The Monarchs then staged a rally to tie the score at 34-34 with 10:38 to go in the fourth to send the game into overtime.

My Star(s) of the Game: The new faces in the Mater Dei receiving corp. You have to give the new guys credit for sticking in the game and coming up with big catches down the stretch. Case in point: Derek Campbell's leaping catch in the corner of the end zone to seal the victory.

The Unsung hero: Me. For walking the sidelines for the entire game. I think I'm in midseason form. Or Matt Barkley. He overcame a couple of bad decisions (he threw four interceptions) but as Coach Brue Rollinson said:  "He's Barkley. I thought he did a tremendous job."

That's with an "A" and not an "E": That goes to Steve Fryer. He repeatedly spelled my name Damien during his live blog. For all those who care, my name is spelled Damian. You put a guy on TV and he forgets about the little people.

I knew it was over when: Carson's kicker Juan Sanchez finally made a field goal in the third overtime. Sure, it gave the Colts a 43-40 lead, but it also gave Matt Barkley and Mater Dei the ball with a chance to win.

Why did you do that: Has to go to the Carson coaching staff. Morrell Presley is your star, so why did he only get the ball four times??? It wasn't like Mater Dei had Champ Bailey covering him.

Did you know? That in overtime of L.A. City Section games the ball is placed at the 10-yard line. As a veteran of many City section games, I didn't know that. (By the way, please change that rule).

It was the first game in Southern California involving an Orange County team, which just happened to be the No. 1 team in the OCVarsity preseason county rankings, and a team with the No. 1 quarterback in the nation.

You can count on some weirdness in any high school team’s first game. These are kids who don’t get four preseason games to work out the kinks, like NFL  teams do.

You hit the ground running and hope for the best. Mater Dei won’t be the best if it can’t actually hit the ground running.

Jaron Hytche, last season’s leading rusher for the Monarchs, had 7 yards on six carries. Fullback Jordan Allen had 56 yards on six carries. A big reason for that was the absence of standout junior tackle Chris Ward, who was on the All-California sophomore team last year. Ward sat out because of a sprained knee, although he would have played had this been a big Trinity League game.

“When we get him back,” Mater Dei coach Bruce Rollinson said, “We’ll be able to turn it up a notch.”

So the Monarchs looked like the San Diego Chargers, circa 1981. They threw the ball a lot.

Matt Barkley threw 31 times, but completed only 15. A below-50 percent night has been a rarity for the fourth-year starter.

He threw for six touchdowns and was picked off four times, once for a touchdown.

Ario Winston looked sharp at receiver. He had six catches for 143 yards and three touchdowns.

The Monarchs are OCVarsity's  No. 1 team in the preseason rankings, but that was not a No. 1 defense out there. The Monarchs could not figure out angles on the speedy Carson ball carriers and receivers. And when they did get the angle, they couldn’t finish the job.

“We’re trying to lay they hat,” Rollinson said, “and we didn’t wrap up.”

That means, of course, the Monarchs were trying to bump Carson guys off of their feet instead of tackling them.

Rollinson said that’s an issue easily remedied in game-film study and practice.

So the Monarchs will get some lessons from this one, and we all learned something about overtime rules.

In CIF-Southern Section games that go into overtime, Team A gets the ball 25 yards from the end zone and can accumulate first downs as it tries to score a touchdown or field goal. Whatever Team A does on that possession, Team B can match or surpass until somebody comes out ahead.

This was a home game for Carson, a CIF-L.A. City Section school. L.A. City rules give Team A the ball at the 10, and whatever Team A does then Team B gets the chance to match or surpass that.

But on the next time around, Team B gets the ball first and Team A then has to match or surpass Team B. The back-and-forth, who-gets-the-ball-first continues until somebody comes out ahead.

During a long pre-OT meeting at midfield, game officials said there would no extra-points or two-point conversions after touchdowns. But that was changed after Carson scored first. It’s possible that in the California State Bowl Games, in December, this L.A. City style of OT will be in place. And that might be how it is done, anyways, among nine of the CIF’s 10 sections, with the Southern Section being the rebel.

We’ll find out.

We’ll also find out soon what the 10 voters who select the Orange County media poll’s top 10 thought of Mater Dei’s performance and how that influences where the Monarchs fit when the first top 10 voting happens Monday.

I don’t see Wednesday’s result removing Mater Dei from the top of this ballot. That was a spirited and skillful Carson team that challenged the Monarchs in a wild opening night.

Gone are Robbie Boyer, Andrew Abbott, Ryan Mumma and Carlo Valdes, and filling the void are some new faces:  Derek Campbell, Victor Blackwell, Ario Winston and Christian Maldonado.

Campbell,  a junior, caught the winning touchdown in the back of the end zone to seal the victory."I had the corner route and Matt (Barkley) looked for me," Campbell said.

Campbell finished with four receptions for 60 yards and two touchdowns.

"Everybody had some nerves," Campbell said. "We didn't have a lot of starters returning, in fact none of us (receivers) started last year. We knew we had the talent, we just had to perform and that's what we did."

Winston, a senior, had six receptions for 143 yards and two touchdowns.

Blackwell, a sophomore, showed flashes of being special. He had one touchdown reception and a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

There were times when the new receivers seemed to be in the wrong place and even dropped a couple of passes, but for an opening night, they will take their performance.

"We were a little nervous, but as soon as Blackwell took that opening kickoff," Campbell said. "We were good after that."