One of the things that stood out from Carson's season-opening win over Hug was the play of the Senators' special teams.
Save for two missed PATs, the units were superb, and both misses came with the game well in hand.
Carson hasn't had a huge chance to shine on punt and kick-off returns the last couple of years because teams kicked the ball away from Dylan Sawyers. After Friday, teams might start kicking it away from Joey Thurman and Andrew Gutierrez. Both had an exceptional first game.
Unofficially, Thurman had a 57-yard punt return and 88 and 37-yard kick-off returns. Gutierrez had kick-off returns of 46 and 35 yards, respectively.
And, as I chronicled in Saturday's paper, Casey Wolfe had a nice night in his 2012 debut as Austin Pacheco's replacement. Pacheco was a big weapon for Carson, and I think Wolfe is showing he has the same type of leg strength. His 32-yard field goal would have been good from 40 yards.
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Given the fact that school doesn't start until Monday, I was pleasantly surprised at the attendance for the game.
As a reporter, I love just having a varsity game only on Friday nights. You know the game is going to start within a couple minutes of the scheduled time, and you get to see the teams warm up, especially the kickers.
Next week's game against Reno will revert back to a 7:30 p.m. start because the Huskies wouldn't agree to a varsity-only game on Friday. The rest of the home games after that will be 7 p.m. starts.
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It's safe to say that the second-place Dodgers are extremely serious about making a late run at the Giants, and it's even safer to say that they have some pretty deep pockets because they are taking on some pretty hefty contracts in the recent trade with the Red Sox.
Josh Beckett is due more than $31 million over the nexct two years, Carl Crawford is due $102 millon over the next five and Adrian Gonzalez has $127 million through 2018. That's some serious dough.
Crawford just had Tommy John surgery last week, and who knows if he will be the same player after that. Beckett has been horrible, going 5-11 with a 5.23 ERA in 21 starts. Is he through, or will a change of scenery do him good? Gonzalez is a solid player, and I think the key to the deal. He's proven himself in both Boston and San Diego, and with James Loney in the last year of his contract, the Dodgers get a proven first baseman who is happy to get back to Southern California.
I'm not surprised that the Red Sox's big names got through waivers. The contracts were too huge for most teams to pick up, even for a stretch run. The only team that maybe could have pulled off a trade like that might have been the Texas Rangers.
