HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Carson Rides Title Wave of Success

For Carson High football Coach David Williams, Saturday’s 26-0 victory over Dorsey in the City Section 4-A Division championship game at El Camino College was sweet for more than the obvious reasons.

Williams, in his first season as coach, guided Carson to its ninth championship in its 18th appearance in a title game. It was the Colts’ first championship since 1990, when Gene Vollnogle was coach.

Williams had personal satisfaction in that the win came against Dorsey, where he was an assistant three years ago.

“I enjoyed my time there, and I still have a lot of friends over there,” Williams said.

Williams’ respect for Dorsey was evident late in the game when Carson had a 26-0 lead and the ball on the Dorsey one-yard line on third down.

Instead of trying to score, Williams called a time out and told quarterback Ramon Rogers to drop to a knee.

“There was no need for us to score there,” Williams said.

The Colts (10-4) opened the season with losses to Bishop Amat, 14-0, and San Diego Morse, 15-7.

Williams said the losses motivated the Colts, who won 10 of their last 12 games.

“We’ve worked very hard to be in this position,” Williams said. “We had some tough losses, but that’s what makes this all that much better. It’s vindication to make it this far.”

Carson had to adjust its game plan to succeed in the rainy weather.

“I felt the weather was a disadvantage for us,” Williams said. “At times when it got really bad, we had to eliminate a lot of the passing plays we wanted to run.

“It really limited what we could do. We had to scale down our attack more. We had to run the ball a lot.”

Senior running back Robert Johnson led the Colts with 124 rushing yards in nine carries. Carson gained 177 rushing yards and passed only once for 11 yards.

Pa’a Pepe’s 95-yard return of Che Johnson’s fumble with no time left in the first half may have broken Dorsey’s spirit.

“On that play, Fa’avae (Fa’avae) tackled (Johnson) and his knee hit the ball and it slipped out into my hands,” Pepe said. “Then I just picked it up and ran. I didn’t think they could come back after that.”

At the half, Williams told his team to keep the pressure on the Dons (10-4), who beat the Colts, 18-13, during the season. The players listened.

“I’ve coached in games like this where teams have come back after halftime,” Williams said. “With Dorsey’s explosive running game, I was kind of shocked they didn’t score at all.”

The Dons gained 72 yards rushing and only seven passing.