Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
RENO - Carson's inability to score goals this season bit it again.
The two-seeded Senators fell 1-0 to No. 3 Hug in the first round of the Northern 4A regional playoffs Friday at Damonte Ranch High School as the Hawks displayed superior passing ability that put too much pressure on the Carson defense.
"Personally, I think both teams passed pretty well," said acting Carson coach Joe Briggs. "I think if you look at the quality opportunities, both teams were pretty equal on both sides of the ball. So I don't know if they were pressuring us anymore than we were them. It was just a little lapse on defense where we didn't mark up the back corner and beyond that they really didn't have much of a quality opportunity."
Briggs, the junior varsity head coach, was filling in for Nate Brigham who was serving a one-game suspension after being removed from the season-finale against South Tahoe for receiving two yellow cards.
The score could have been much higher if it weren't for two early plays for the Hawks that fell short. The Hug offense spent the first several minutes in the Carson zone, giving them two early header attempts. But the first hit the crossbar on the football goal posts and the second sailed wide of the net.
The Hawks squandered another golden opportunity with less than 10 minutes to play in the first half when their forward had a clear shot from 15 feet away, but failed to get a solid kick on the ball for an easy save by Pedro Chavez.
Hug continued the pressure early in the second half, scoring the lone goal in the 50th minute. Alan Corona nailed in a header off a corner kick that came from the right side of the field, finding Corona on left side of the net for the goal. Carson had the play defended, but was only slightly out of position when the ball went in the goal.
Carson had been experimenting with a 4-4-2 alignment toward the end of the regular season in an effort to bolster scoring opportunities. It went back to a normal 4-2-4 Friday, where it found several chances to get on the board.
Izzy Lopez was fouled less than two feet from being inside the box, which would have awarded him a penalty kick, with less than 2:00 to play in the first half. Instead, he was given a free kick and tried to bend a shot around the Hug defense, but the ball sailed left of the net.
Carson controlled the ball for nearly the final three minutes and nearly tied the game up on a Luis Aguilar header. Lopez passed to the front of the net for Aguilar, who sent a strong header to the top of the goal. Hug goalkeeper Edgar Marisal used every ounce his frame to leap up and put a two-handed block on the ball.
"Their goalie did a good job of saving it, so we couldn't do anything about that," Lopez said.
With just seconds remaining, Carson's Brian Duran was knocked to the turf while inside the box, which should have awarded him a penalty kick, but the foul wasn't called and time ran out on Carson's season.
"We're very disappointed, but we're not ashamed of what we did," Lopez said. "We did what we could. We left it out on the field and we just couldn't get it done."