Fourth-Quarter Touchdowns Lift Carson

For three quarters Thursday night, Carson High could hardly get anything going offensively against San Pedro. Then the Colts’ big guys took over.

Carson, the bigger team, finally wore down the Pirates and scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter for a 14-7 victory at Gardena High.

The victory puts Carson, 7-2 overall, in the driver’s seat in the Marine League with a 4-0 record and one game remaining against rival Banning.

After running for only 105 yards through three quarters, the Colts rushed for 104in the fourth.

“We made some blocking adjustments and our kids stopped making mistakes,” said first-year Carson Coach John Aguirre, whose team had 239 yards in the second half. “[The Pirates] tired a little bit. They’re not as big as we are.”

The Colts’ first touchdown came via the pass. Receiver Anthony Palomarez, who had four catches for 81 yards, took quarterback Justin Cooper’s short pass, turned upfield and broke a couple of tacklesin a 32-yard gain to the San Pedro 6 on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Two plays later, Cooper used the play action and connected with Michael Crowder-Jones for an 11-yard touchdown.

After Carson forced San Pedro (7-2, 3-1) to punt, the Colts’ running game really took over.

Starting at its 23, Carson went on a four-play drive: 12-yard run, 27-yard run, 15-yard run, 23-yard run for a touchdown by Trevion Stevens.

San Pedro then moved just past midfield with 2:30 left. But quarterback Gustavo Navarro, who completed 12 of 20 passes for 139 yards, was intercepted by linebacker Ashley Subingsubing.