Taft to Try to Complete Turnaround : Prep football: Winless last season, the Toreadors face San Pedro for the City Section 3-A Division championship.

Emotions on both sides have run the gamut, from giddy joy to church-hall solemnity. Taft hopes to experience the former very soon.

For San Pedro High, which will meet Taft at 7:30 tonight in the City Section 3-A Division championship football game at Gardena High, these are the best of times. Not long ago, the opposite was true.

“In previous years when we won, there was a lot of excitement and exuberance,” said second-year San Pedro Coach Mike Walsh, whose team is 11-1-1. “Now we basically dress and go home. I guess we expect to win.”

Taft (9-4) experienced no joy whatsoever in 1991 and finished 0-8-1. A year later, the Toreadors, under first-year Coach Troy Starr, earned a share of the West Valley League title.

Tonight, both teams will make their first appearance in a football championship game.

In two years under Walsh, a 1972 San Pedro graduate, the Pirates are 18-6-1, including a 5-1 mark in the playoffs. In the three preceding seasons, San Pedro was 12-19 and reached the playoffs once.

The Pirates finished 4-1-1 in the tough Southern Pacific Conference. San Pedro’s lone loss was to Carson, a finalist in the 4-A Division. San Pedro lost to eventual champion Crenshaw in the 3-A semifinals last season and lost 13 starters from the 1991 team. Still, the Pirates bring an eight-game winning streak into tonight’s game.

Both teams stick to the basics. Coaches predict little in the way of passing.

“It ought to be a fast game,” Starr said. “If we can stop their three basic (running) plays, I think we’ll be in good shape.”

Senior running back Ambrose Russo of San Pedro has rushed for 1,214 yards and 14 touchdowns in 176 carries (6.9-yard average). Backfield mate Jeff Williams, a senior, has 724 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Taft comes right at opponents with its bread-and-butter player, sophomore tailback Jerry Brown who already has established a reputation.

“We have to stop the governor, Jerry Brown,” Walsh said. “He’s definitely a quality back.”

Brown has rushed for 1,671 yards and 16 touchdowns and has hit his stride in the playoffs. In the past two games, Brown has carried 60 times for 384 yards.

Triple-threat quarterback Mike Ferguson, a junior who handles the kicking chores, has passed for 808 yards and nine touchdowns and has rushed for 363 yards and 15 scores.

Taft has won four games in a row. Its losses have come by a total of nine points.

Last week in the semifinals, Taft held off West Valley rival Chatsworth, 20-14, and San Pedro struggled to defeat Palisades, 9-6.

“Last week was one of the poorest games we’ve had,” Walsh said. “We’re wondering which team will show up.”

Two years ago, before the turnaround, he wouldn’t be wondering at all.