Carson, Banning Advance to City Section Showdown

It’s safe to say that Carson High’s football team still has Crenshaw’s number.

A rematch of last year’s City Section championship game yielded the same result, only this time one quarter was all Carson needed to prove its superiority.

Defending-champion Carson scored 32 unanswered points in the second quarter on its way to a 46-8 rout of the top-seeded Cougars Friday night in a City Section semifinal at Fremont.

Fourth-seeded Carson (10-3) advanced to next Friday’s championship game against rival Wilmington Banning, a 10-7 winner Friday night over San Pedro.

Carson running back James Robinson rushed for 199 yards and two touchdowns in 22 carries against Crenshaw. Marcus Baker added 70 yards in 11 carries for the Colts, who defeated Crenshaw, 20-10, in last year’s championship game.

“Our coach told us we were going to pound it on them and that’s exactly what we did,” Robinson said.

Carson quarterback Justin Cooper completed only four passes--but all of them resulted in touchdowns.

“Tonight, we had to run to set up the pass,” said Cooper, who passed five times and finished with 123 yards. “When we saw that they were backing up against our run, we went to the play-action and caught them by surprise.”

Trevion Stephens caught touchdown passes of 40, 34 and 15 yards and also scored Carson’s final touchdown on 16-yard double reverse with 3:49 left in the game.

Carson stopped Crenshaw on fourth and one at the Crenshaw 43 on the first play of the second quarter and the outcome of what was then a scoreless tie was never in doubt.

Three plays later, Stevens caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from Cooper. Then Robinson capped a six-play, 71-yard drive with a seven-yard touchdown run to increase Carson’s lead to 14-0 with 6:18 left in the first half.

Crenshaw (12-1) had five turnovers in the first half, three on fumbles and twice on interceptions. Quarterback Devin Hollins completed only eight of 23 passes for 134 yards. He had three passes intercepted.

Carson limited Crenshaw running back Terrence Whitehead to 14 yards in six carries.

The Cougars scored their only touchdown on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Hollins to Corey Hudson midway through the fourth quarter.