Lorena Gomez passes to a teammate in a match against Douglas on Tuesday night.
MINDEN — Jenny Jaggard, Douglas High’s first-year head varsity coach, likes the look of her team heading into the post-season.
And, what’s not to like.
The Tigers play good defense, have a solid keeper in Corryne Millett (10 shutouts) and a versatile offense.
Douglas staved off an early flurry by Carson, and then fullback Kassidy Freitas drilled a free kick over the head of reserve goalie Samantha Bishop in the 45th minute to give the Tigers a 1-0 win in the regular-season finale for both schools Tuesday night at Keith Roman Field.
Douglas finished the season at 13-1-2, while Carson dropped to 10-2-4. The Tigers claimed the top seed, and will host McQueen on Monday. Carson, by virtue of a Galena tie, finished second and will host Reed on Monday. Playoff game times have yet to be announced.
“We don’t have just one star; one scorer,” Jaggard said after the game, which was played in temperatures in the low 40s. “We have people all over the field who can score. A lot of teams, you can mark just one player. With us you can’t do that.”
Carson, meanwhile, finished its last four games with a 1-1-2 record. Not exactly the way you want to enter the post-season.
Douglas’ field is narrow, and the Senators never seemed to make the adjustment. The Senators were unable to put many forward passes together. Finding feet was a difficult task.
“It is tight,” Carson coach Greg Lehman said. “Both teams have to play on it. This was a hard-fought game between two good teams. It’s too bad the game came down to a direct free kick. Their girl made a nice shot. I thought Samantha played well in the second half.”
Bishop played the final 40 minutes in goal when Karla Reyes was moved into the field.
Certainly Douglas is used to playing on its narrow field, and Jaggard admitted as much.
“I don’t associate playing on a narrow field means you’re necessarily going to score out of the back,” Jaggard said. “The games against Carson are always good games.”
The earlier match-up at Carson resulted in a scoreless tie. Had it not been for Freitas’ free kick, this one might have ended up the same way.
Carson’s best opportunity to score came in the opening minutes. Millett got caught out of position, but Alexis Von Schottenstein, who was behind her goalie, was able to clear the shot away. Chantel Torres and Josilyn Daggs (two) had good looks but were unable to convert.
“We had a few opportunities early,” Lehman said. “Unfortunately we were unable to finish them.”
“We started off slow,” Jaggard said. “We had some players who didn’t get to practices on time. We started the game and played the first 10 minutes with probably only three starters.”
JV: Carson scored three second-half goals to knock off the Tigers, 3-0.
