Carson Prevails This Year : Prep football: Colts avenge 1992 City Section 4-A title loss with tense victory over Sylmar.

Carson High avenged last year’s City Section 4-A championship loss to Sylmar by defeating the Spartans, 22-21, Friday in a semifinal before 4,000 at Sylmar.

Carson (9-4) will play Dorsey next Saturday afternoon for the championship.

The win was especially sweet for Carson quarterback Steve Faupusa. The senior scored the winning points on a two-point conversion run with 1:11 left in the game.

“They were counting on me to do that,” said Faupusa, who fumbled twice and was replaced by Ramon Rogers in the second and fourth quarters. “I was ready to make up for the first and third quarters. I went in there with all my heart and did it.”

Faupusa’s run followed Carson running back Robert Johnson’s two-yard touchdown run. The score capped a 53-yard drive engineered by Rogers.

“Ramon played great,” Faupusa said of Rogers, who completed eight of 11 passes for 211 yards and a touchdown. “This was his game.”

It was almost Sylmar’s game, thanks to a gutsy call by Spartan Coach Jeff Engilman.

With the score tied, 14-14, Sylmar (10-2-1) pulled off a trick play that fooled the entire Carson team.

Quarterback Eddie Lopez dropped back and intentionally bounced a backward pass to wide receiver Victor Cardenas. The Colt defenders hesitated, unsure if it was an incompletion, and Cardenas threw a 69-yard scoring pass to a wide-open Dwight Patton.

Sylmar held a 21-14 lead with 2:42 to play.

“I’ve never seen the bounce pass,” Carson’s J.R. Redmond said. “It was like we were up and then (that play) dropped us down again. But we never gave up.”

On the ensuing possession, Redmond caught a 36-yard pass from Rogers to move the ball to the two-yard line. Johnson scored on the next play.

“Sylmar’s a great team,” Carson Coach David Williams said. “I’ve aged 10 years on this field.”

The score was tied, 14-14, at halftime. Carson could have possibly held a substantial lead if Faupusa had not fumbled inside Sylmar’s 10-yard line on the Colts’ first two drives.

After the first fumble, Sylmar’s Tyrone Crenshaw put the Spartans ahead, 7-0, with a 61-yard touchdown run up the middle.

Sylmar increased the lead to 14-0 on a 14-yard scoring pass from Lopez to Durell Price.

The Colts scored on their next two possessions, John Houston on a five-yard run and Nakia Wheeler on a 33-yard pass play from Rogers.