The Carson Senators Midget youth football team made quick work of the South Tahoe Vikings in a 29-0 win at home on Friday.
Quarterback T. J. Menning went 4-for-6, throwing for 122 yards and four touchdowns in the first half before giving way to Chance Quilling and Austin Pacheco. The Senators would use a balanced offensive attack with Connor Beattie gaining 102 yards and Tim Baylor, Colby Blueberg, Patrick Craugh, Menning, Pacheco, Gabriel Pongasi, Dylan Sawyers, and Jordan Siembida combining for another 65 yards.
Sawyers would be Menning's main target and they combined three times for 112 yards and three touchdowns and Pacheco would catch Menning's other touchdown pass for 10 yards.
"None of this would have been possible without the great blocking of my line," Menning said. "Keegan Aiazzi, Baylor, Blueberg, Craugh, Chris Fernandez, Nick Garcia, Taylor Gregorich, Chance Harmon, Rafe King, Jake Myers, Pacheco, Logan Peternell, Pongasi, Siembida, Mike Walters, Ben Wendell and Zach White all did a fantastic job of giving me time to throw and opening up some gapping holes for the rest of the guys.
Pacheco went 2-for-3 on kicking the two-point conversions and Sawyers passed to Beattie for the other PAT.
The Senators defense has been dominating all season only giving up seven points in four games. The Senators offense has been equally impressive, scoring 127 points in
our games. Baylor, Beattie, Blueberg, Craugh, Fernandez, Harmon, Patrick Hesse, King, Menning, Myers, Pacheco, Peternell, Pongasi, Quilling, Sawyers and Siembida all led the defense.
"I think teams are going to have a tough time scoring on us. Add in the way our offense is clicking and all of a sudden you not only have to try and score against us, but now you have to try and stop us from scoring and truthfully I don't see either one happening," defensive coach Junior Lopez said.
Defensive highlights were Beattie's blocked field goal attempt and interception, Pacheco's forced fumble and Craugh, Menning, Peternell and Sawyers all had stops for a loss.
Three years ago this Senators football team flew back to Orlando, Fla., to play for a national championship and now their goal is to go back and win it all. Head coach Ron Pacheco and assistant coaches Jay Aiazzi, John Lander, Leonard Lee, Lopez, Steve Sawyers and junior assistant coach Stephen Sawyers have more than 68 years of Pop Warner coaching experience and all of them say this is the most talented group of kids they have ever coached.
When asked if they are going back to Florida this year, coach Pacheco said this, "We'll see; right now we are taking one game at a time but I like our chances to win the Snow Bowl (the Northern Nevada State Championship), but from there who knows. Those California teams can be pretty tough and we really don't know much about them. If we play every down the way we are capable of and don't make any mistakes, we'll be a tough team to beat."
The Senators are off this Friday but will put their 4Ð0 record on the line when they host the Sparks Cardinals at 6 p.m. Friday, October 12 at Governor's Field.
PEE WEES LOSER
HEARTBREAKER
The Carson Senators Pop Warner Pee Wee Football team lost a close contest 19-13 to the Truckee Wolverines on Saturday.
The first half was all the Senators defense. Stefan Sobkiewicz recovered two fumbles and Dominic Norton recovered one. The Wolverines were unable to move the ball as defenders A.J. Gonzales, Jacob Shaward, David Ceballos, Austin Kiesow, Gary Showalter, Dalton Butler, Zachary Kind, Tyler McCallister, Brandon Davidson, Corey Jasper, Danniel Rosales and Marco Castillo swarmed to the ball continuously.
The Senators saw the emergence of the deep threat with quarterback Garrett Schafer hitting Norton in stride for a 50 yard touchdown strike. Andy Cooper ran in the extra point for a Senator Halftime lead of 7-0.
The Wolverines scored in the second half but did not convert the extra point. A couple of series later cornerback Michael O'Hare intercepted a Truckee pass which set up another Schafer-Norton touchdown pass to give the Senators a 13-6 lead.
Truckee hung in there and scored another touchdown and converted the extra point to tie the game with 1 minute, 30 seconds remaining to force overtime.
On their fourth play from scrimmage in the overtime session, Truckee was awarded a touchdown after a five-minute conference with the four officials on a call where the referees were unsure if ball broke the plane of the goal. Carson was unable to score on its possession and Truckee came away with the win.
Running backs D.J. Parker, Chance Banta, Andrew Gutierrez and Cooper all had strong games. Linemen Eric Slabaugh, Kyle Cavner, Dexter Cummings, Brandon Littlejohn and Charley Hersey battled all played well. Receivers Jason Milligan, Casey Reynolds, Alec Donner and Tony Castillo had several catches.
The Pee Wees will face the first place Reno Patriots at 6 p.m. Friday at Governor's Field.
JUNIOR PEE WEES WIN
The Carson Junior Pee Wee Blue youth football team dominated the Sparks Steelers for a 30-6 victory.
For the second week in a row, Carson opened the game with a kickoff return for a touchdown. Josiah Pongasi returned the kick 70 yards virtually untouched for the score. The extra point was run up the middle by Kyle Sharp.
The defense came out and immediately stuffed the Steelers offense. First, Pongasi made a solo tackle off the left side. Next, the defense led by Kye Catlin, Christian Tercero, Corey Reid, Kaleb Wold, and Caden Lehman made a team tackle at the line of scrimmage. Finally, Tristian Bakkedahl made a solo tackle off the end to force a three and out.
Offensive lineman Logan Menzel, Asa Carter, Jaremiah Abbott, Joshua Breen, Jessie Garcia, Jonas Papez, Cole Catlin, and Mason Harmon opened holes for the running game and created a pocket for quarterback Colby Brown to complete a 30 yard touchdown pass to Pongasi.
The defense again took the field and immediately made its presence felt with Nolan Shine, Cody Toreson, Jacob Herzing, Zach Carrubba, Kyle Sharp, Brandon Maffei, Samual Mercado, Sabian Harting, Jesse Lopez and Zachary Mills leading the way. The defense gave up only two first downs and forced a number of punts and fumbles. Brady O'Keefe had a key sack and forced fumble.
Pongasi scored on a 55-yard run in the second quarter. In the third quarter, Brown rolled out from the 5-yard line and found Robert Carmazzi in the back of the end zone for a leaping touchdown reception.
In the forth quarter the Senators moved the ball with Bakkedahl at quarterback handing the ball off to Frank, Walker Plaut, Jonathon Kondor and Nicholas Mohlenkamp. Mohlenkamp took the hand off and rumbled into the end zone from 4 yards out for the final score of the game.
The Junior Pee Wees next play against Fallon at 8 p.m. Friday at Governor's Field.
MITEY MITE BLUES WIN
The Carson Mitey Mite Blue Senators bounced back with a win Friday night 38-6 over the Reno Falcons at Governors Field.
The Senators scored on the first play from scrimmage with quarterback Derek Schafer throwing a 26 yard touchdown pass to Mathias Williams. The Senator defense held the Falcons on the next possession and Carson scored again on a David Moniz-Lewis 6 yard TD run making the score 13-0. Carson scored again before halftime on a Gage Gunzburg reverse to give the Senators a 20-0 lead.
Defensively, the Senators were led by Connor Larkin, Tristan Martel, Anthony Miguel, Hunter Wheeler, Kyle Gagnon, Jesse Knorzer, Nick Andreas, Brandon Basa, Jarod Butler, Luke Myers, Nick Salm and Spencer Berger.
The Falcons had a tough time trying to run outside of defenders Butler and Myers. Moniz-Lewis scored in the third quarter with a 40 yard run to put the Senators up 26-0 and again in the fourth quarter with a 26 yarder.
Carson gave up a big run in the fourth quarter to make the score 32-6 but came back with a touchdown on a reverse to Brandon Gagnon making the final 38-6. The offensive line of Nick Tibma, Bodee Brennan, Sam Wilson, Noah Tomasco and Alec Fletcher played well.
The Senators travel to Truckee to face the Wolverines at 1 p.m. Saturday.