Carson boys soccer beats South Tahoe

Now that the Carson High soccer team has sustained its strong effort for two straight games, the obvious challenge is to keep the momentum going heading into another Sierra League showdown.

Meanwhile South Tahoe can come away knowing it withstood Carson's strong attack and if not for two defensive letdowns, could have made things really interesting. In the end it was the Senators who beat the Vikings 2-0 on two first half goals on Wednesday on the fieldturf at the CHS football stadium. Carson was coming off a solid 4-0 win over Douglas this past Saturday.

Because both teams were skilled at the midfield, there weren't a lot of offensive chances, but the game was entertaining nonetheless.

"It was a really good game to watch," South Tahoe coach Chris DeLeon said. "I thought it was just two defensive mistakes to get them the goals.

Carson did really well with their passing and their through balls. Kudos to Carson. They played well."

But now the challenge for Carson (5-1-1 in league) is not to have a letdown as it has had a tendency to do at times this season because up next is a key Sierra League matchup at Manogue at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Senators beat Manogue at home in their first meeting 2-0, but other than a five-minute stretch in which Carson scored both of its goals, the game was played on even terms.

Carson coach Nate Brigham expects more of the same on Saturday on Manogue's smaller field as Brigham expects a physical game.

"They're very well organized," said Brigham about Manogue. "It will take the best out of us to beat them."

Carson's best effort is what Brigham expects. "The beginning of the year we put up a couple wins and then we came back with a letdown performance," Brigham said. "It looks like we're going to sustain our momentum and not have any drops."

The Senators took a 1-0 lead when Adam Updegrove center a pass from the right side to Izzy Lopez, who knocked a header off the turf that bounced over the head of South Tahoe goalie Nick Olivares and into the net.

Moments later, Edgar Hernandez just missed tying the game as he missed wide on a shot for the Vikings. That turned out to be South Tahoe's best scoring chance all night.

Carson goalies Brandon Briggs and Ryan Lee went virtually unchallenged throughout the game. Briggs played the first half and with the exception of a few minutes when Lee had to come out with a dislocated finger after being involved in a collision and was replaced by Briggs, Lee played the second half.

A big reason why Briggs and Lee went virtually unchallenged was again the defensive play of Jorge Guevara, Nate Eng, Nik Marsh, Brian Duran and Luis Aguiar. Duran has anchored a defense from his center defender position that hasn't allowed a goal at home this season. "He is our rock back there," Brigham said.

Carson's second goal came on a through ball when when Cyrill Suto's pass and Ian Gunn split two Tahoe defenders practically at the same time. Gunn was able to put the ball in the left corner of the net. The goal came moments after Olivares was able to deny Gunn on a breakaway.

Olivares also made two other outstanding saves in the second half when he denied Lopez on an excellent chance and later denied Miguel Camacho on another excellent opportunity.

Among others who took shots for Carson were John Nuthall, Blake Moreland, Adam Updegrove and Brady Roser. Nick Brower also had an oustanding defensive game for Tahoe.

CARSON JVS 3, SOUTH TAHOE 3

Carson (8-0-1, 6-0-1) settled for the tie after Luis Camacho scored twice and Carlos Munoz scored once. Goalie Pedro Chavez, Guillermo Alonso, Javier Barrios, Munoz and Sammy Reyes all played well defensively for Carson.