When Justin Barlow suffered a leg injury at the end of the third quarter, his night looked like it was over.
He lay on the synthetic turf at Carson High School with his team already well on its way to ending a 7-year losing streak to archrival Douglas. But as he rolled in obvious pain, clutching his right leg, the emotions of never seeing a victory over the Tigers took over.
"I didn't want to come out," said Barlow, who suffered a sprained knee after another player rolled over his leg. "It's the last time I get to play our rivals and we're beating the crap out of them so why would I want to come out?"
After Barlow was helped off the field and taped up, the 6-foot, 240-pound senior lineman hobbled back onto the field where he stayed, limping from piles to huddles, until the game was put away and the streak was halted.
For Barlow and the other 23 seniors on this Senators' team, the streak was more than just seven years prior. This 34-6 beatdown of Douglas was the culmination of losing to the same players over and over and over again since Pop Warner. Those seniors didn't beat them when they played junior varsity, or when they played freshman ball. And even when they played as youths there were some lopsided games that still stung some of these now 17 and 18 year olds.
"This is the biggest thing I've ever had in my career," Carson linebacker Luke Carter said. "We've been working hard for this ever since last year when we lost to them. It feels good to get some redemption."
The path to redeeming themselves began in December. That is when the Senators took it upon themselves to post the score of last year's 48-20 loss to Douglas in the school's weight room. The number ate at the Senators even more because that was also the score they lost by in 2007.
"Every time we got down on ourselves in the weight room, we just looked at that and thought, 'We need to get it back, we need to work for this,'" Carter said.
On that 2001 team that beat Douglas was another Carter, Josh. Luke's older brother helped give the Tigers a 42-6 spanking on the Senators' way to a playoff berth.
But this year's Carter has one caveat his older brother didn't earn: a league title.
"Like coach said, we made some history this year," Carter said. "I mean, we haven't a won a league title since '98, so that's the biggest thing. We brought back a league title and brought back our win against Douglas."
Carter couldn't say which feat was bigger.
"I think they're one and the same," he said. "Our rival and the league championship. It's the perfect game."