None of the Carson players or coaches knew it when the game ended, but they got a little help from their arch-rival Douglas on Friday night.
Carson's easy 45-14 homecoming win over Galena, coupled with the Tigers' 28-21 win over Bishop Manogue, threw the Sierra League race into a three-way tie with two weeks left in the season.
All three teams are 4-1 in league play. A share of the championship, barring any upsets next week, will be determined when Carson hosts Douglas a week from Thursday. Manogue finishes with Damonte Ranch and Galena.
Dylan Sawyers and Mark Sinnott scored three touchdowns apiece. Sinnott had runs of 4, 4 and 32 yards, respectively. Sawyers scored on a 97-yard kickoff return and runs of 1 and 8 yards.
"It was a heck of a way to end it in the fourth quarter," said Carson coach Blair Roman, whose team improved to 6-2 overall. "We turned it on at the end. I attribute that to our mental toughness. It was 24-14 with eight minutes left and ends up 45-14."
That was set up by a couple of stops by the Carson defense down the stretch. Carson was dominant in the first half and got pushed around in the third quarter before settling down.
"We didn't play very well, and I attribute that to Carson," Galena coach Steve Struzyk said. "The offense turned the ball over too many times, and when you play a good team you can't do that. My hats off to Carson. They played hard."
Unofficially, Galena had a slight edge in yardage, 274-256, and nearly half of that came on the Grizzlies' first drive of the second quarter and their first two drive of the second half when they accounted for 207 yards.
Carson gave a clinic on defense in the first half, holding the hgh-powered Grizzlies' offense to 65 yards thanks to the efforts of Justin Barlow, Erik Roberson, Luke Carter and Taylor Silva. Carson did an outstanding job containing Galena QB Beau Bickel, who was 6 for 12 for 54 yards in the first 24 minutes.
"Erik has really played well the last couple of weeks," Roman said. "I'm really pleased with his effort."
Carson, which managed just one first down on its first two possessions, finally got untracked on its third drive.
Carson drove 61 yards on 11 plays with Sinnott scoring from the 4. Ean Witter's PAT made it 7-0. The key plays in the drive were a 17-yard pass to Tyler Collins for a first down at the Galena 25, and a 15-yard run by Sawyers down to the Galena 1 on a third-and-1 play.
Carson's second score was set up by an offensive pass interference call on Galena which moved the ball back to the Galena 12 and cost the Grizzlies a down and forced them to punt.
Levi Bloxton took the short punt at the Galena 42 and returned it 14 yards to the Grizzlies' 28. Carson scored five plays later on another 4-yard run by Sinnott. Witter's PAT made it 14-0 with 11:56 left in the half.
Galena went three possessions without a first down before waking up. The Grizzlies put together an impressive 10-play 80-yard drive. The big play was a 53-yard pass to Eric Johnson, who was tripped up at the 1 by Colby Blueberg. Bickel scored on the next play. Howsley's PAT made it 14-7.
That's when Sawyers made his presence felt in a big way. He took the ensuing kickoff and burst past the first two levels of the Galena kickoff team and had one defender to beat which he did with ease. The PAT made it 21-7,
"The first wall blocked it up well," Sawyers said. "I ended up just having one man to beat and that's my job."
Luke Carter came up with a stellar defensive play when he forced and recovered a fumble late in the first half, which led to a Witter field goal and a 24-7 lead.
After a scoreless third quarter, Galena put together a 79-yard scoring drive capped by 1-yard run by Dustin Granata to close the deficvit to 24-14.
Carson made it 31-17, driving 51 yards on seven plays with Sawyers scoring from the 1. Sawyers keyed the drive with runs of 17 and 11 yards, respectively.
Then Carson's defense stepped up again. Galena was driving and faced a fourth-and-7 play from the Carson 37. Bickel threw to the left side of the field and Josh Peacock stepped in front of the pass inside the Carson 10 and returned it all the way to Galena's 10.
That set up Sawyers' 8-yard run which made it 38-14.
"We were in a zone," Peacock said. "He (Bickel) was throwing the same route. I hid behind the outside linebacker, backed up and then cut in front of the receiver."
Peacock admitted he was tired at the end of the return.
Sinnott capped the scoring with a 32-yard run with less than a minute to play.