opener for Carson.

“We didn’t play a great game, but the second half was better than the first,” Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle said. “We missed a lot of assignments, but it was our first game.”

“They made all the mistakes that we made last week,” Bishop Amat Coach Mark Paredes said. His Lancers lost to Rubidoux in their opener, 14-7.

The game marked the beginning of senior quarterback Armin Youngblood’s tenure as the Colt signal caller. He completed 14 of 28 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns. But on a warm, humid night in La Puente, an aggressive, blitzing Bishop Amat defense held Carson rushers to an abysmal four net yards. “We were getting manhandled on the offensive line,” Vollnogle said. “I chewed (the linemen) out at halftime.”

The rest of the team must have heeded Vollnogle as well, because the Colts came out raging for the second half. Abdul Muhammad returned the opening kickoff 56 yards, and two plays later Michael Ross caught a slant pass from Armin Youngblood and broke two tackles for a 42-yard touchdown.

After recently promoted Carson kicker Aaron Villareal booted a 28-yard field goal, the Colts faced a fourth down at Bishop Amat’s seven-yard line. A delay-of-game penalty moved Carson back to the 12.

No problem. Youngblood threw a pass like a slow softball pitch into the right corner of the end zone, and Ross ducked in front of his defender and plucked the ball out of the air for six points. A Villareal conversion tied the score.

“Carson’s receivers were burning us,” Paredes said. Bishop Amat’s defensive backs were covering the Colt receivers man-to-man, but Ross, Kenny Lincoln, and Tydus Winans were beating them easily. “We tried to use a zone, but we couldn’t get the kids lined up right.”

As the fourth quarter started, Youngblood hit Lincoln with a nine-yard touchdown pass to cap a 91-yard drive. But Villareal’s conversion attempt went wide, and the Colts held a tenuous 23-17 lead.

With just over two minutes left, Bishop Amat’s Zack Zertuche passed to fullback Jason Patterson for a 33-yard touchdown, and the conversion gave the Lancers a win over the No. 1 team in Southern California for two years in a row.

“They’re a super team,” Paredes said. “If they had a minute and a half more, they would have scored.”

Carson’s arch-rival, the Banning Pilots, and their coach, Joe Dominguez, had more success in an intersectional game with Long Beach Poly, the opener for both teams.

It didn’t appear that way in the beginning. The Jackrabbits’ Andre Green returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, and a trick play shortly afterward put Poly in position for a short field goal and a 9-0 lead.

But after the first quarter, the Pilots recouped. Led by tailback Travis Davis, who rushed for 109 yards, they dominated the last three quarters for a 21-9 win.

Davis put Banning back into the game the first time he touched the ball by scampering for a 65-yard touchdown.

Pilot quarterback John Ma’ae scored the decisive touchdown with 3:11 to go in the game, giving Banning a victory over the CIF Southern Section’s No. 3 team.

Banning and Carson were not the only South Bay teams that had sluggish starts. The upstart Mira Costa Mustangs took on a Rolling Hills team five divisions above them but couldn’t complete a second-half rally, losing 26-14.

“We, as a coaching staff, did a poor job preparing the kids to play,” Mira Costa Coach Larry Petrill said.

Rolling Hills jumped to a 20-0 lead after two quarters, led by the running of Gary Schwartz and Robert Coulter, but the Mustangs came back. Down 20-7 in the fourth quarter, they narrowed the gap to 20-14 as junior quarterback Jeff Diussa passed nine yards to Scott Letourneau.

Then Mira Costa’s defense forced Rolling Hills to punt. The offense mounted a potential game-winning drive, but a Diussa pass was intercepted by Titan defensive back Issac Brown and returned 65 yards for a touchdown.

Still, it was the first-half performance of Rolling Hills’ running game that beat Mira Costa. “We’re lucky to have two good tailbacks in Schwartz and Coulter,” Titan Coach Gary Kimbrell said. Coulter finished with 170 yards.

Rolling Hills is now 2-0, while Mira Costa falls to 1-1.

In other games:

Leuzinger crushed San Pedro, 28-9, to remain unbeaten. . . . Torrance’s Tony Da Costa rushed for 189 yards, including an fourth-quarter 89-yard touchdown, to lead the Tartars (2-0) over Redondo (1-1). . . . New Serra Coach Leo Hand’s Cavaliers remained unbeaten as they raced past Centennial, 46-7. Serra backs Fred Safford, Dennis Gerard and Lamont Daniel combined for 311 yards rushing. . . . Josh Moore scored four touchdowns to lead West Torrance by El Segundo, 32-7. The Eagles dropped to 0-2 after going 10-1 last year. . . . Bishop Montgomery Coach Steve Carroll and St. Bernard Coach Jerry Campbell won their first games as those schools’ head coaches. The Knights beat North Torrance, 10-0, and the Vikings beat St. Francis, 21-3. . . . Westchester lost to Granada Hills, 17-14, after fumbling in the fourth quarter with a chance to win. . . . Palos Verdes repulsed a late South Torrance rally to stay unbeaten, 14-7.