Brown sparks Carson to 40-27 win

RENO — Carson’s Colby Brown is proving he’s no ordinary sophomore.Brown carried 28 times for 202 yards and three scores to spark the Senators to a 40-27 win over North Valleys in a nonleague football game Friday night.Carson improved to 3-1 heading into next Friday’s homecoming showdown against Reed, where the Senators will have the services of Matt Nolan, last year’s starting quarterback, who had been academically ineligible.The play of Brown was good to see. After a sub-par game against Reno, he ran well last week against McQueen and enjoyed a career game Friday night.Has Brown exceeded coach Blair Roman’s expectations?“Yes and no,” Roman said. “We knew coming in he would be a key cog for us offensively. After last week and how he competed, it was pretty obvious if we give him the ball two or three times he’ll do something. He had a great game.“The offensive line opened some good holes. We had some good runs between the tackles. We’re trying to get more explosive plays (20 yards or more), and we did that tonight.”Unofficially, Carson had a season-high 431 yards total offense against a struggling North Valleys defense which allowed 48 points last week to Bishop Manogue. Brown had more than half of that when you throw in his one reception for 15 yards.“The line opened up some big holes tonight,” Brown said. “There were lots of running lanes. The guys did really well. I felt good.“I feel I need to be little more consistent. I did a good job the first game against Hug, but I didn’t do that well the second week. I just have to go hard in practice. I have to continue to go hard.”Brown was a battering ram between the tackles. There isn’t a lot of juking with him. He’s a tough North-South runner.The line, led by Aaron Cowee, Joe Zinda and Levi Carter, was solid throughout.“We really worked hard on our rules,” Carter said. “Everybody knew what they were doing. We worked hard on execution.”Brown made his presence felt on the opening drive, carrying three times for 24 yards, including a 5-yard TD run to cap the 57-yard drive following a North Valleys fumble. The fumble was caused by Joey Thurman and recovered by Stephan Sobkiewicz.Carson’s lead didn’t last long, 3 minutes 23 seconds to be exact.North Valley’s Daniel Lewis, who went 25 for 35 for 382 yards unofficially, drove his team 80 yards in 10 plays with Anthony Hankins scoring on a 2-yard run. The PAT was good.Brown was huge on Carson’s next scoring drive, carrying four times for 45 yards, including a 14-yard scoring run. Casey Wolfe’s PAT made it 14-7.Carson stopped North Valleys on the ensuing possession, but Andrew Gutierrez gave the ball back to the Panthers when he fumbled a punt.The Panthers took over at their own 38, but couldn’t do anything with the field position. On third-and-9, Sage Smith stepped in front of a Lewis pass at the Carson 45 and returned it 55 yards for a score to make it 20-7 with 9:46 left in the half.It was Smith’s third interception of the year and the second he’s returned for a score.Lewis drove the Panthers 80 yards on the next drive, capping it with a 52-yard scoring strike to Jesse Krueger, who finished with 240 yards receiving. That made it 20-13.That’s as close as the Panthers would get the rest of the way.Garrett Schaefer, who threw interceptions on back-to-back possessions, tossed a screen pass to Thurman, who outraced North Valleys defenders to the end zone, completing the 63-yard play. Wolfe’s PAT made it 27-13.The Senators made it 34-13 late in the third quarter, as Schaefer and Thurman hooked up for another long play. Thurman took a shovel pass and went 50 yards for a score and a 34-13 lead. Thurman had five catches for 149 yards.“I was happy with how we played most of the game,” Roman said. “Our goal is trying to put all three phases of the game together, and we made some progress in that regard. It was tough early defensively, but once we settled in I though we played better.“They are going to move the ball. I thought we did a good job defensively the second half. Putting pressure on him is big because he’s a guy who can make plays with his feet.”Carson had five sacks, two by Carter.“We could have done a little better,” Carter said. “We did give up 27 points and our goal is 10 points or less. At the start of the game we were flat.”