Carson uses quick strike, gets on track

Sula's 187 yards and four touchdowns help the Colts finish the season in a three-way tie for first place in the Marine League.

John Klima
Daily Breeze

It took Carson 13 seconds to score when Marquis Williams returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown.

It's taken them 10 games to learn consistency.

Carson has been plagued by the sporadic mistakes of a young team throughout the Marine League season.

But the Colts played well enough in a 51-14 rout at Gardena Friday night to remind themselves that they must find consistency against all teams, not simply against the teams that they should beat.

"We always come out soft in the second half," said running back Jack Sula, who rushed 17 times for 187 yards and scored on touchdown runs of 4, 49, 6 and 5 yards.

"We always start off strong, we just need to finish. This entire season we haven't had a really solid second half like we should have. That's all we need to work on and we'll be all right."

Carson (7-3, 4-1) secured a slice of the Marine League championship with Narbonne and San Pedro and will receive the league's No. 3 seed for the L.A. City Section playoffs. Those pairings will be announced later today, with first-round games scheduled for next Thursday.

Carson quarterback Dominique Blackman completed 10 of 18 passes for 142 yards and no interceptions.

He threw a 4-yard scoring pass in the first quarter that helped Carson build a 21-0 lead.

Sula saw to it that Carson didn't let up in the third quarter, scoring twice to build a 45-14 lead.

Carson coach Michael Christensen pulled Blackman and Sula after the third quarter, pleased that Carson had showed enough consistency.

"At halftime, I wasn't so concerned with the score as much as I was concerned with the consistency," Christensen said.

Blackman agreed.

"We have to go out and execute," he said. "We made some mistakes earlier in the season, which is why we're the third seed. We have to work on our consistency. We have to be the hammer, not the nail."

Quarterback Darren Dupar completed 11 of 27 passes for 124 yards and a touchdown for Gardena (3-7, 1-4).

He was sacked five times and intercepted twice by Jeff Mueller.