PREP FOOTBALL : History Is on Carson’s Side Tonight as Banning Goes for No. 1 Ranking

Today and Saturday will be feast days for prep football fans. Sunday is for digestion.

Eleven City and Southern Section titles will be won in the two days, with the three biggest--the Big Five, Southern and City 4-A--being televised by Prime Ticket. The results of those will determine the unofficial No. 1 team in Southern California.

The biggest upset would be a victory by Carson over Wilmington Banning tonight at 7:30 at East Los Angeles College.

A Banning win in the City 4-A finale would clinch supremacy in the polls--in the area, the state, the country--for the first time in the history of Chris Ferragamo’s outstanding program. A loss would leave the door wide open.

Carson has lost only once, to Banning, of course, during the regular season. If this looks like Ferragamo’s year on the field, however, Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle apparently has history on his side. The Colts have never lost three straight to Banning and they won the title in 1982 and 1984, even-numbered years. In addition, the team that lost the Pacific League title has come back to win the 4-A championship five straight seasons. This time around, that’s Carson.

In any event, Banning (11-0) is making its 11th title-game appearance in 12 years, and Carson (10-1) its eighth in nine seasons. Their twice-annual meetings have now occurred in six straight seasons.

Bellflower St. John Bosco, meanwhile, has been the best of the Southern Section’s Big Five Conference, but its opponent tonight at Anaheim Stadium, Encino Crespi, has the player with the brightest future. Another outstanding game, now par for the course, could give sophomore running back Russell White the player-of-the-year award and, presumably, Crespi the title.

Saturday night’s meeting between El Toro and Santa Ana at Orange Coast College for the Southern Conference crown will also have an impact. El Toro, with depth, a top quarterback in Bret Johnson and a fine defense led by lineman Scott Spalding and linebacker Scott Ross, is probably the top team in the Southern Section this season, no matter what happens tonight at the Big A.

A Charger win over a very good Santa Ana team, led by junior running back Robert Lee, would go a long way toward cementing that claim. But a victory by the Saints, now in the 4-5-6 range of the Southland’s top 10, would shuffle the deck once again.

The Times’ final rankings, a combined City-Southern Section poll, will appear Tuesday.

Prep Notes Running back Eric Bieniemy ended his outstanding career at La Puente Bishop Amat in fourth place on the Southern Section career touchdown list with 64, fifth in career rushing with 4,882 yards and fifth in career scoring with 412 points. All three are also school records at a school that produced Pat Haden, John McKay Jr., Paul McDonald, Randy Tanner and Pernell Taylor. . . . The Inglewood basketball team suffered a crucial blow to its Southern Section 4-A title hopes when senior forward Cory Arnett, the Sentinels’ top player, broke his left ankle during the second quarter of Wednesday night’s game against Huntington Beach Ocean View. . . . The more the merrier? The Angelus League all-star team includes 30 first-team selections as well as a most valuable player, Bieniemy; a most valuable offensive player, receiver Nick-John Haiduc of Anaheim Servite, and a most valuable defensive player, linebacker Charles Fraley of Bishop Amat.