Carson High football coach Blair Roman is doing his best Yogi Berra act as he’s hoping for deja vu all over again.
Last season CHS was coming off a 34-0 loss to Reed. But the Senators rebounded for a 21-10 win over McQueen the next week.
Last week, Carson fell 41-7 at Foothill in Northern California. Roman is hoping for a similar performance from his team that it had last year against McQueen when the Senators (1-1) play at McQueen (2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday.
“We probably played our best game of the year last year against McQueen,” Roman said.
But the task figures to be much more difficult this year as CHS is facing a team that has looked impressive in wins over Enterprise of Redding, Calif., (51-14) and Del Campo of Fair Oaks. Calif., (27-13).
McQueen has the look of a team approaching the level of when it was a Northern 4A power.
“They’re a good football team,” Roman said. “This is one of the better McQueen teams I’ve seen in a few years.”
McQueen returns its starting quarterback in Dominique Stallworth and returning running back J.D. Kolb is also one of the top backs in the north.
Kolb had a huge game last week against Del Campo, running for all four of McQueen’s touchdowns on scoring runs of 34, 71, 16 and 19 yards.
The Lancers rolled up 472 total yards, including 362 on the ground against Del Campo.
“He’s one of the better backs we’ll see this year,” Roman said. “Very shifty, runs hard.”
Kolb is also complemented in the backfield by another talented running back in Caleb Ramsey.
So while McQueen runs a spread offense, its goal is to run out of the spread.
Roman also said about McQueen, “they have an athletic defense. They bring a lot of pressure.
“A few timely passes is going to be key. If we can do that offensively, that will open up the run game.”
Turnovers have also plagued Carson in its first two games. In Carson’s season opening 34-27 win over Lower Lake, in which the Senators had to overcome a 27-6 deficit, the Senators fumbled twice inside the Trojans’ 10 and a bad snap on a punt which Roman also counts as a turnover.
Against Foothill, Carson had another two fumbles returned for touchdowns along with an interception and another bad snap on a punt for four turnovers. That’s a total of seven turnovers in two games.
Meanwhile Carson has only forced one turnover in two games, a Gilbert Vasquez interception against Lower Lake. So that’s minus-6 in the turnover category.
“We’ve got to start winning the turnover battle,” Roman said.
Carson trailed just 13-7 against Foothill and had forced a 3-and-out to begin the second half. But on its first play, Carson had a fumble returned for a touchdown, leading to Foothill scoring 28 straight points.
Roman said he was pleased with Johnny LaPlante’s play at quarterback against Foothill and also the play of Blake Menzel, who saw his first extensive time at wingback. Menzel also saw action at quarterback in the fourth quarter.
The Senators were led against Foothill by Bradley Maffei, who rushed for 70 yards on 11 carries.
Ben Granados, who also broke free for a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the game, was also a bright spot on kickoff returns.
Among the leaders defensively against Foothill was 6-1, 325-pound Clayton Greene, who had a sack and a deflected pass.
“He’s a big presence in the middle there,” Roman said.
