shannon Litz/Nevada Appeal News ServiceEmily Field of Carson and Mackenzie Cauley of Douglas battle for the ball on Tuesday night at Douglas.
MINDEN "For the first 20 minutes of Tuesday night's Carson-Douglas girls' soccer matchup, it appeared the Senators were going to literally run away with a win.
Brandi Vega scored on a breakaway in the sixth minute of the game and dropped a nice pass to Taylor Musselman 10 minutes later for an early 2-0 lead. To add to it, Vega had broken in behind the Douglas defense no less than seven times and fired four shots on goal before the Tigers were able to find their footing.
Once they did though, the momentum shifted completely,
Douglas scored five unanswered goals, three from senior Ally Freitas, and clinched the Sierra League title with a 5-2 win over the Senators in Minden.
"This was a good one," Douglas coach Lorraine Fitzhugh said. "The girls worked really hard against a good team and came away with a tough win."
One of the biggest positives in the game, Fitzhugh said, was how the Tiger defense " particularly goalie Brianna Randall " responded to the Senators' quick and fluid offense.
The Senators peppered the net with 18 shots in the game and Randall came away with 10 saves while the back line of Mackenzie Cauley, Cora Moody, Shannon Hubbard and Katie Dry slowed the Carson attack.
"There were a couple shots there where it was just Brandi and Brianna against each other," Fitzhugh said. "Brianna stayed calm and stopped her on a couple big shots. I was proud of her for that. I wanted our back line to have some pressure to see how they could respond to this type of offense.
"They didn't falter. They stayed confident and composed and that'll be good for zone."
After Vega's goal, Douglas nearly answered about 20 seconds later when Freitas sent a shot wide. From there, Douglas wasn't able to mount much of an attack until Randall posted her second of two point-blank saves on Vega in the 26th minute.
Douglas cleared the ensuing corner away and midfielder Alex Laing put the ball through to Freitas for the goal from the right post.
Vega broke free again after the following kickoff and put a shot on net but Randall made a fingertip save.
Douglas' Tia Lyons sent a pair of shots just high in the final 10 minutes of the first half before Dany Heidt assisted Freitas on another shot from the right post to tie the game in the 36th minute.
Lyons scored the eventual game-winner in the 45th minute on a rebound of a Freitas shot and Heidt assisted Freitas in the 51st minute for the 4-2 lead.
C.J. Baumgartner put a nice cross in front of the net in the 65th minute, which Lyons punched in for her 23rd goal of the season.
Lyons, a freshman, is now within three goals of tying the state record for goals in a season (26). Vega is right behind Lyons as she has at least 21 goals on the season.
Carson had a pair of final chance when Megan Jackson had a shot sail just high in the 74th minute and then had a shot just tipped by Randall in the 78th.