Venice Keeps Ashley Moving Toward Goal

The players and coaches at Venice High have a saying: Kenny Ashley doesn’t like the ground.

The senior running back showed how that saying came about Friday night, staying upright and rushing for 180 yards and three touchdowns in 16 carries as the Gondoliers defeated Carson, 35-14, in a nonleague season opener at Venice.

Ashley, a handful at 5 feet 9 and 205 pounds, bobbed and weaved his way to open spaces and then let his speed do the rest on first-half touchdown runs of 66 and 58 yards. On his bruising two-yard touchdown run in the second half, he hit would-be tacklers harder than they hit them, a common occurrence the entire game.

“It felt good to get out there and hit someone else,” Ashley said. “For the last nine months we’ve just been hitting ourselves.”

Considering the opponent, the victory firmly establishes Venice as a City Section title contender. Carson was section champion two years ago. Ashley’s first score broke a scoreless tie and his second gave Venice a 28-7 halftime lead. In between, sophomore quarterback Richard Ragland connected with Jonas Mouton on a 37-yard touchdown pass play and Chris Lewis scooped up a Carson fumble and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown.

Ragland completed nine of 18 passes for 83 yards. Colt quarterback Anthony Lewis completed an 80-yard touchdown pass play to Artis Moore in the first half. Running back Steve Boyd added a 12-yard touchdown for Carson with 2 minutes 38 seconds to play.

-- Peter Yoon

Dorsey 15, Harbor City Narbonne 7 -- Stafon Johnson, who shared running back duties last season with Jeremiah Johnson, accounted for the bulk of Dorsey’s yardage in a nonleague season opener at Rancho Cienega Park, but he left the scoring to others.

Johnson, who rushed for 1,839 yards and had 18 touchdowns last season, carried 20 times for 147 yards and completed two of seven passes for 60 yards during his time at quarterback.

The Dons broke a scoreless tie in the second quarter when quarterback Sule Tate tossed a four-yard pass to Chris Matthews at the 10:06 mark.

Four minutes later, the Dons’ defense, which knocked Narbonne quarterback Demetrious Green out of the game in the first quarter, added to the score when linebacker Robert Mullins intercepted backup Evian Grigsby’s pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown and a 12-0 lead.

After Uriel Sanchez kicked a 20-yard field goal on Dorsey’s first possession of the second half, Narbonne responded with a 90-yard, 16-play drive that culminated with Grigsby scoring from one yard. Manuel Del Campo kicked the extra point to draw the Gauchos to within 15-7 with 11:06 left.

Major Culburt carried 20 times for 114 yards for Narbonne.

-- Mike Terry