Senator Rogelio Herrera takes a successful shot on goal at Douglas High Wednesday afternoon.
MINDEN — Payback was on the minds of the Carson Senators Wednesday in their Sierra League boys soccer regular season-ending contest against arch rival Douglas.
The Senators scored four goals in the opening 19 minutes, and in the end, five different players scored goals en route to a 6-1 victory on an afternoon that saw intermittent rain showers.
Carson (12-3-1 league) already had second-place in the Sierra League secured, however, there was some added incentive at stake. That is, the Senators were looking to reverse a 1-0 loss at home on Oct. 9 against Douglas (5-7-4 league, 9-7-5 overall).
“I was very happy with the result today,” Carson coach Michael Alvarez said. “I knew the team wanted to vindicate their loss earlier in the year.”
Alvarez went on to add an offensive game plan adjustment helped pay big dividends for the Senators.
“We changed our formation and added a forward,” he said. “We knew from the last game that Douglas would play more of a defensive formation with four or five in the back, so we knew we would need more offensive firepower to counter that.”
All the Senators did was convert four of their first six shots in the opening 19 minutes to take a 4-0 lead.
Rogelio Herrera got the offense rolling in the seventh minute when he received a pass from Guillermo Perez-Morris for an open 10-yard shot he grounded into the net.
One minute later, Guillermo Hernandez-Galvan placed a corner kick in front of the net and Abel Sanchez headed the ball into the net.
Brian Llamas extended the lead to 3-0 in the 14th minute when he struck a sharp line drive to the back of the net from 25 yards out.
Alejandro Gonzalez scored the fourth goal in the 19th minute on a follow shot after Hernandez-Galvan chipped the ball in front of the net.
Douglas got on the scoreboard in the 29th minute when Koby Hinnant converted a penalty kick.
Oscar Ventura scored on a penalty kick in the 40th minute to push Carson’s advantage to 5-1 moments before the end of the first half.
“It was unfortunate we didn’t play well at the beginning of the game,” Douglas coach Milko Vasquez said.
“I knew they would be ready for us after we beat them in their house the last time. We just didn’t match their intensity, that was the difference.”
Carson added one more goal in the second half on a long shot by Ventura in the 69th minute.
“All season we have been working on finishing drills, and it shows,” Alvarez said.
Douglas had other opportunities to score. Pedro Vega blasted a direct kick off the crossbar just 15 seconds into the game. Flavi Lopez struck a shot from the right side that narrowly rolled wide past the far post in the sixth minute. And Niklas Wegner struck a shot that deflected off a defender and goalkeeper Efren Ramirez made a diving stop.
Ramirez also had a flying save of a shot by the Tigers’ Chris Gold in the 72nd minute.
Ramirez left the field after falling on his shoulder, however, Alvarez said he didn’t expect the injury was significant.
Peter Garrett also played a big role on the defensive end, according to Alvarez. Another boost for the Senators came with the return of Alex Gonzalez from an injury.
“We’re still not 100 percent, but we’re in a much better position injury-wise versus where we were a couple of weeks ago,” Alvarez said.
CHS JVS WIN
Carson won the junior varsity game 7-0. Eddie Porter scored twice and Isael Lopez, Angel Gonzalez, Brandon Sevilla, David Gonzlez and Adrian Torres all scored for CHS.
