RENO - The Carson High football team contained McQueen standout Chris Carr as well as any team has all season but the Lancers proved that they are more than just a a one-man show.
Six different Lancers scored touchdowns, including Carr as McQueen beat Carson 49-7 win on Friday night at John Robb Stadium in the first round of the 4A playoffs.
"We did a good job on Carr but they're an awfully good football team," Carson coach Bob Bateman said. "They can beat you in so many ways and they showed that tonight."
Friday's game started out almost exactly like the first meeting between the two teams, when McQueen scored on its first five possessions en route to a 52-7 season opening victory over Carson.
On McQueen's opening possession, Carr rushed for 61 yards on three carries, and quarterback Graham Siderius threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to J.J. Myatt as the Lancers led 7-0 just three minutes into the game.
Then on the Lancers next possession, Siderius drove his team 67 yards to the Carson end zone, capped off by Carr's 8-yard TD run as McQueen led 14-0 with 2:28 left in the first quarter.
Carr carried the ball six times for 101 yards in the first quarter but on Carr's next six carries, the Senator defense held him to negative-1 yards rushing. Carr finished with 100 yards on twelve carries, including negative eight yards rushing in the second half.
"Carson is a big, physical, and talented football team," Lancer coach Ken Dalton said. "We didn't come in here underestimating them."
At the beginning of the second quarter, Carson started a drive on its own 14 and drove the ball all the way to the McQueen 44. But on 2nd and 1, Josh Carter fumbled and the Lancers recovered, killing the Senators drive. Then after stopping McQueen on its next drive, Carson went three and out and was forced to punt the ball.
McQueen's Steve Anderson collected on the Lancer 35, dodged a few Senators and broke away for a 65-yard punt return that put McQueen up 21-0.
"That play really hurt us," Bateman said. "We were holding them, starting to move the ball, and then that happened."
With the half winding down, Siderius threw a pass towards Myatt but Carson's Javier Vega intercepted it and returned it to the McQueen 24. After a 16-yard pass from Marques Giron pass to Doug Brooks, Carson had first and goal at the McQueen 8.
After a 3-yard run by Brooks, Giron threw three straight incomplete pass that deflated another promising Senator drive as McQueen led 21-0 at halftime.
"If we score there, the entire game changes because we would've have gotten the ball first in the second half," Bateman said.
With under three minutes left in the third, Siderius and Myatt hooked up again, this time from 12-yards out to give McQueen a 28-0 lead. The sideline referee called an incomplete pass but after conferring with the other three refs, the call was overturned. Siderius completed 11 of 18 passes for 141 yards and also had 24 yards rushing.
On Carson's next possession, Giron threw an errant pass that the Lancers Josh Mann returned 30 yards for a touchdown as McQueen took a 35-0 lead into the fourth quarter.
"Our defense played well, applied pressure up front, and forced their quarterback to make some bad passes," Dalton said.
Then in the fourth quarter, Giron threw three more interceptions, two of which set up McQueen touchdowns as the Lancers led 49-0 before Carson finally scored.
"Everyone got to contribute and that's important," Dalton said.
Carter punched in a 9-yard TD run with 4:11 left in the game that finished the scoring at 49-7. Carter finished with 76 yards rushing while Brooks had 56.
"The score wasn't really indicative to how close the game really was until the end of the third quarter," Bateman said. "We did a good job on their better players but we made some mistakes and they capitalized."
McQueen will play the winner of today's South Tahoe-Galena game next Friday in the zone semifinals. Carson finishes the season at 5-5.
