Is This the Year San Pedro Puts an End to Carson Streak?

The pride of two tight-knit, sports-minded communities will be at stake when San Pedro plays Carson in a Southern Pacific Conference football opener Friday night at Daniels Field in San Pedro.

The game is important for San Pedro because of history. The Pirates have beaten Carson only once in 21 previous meetings, and that was in 1968. This year’s team, which has not given up a point in three games, is considered to have a good shot at ending the streak.

For Carson, anything less than a victory would be damaging for a team that began the season ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 2 in the nation but was winless before beating Colton last week in its fourth game.

Call it the Redemption Bowl.

Nobody has to tell San Pedro Coach Mike Walsh what a victory over Carson would mean for his program. Carson leads the series, 19-1-1.

“It’s not a game to decide the league title or a playoff berth,” Walsh said, “but it’s certainly a game the San Pedro community would like to see go our way after so many years of seeing it go the other way.

“I think we’ve got a shot. I know it might be hard to convince people of that after 19-1-1, but I think we’ve got a shot.”

Wait a minute. Haven’t we heard this before? The Pirates entered last year’s game against Carson bursting with confidence. San Pedro was 4-0 and Carson was 2-2. Final score: Carson 28, San Pedro 7.

The same questions that surrounded San Pedro’s impressive start in 1991 cloud the team’s 3-0 record this season. In short, how good are the teams the Pirates have beaten by a combined score of 85-0? Answer: Not very.

University is 0-3, Hamilton is 1-2 and Venice is 0-2.

San Pedro still has something to prove, and Walsh knows it.

“I don’t know if we’ve played anybody the caliber (Carson) has,” he said. “We’ll find out how good we are.”

Carson is also searching for answers. The Colts (1-2-1) finally broke into the win column last week with a 35-15 victory over Colton, the first game the team played after adding Steve Clarkson as a part-time coach.

But Clarkson, who helped Coach Marty Blankenship revamp the Colts’ offense to a pass-oriented attack, won’t be on the sideline Friday night because of a job commitment. How much Clarkson’s absence will affect the team remains to be seen. Carson had scored only 23 points in three games before he arrived on the scene.

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Carson Athletic Director Saul Pacheco said things are getting back to normal on the football team after last week’s tumultuous events.

In addition to adding Clarkson, which prompted the resignation of one assistant, nine Carson players, including five starters, were forced to sit out the Colton game because they missed a practice.

Pacheco said those players are back with the team this week.

“They understand we’ll win or lose without them,” he said.

As for the infighting that reportedly has plagued the team, Pacheco said it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

“There’s been a lot of sniping going on, but that’s natural for a team that’s not used to losing,” he said. “We used to have people trying to get rid of (former Coach Gene) Vollnogle when we lost. You can’t please everybody.

“Even in years when we were 11-0 or 12-0, we had players who were mad because they weren’t playing enough. We had parents threaten us.”

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Vollnogle, enjoying retirement and working as an assistant at Los Alamitos, says Los Alamitos senior Tim Carey is as good a passer as any quarterback he coached in 30-plus seasons at Banning and Carson.

Carey will lead Los Alamitos against Bishop Montgomery at 7:30 tonight at Gahr High in Cerritos.

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Audie Fujimoto, whose daughter Tiffany quit the Torrance girls’ volleyball team after a run-in with Coach Pete Field, said he received a letter Tuesday from Torrance Principal Joe Rotcher asking the family to meet with school officials in an attempt to resolve the dispute and have Tiffany rejoin the team.

Fujimoto, though, said his daughter has no intentions of coming back as long as Field is coach. Tiffany, a senior, said Field was verbally and physically abusive to her during a practice Sept. 14, causing her to quit.

Fujimoto said he is upset with the way Torrance officials have handled his daughter’s complaint.

“They don’t seem to be concerned for my daughter’s well-being,” Fujimoto said. “To me, it’s pretty obvious that (Field) did something, but they’re acting like he didn’t do anything.

“My daughter has represented the school for four years and has never caused any trouble. Now they’re treating her like she is lying.”

Rotcher, when asked about the allegations against Field, said, “As far as I’m concerned, the situation is on hold. . . . That’s all I care to comment.”

Rotcher said Field will continue to coach the team.

Fujimoto said he is disappointed that the school has not investigated his daughter’s complaint more aggressively. Tiffany said Field scolded her, grabbed her by the arm and ordered her to leave the gym after she tried to explain why she made a mistake during a passing drill.

“My main concern is that (Field) grabbed the girl and verbally abused her,” Fujimoto said. “To me, that’s a big deal. But nobody cares.”

Field has refused to discuss the incident.

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If there were any doubts that Torrance has surpassed Mira Costa as the South Bay’s premier girls’ volleyball team, the Tartars erased them with two victories over the Mustangs.

Torrance defeated Mira Costa, three games to one, in the final of the Mira Costa/Redondo tournament Saturday, and the Tartars improved to 6-0 Tuesday night with a dramatic 12-15, 15-7, 15-12, 2-15, 15-13 nonleague victory over the host Mustangs.

Torrance outside hitter Kim Blankinship was named most valuable player of the Mira Costa/Redondo tournament. In Tuesday’s match, outside hitter Suzanne Radcliffe had 20 kills and setter Jenny Yokoyama had 36 assists to lead the Tartars.

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Leuzinger football Coach Steve Carnes was encouraged by his team’s 21-7 victory Friday over Torrance. After committing 11 turnovers--including eight fumbles--in its first two games, the Olympians did not have a turnover against Torrance.

“We protected the ball and the kids ran hard,” said Carnes, whose team rushed for 338 yards. “I was pretty pleased.”

Carnes had little to be pleased about after Leuzinger’s second game. The Olympians committed six turnovers in a 25-7 loss to West Torrance, one week after demolishing Bolsa Grande of Garden Grove, 43-6.

Carnes said winning the season opener so easily might have done more harm than good.

“Bolsa Grande was not a very good football team,” he said. “Even though we handled them, we didn’t play very well. Among the coaches, we considered the West game our opening game because Bolsa Grande was like a sophomore team.

“We were awful against West, but West played well. We have a lot of young kids, and in the heat of battle they made a lot of mistakes.”

The maturing process showed last week in the improved play of junior quarterback Jason Simmons and sophomore tailback Don Williams. Although Simmons completed only two of 14 passes--several were dropped--he ran for all three of Leuzinger’s touchdowns.

And the Olympian defense, which held Torrance to 117 yards, should be strengthened by the return of linebacker Matthew Sagato, who missed the first three games because of personal reasons. Leuzinger (2-1) plays at Chaffey of Ontario (1-1-1) in a nonleague game at 7 tonight.

“We’re not a great football team, but I think we’re a respectable football team if we’re playing our game,” Carnes said. “If we’re playing giveaway, anybody can beat us.”

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Inglewood’s football team has given up 86 points in three games, with most of that total coming the past two weeks in losses to Beverly Hills, 36-35, and West Torrance, 31-19.

Now the Sentinels (1-2) must find a way to stop Redondo (3-0), which is averaging 358 yards a game behind a formidable rushing attack led by running backs Bob Cracknell and Scott Moore.

“There’s no doubt that we have to play better defense,” Inglewood Coach Angelo Jackson said. “(Redondo is) the same kind of team as West. They’re going to be bigger than us. They’re going to pound it. We need to play tougher defense and have better ball control.”

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After losing its opener to Mission Viejo, 42-7, West Torrance has done an about-face with victories over Leuzinger, 25-7, and Inglewood, 31-19.

“They’re a hard bunch of kids to figure out,” West Coach Kerry Crabb said. “Somewhere between Thursday and Friday, our team shows up.”

Notes

Joey Bolder, El Segundo’s top running back and linebacker, probably will not play again until the Pioneer League opener Oct. 16 against Torrance because of a slight shoulder separation suffered in last week’s 26-10 victory over Mary Star, Coach Craig Cousins said. . . Steve Carroll, former Bishop Montgomery football coach, is the defensive coordinator for Culver City.

Redondo, unranked before the season, has moved up to No. 3 in the Southern Section Division VII football poll. Three Pioneer League teams--North Torrance (No. 1), El Segundo (No. 5) and West Torrance (No. 8)--are ranked in the Division IX top 10.

The 21st annual El Segundo water polo tournament, featuring 16 teams, will be contested at El Segundo and Mira Costa. Competition begins today and concludes Monday.

South Bay’s Football Top 10

Rank, School, League Record 1 Peninsula (Bay) 3-0 2 Hawthorne (Bay) 2-1 3 San Pedro (Southern) 3-0 4 Banning (Pacific) 2-1 5 North Torrance (Pioneer) 3-0 6 Serra (Camino Real) 2-1 7 Carson (Pacific) 1-2-1 8 Redondo (Ocean) 3-0 9 El Segundo (Pioneer) 3-0 10 West Torrance (Pioneer) 2-1