Carson Defeats Banning, 21-14

Expectations were high when John Aguirre took over the Carson High football program this season.

Aguirre built a successful program at Garfield and was an assistant at La Puente Bishop Amat before becoming coach of the Colts.

Carson proved it was worthy of those expectations Friday night by defeating rival Wilmington Banning, 21-14, to clinch the Marine League championship before a crowd of 3,500 at Gardena High.

Carson is 8-2 overall and finished 5-0 in league play.

Running back Trevion Stephens scored on a 25-yard pass from quarterback Justin Cooper with three seconds left in the first quarter and extended the Colts’ lead to 21-0 with a 35-yard touchdown run with 10:46 left in the game.

Ronnie Fa’avae scored the Colts’ other touchdown on a 20-yard fumble return with 11:31 left in the second quarter.

Banning running back Chris Howard, who committed this week to USC, did not play until the second quarter and finished with 30 yards in nine carries.

Banning (4-5, 3-2) scored on a 20-yard pass from Wally Salinas to Albert McCray with 9:23 left and on a four-yard run by Chris Selvey with 1:18 remaining.