RENO - After suffering a close 2-1 loss to South Tahoe on Tuesday, the Carson girls soccer team rebounded with a thorough 6-0 victory Saturday over the Lady Colts at Wooster High School.
All of the Senators had plenty of playing time and Carson put the game away early as senior Kristin Rush placed two perfect passes to sophomore Brenda Luquin, who scored a pair of goals to give her team more than enough offense to win.
"Luquin just played well," Carson coach Randy Roser said. "She played a lot for us in our last three games against Douglas, Reno and South Tahoe. She's a great player. She just needed to settle down. When you give her the opportunity to work inside the 18-yard box, she has the skills with her head and feet to get it in the net."
In this case, it was Rush who used her feet and Luquin who used her head to beat Wooster goalkeeper Rose Shoen.
Rush worked her way down near the right corner and calmly flicked the ball up in the air and Luquin headed it into the net to open the scoring in the third minute. One minute later, Rush again placed a seemingly radar-guided pass - this one on a corner-kick - to Luquin, who once again used her noggin to knock in the goal to give Carson a 2-0 lead.
The Senators outshot Wooster 27-0. Shoen made 15 saves, but could do nothing to stop sophomore forward Miriah Tompkins, who beat her on a penalty kick in the 17th minute to put the Senators up 3-0.
Carson took a 4-0 lead into halftime after the Colts beat themselves on a goal. Luquin launched a shot that bounced off the head of a Colts defender and then worked its way through the hands of Shoen in the 31st minute.
With the win Carson tightened its grip on second place in the Sierra League and is now 8-2-1 in conference play and 16-3-1 overall. Wooster fell to 1-9.
Senators sophomore keeper Jennifer Johnson didn't get much work in net, so she traded places with uber-forward Brandi Vega. While Vega wasn't forced to make any saves, Johnson assisted on Michelle Fleming's goal in the 61st minute, which gave Carson a 5-0 lead.
Junior Allie Collier rounded out the scoring for the Senators, connecting on a rebound off Shoen, who had stopped a shot by Helaine Berris.
"We came out relaxed and did well," Roser said. "We want to be in first or second for (the Northern 4A state playoffs). It's a good spot for us. We'd rather be in first. On the other side (the High Desert League), Reed's undefeated, but it's hard to tell how that's shaking out."
After coming off a 5-2 win over Douglas, a 2-2 draw with Reno and the loss to South Tahoe, Saturday was a good day for the Senators to try and unfurl a few new wrinkles as the regular season winds down.
"We were coming off three tough games in a row," Roser said. "This one we kind of relaxed and worked on things to get tuned up for zone. We played well."
Carson has four games left in the regular season - Hug, Douglas, Damonte Ranch and North Valleys.
The Senators host the Hawks Tuesday at 7 p.m.