Story Published:
Oct 23, 2009 at 1:23 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Oct 23, 2009 at 1:23 PM PDT
Perhaps it speaks to the quality of a team that it can win by 30 points and still be called the worst effort of the year by its coach.
That was the case Thursday for Carson High School, which used a 35-point second half to run away from Gardena, 48-18 in a Marine League football game.
Though the Colts (5-2, 2-0) recorded their third consecutive easy victory, coach Mike Christiansen was none too pleased with how they did it.
“That was our worst game in a month,” Christiansen said. “We even played better in the two games we lost (to Serra and Osceola, Fla.).”
His issue was with consistency, or the lack of it. The coach blamed a poor week of practice for a lot of what happened in the game.
“We held some kids out for poor classroom performance,” he said.
Because they were able to make enough big plays, the uneven performance did not effect the outcome.
“We hit some things on offense and our kicking game was good, but it was kind of an inconsistent effort,” Christiansen said. “In the first half, we did OK on defense and were inconsistent on offense and in the second half, better on offense and not so good on defense. It was kind of a tale of two halfs.”
A bright spot was Myles Johnson, who returned the second half kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown and later returned another 85 yards for another score before a personal foul penalty nowhere near the play nullified the TD and reduced it to a 55-yard return.
Daniel Acevedo returned another kickoff 47 yards on a trick play in which all 11 players bunched up, pretending they had the ball before scattering in different directions.
“Special teams is something we work hard on,” Christsiansen said.
Johnson added 19- and 35-yard scoring runs and finished with 122 yards on 13 carries.
Dion Willis ran for 91 yards on five carries and scored on runs of three and 35 yards.
Justin Alo passed for 149 yards, including 37 on a scoring pass to Josh Braff in the third period.
Although Daniel Torres had modest numbers (0 for 2 as a passer and 33 yards rushing), he came in for praise from the coach.
“Daniel Torres played his butt off,” Christiansen said. “He’s one of the best players in the South Bay.”
Juan Sanchez kicked field goals of 40 and 29 yards and put seven of his eight kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks.
Gardena (4-3, 0-2) stayed in it for three quarters because of quarterback Keyshawn Malone, who was 10 of 19 for 197 yards and a TD (63 yards to Darien Richardson), rushed for 40 yards and another score and intercepted a pass.
Dezden Petty’s two-yard run got the Panthers within, 27-12 with 9:30 left. But Carson scored 21 unanswered points to put the game away.
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