Following a two-game lull (a tie against Douglas and a loss to Damonte Ranch), the Carson Senators girls soccer team exploded on Senior NIght for an 11-0 victory over the North Valleys Panthers Tuesday at Carson High School.
Junior forward Brandi Vega notched a hat trick and added two assists and junior Allie Collier and sophomore Megan Jackson each added a pair of goals as Carson moved past Douglas to finish second in the Sierra League.
South Tahoe took a 2-0 victory over Douglas on Tuesday.
With the win the Senators improved to 9-3-2 in league (18-4-2 overall) and will face High Desert League No. 3 seed McQueen in the first round of the Northern 4A state playoffs Friday at Damonte Ranch High School beginning at 2 p.m.
It will be a rematch of last year's first-round playoff game in which the Lancers, ranked No. 4, upset the top-ranked Senators, 2-1.
Carson coach Randy Roser, who following the 1-0 loss to the Mustangs on Saturday said his team was experiencing some attitude problems, apparently found a quick remedy as the Senators outshot the Panthers 25-6.
"Our practice (Monday) was an encouragement to work hard," Roser said. "They were a little sore and stiff coming into today. We fixed our attitude. We saw that tonight. Our passing was great."
Becca Kane was the only senior to score a goal - she beat Panthers goalkeeper Kourtney Squire on a Vega assist in the 63rd minute for an 8-0 lead - and Brandy Cantley was the only senior to notch an assist (on Vega's second goal, which made it 2-0 in the 16th minute) in their last appearance on their home field.
Vega opened up the scoring with a pair of goals - the first came in the eighth minute - and her third capped off the scoring in extra time.
Carson took a three-goal lead into halftime and scored four goals in a 10-minute span in the second half, including one each from sophomore Miriah Tompkins (assisted by Brenda Luquin in the 58th minute), Jackson, Kane and Collier, which gave the Senators a 9-0 lead in the 68th minute.
Collier scored her first goal on an assist from Tompkins to make it 3-0 in the 34th minute.
Roser said his team wasn't trying to run up the score on the Panthers.
"I feel bad for North Valleys (which fell to 1-12-1 in the Sierra League) - we're not that kind of team (that runs up the score)," Roser said. "Coming off the loss to Damonte, we had to get our interior problem fixed. It worked out. I thought we played the way I'm used to seeing us playing.
"We had Megan Jackson and Helaine Berris coming in from the wing and attacking the 18-yard box. I'm not going to take that away from them."
Sophomore Samantha Fishburn scored to make it 4-0 in the 48th minute and Jackson scored her first goal on a penalty kick in the 51st minute. Berris took a feed from Vega and scored on a bender inside the 18-yard box to make it 10-0 in the 75th minute.
Asked for his impression on the Senators' season heading into the playoffs, Roser wasn't effusive in his praise.
"We were disappointing," he said. "This is one of the most talented girls teams we've had at Carson High School. We have 20 girls who can play. Three losses (in league) is the most we've had at the end of the regular season."
Last year Carson had only one Sierra League loss and none along the way to a 19-0 start in 2005, which ended in a championship game loss to Galena in the Northern state playoffs.
"We just have to work hard," Roser said about preparing to play and avoiding another upset in the postseason. "We have skills, we have speed. The goals we gave up in tough games were because of defensive mistakes. We addressed that (Monday) and tonight.
"I have to stay in their heads and make sure they work hard in practice (today) and Thursday."
Carson keeper Jennifer Johnson had three saves and Squire had six for North Valleys.