Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal
If Carson coach Blair Roman was concerned about a letdown against South Tahoe on Friday night, he shouldn't have been.
The second-ranked Senators, who played without quarterback Blake Plattsmier, scored on their first three possessions of the game and six of their first seven en route to a 51-7 win in the Sierra League opener for both teams.
"The biggest thing for me I felt coming into the game we were obviously favored," Roman said. "I put it on the seniors to make sure we stayed focused. I thought we played well and executed well which showed our focus."
On both sides of the ball.
The defense, led by Justin Barlow, Logan Peternell and Junior Valladares held the Viking scoreless until the final 1 minute, 33 seconds of the contest.
"They played very physical," Roman said. "They hustled all night and got to the ball."
Offensively, Trey Jensen filled in admirably for Plattsmier and ran the unit with confidence. Luke Carter rushed five times for 88 yards and three scores, as Carson (1-0 Sierra League, 3-1) piled up 460 yards of offense.
Roman said he was very pleased with Jensen, who ran for 76 yards on four carries, and passed for 69 more yards. Roman indicated that Plattsmier should be ready for next Saturday's game at Bishop Manogue.
"I'm really pleased with Trey," Roman said. "I had a lot of confidence he could do the job. He had a couple of misreads, but overall he was very effective. He really stepped up."
Roman showed the type of confidence he has in Jensen on the Senators' second snap. Instead of having Jensen hand off a few times to get his feet wet, Roman called for a deep pass down the middle to Ean Witter, which Jensen completed for a first down at the 1, setting up the first of Carter's three scores.
"We knew it (that play) would be there, and we decided to go for it," Roman said.
Jensen knew he was going to start mid-week, and admitted he was nervous.
"I was (nervous) at the beginning of the game," Jensen said. "He told me to play within myself and have a good game.
"I loved that (pass call). They had a pretty good rush, but we were able to get it off. There was great blocking by the offensive line."
After South Tahoe went three and out, the Senators needed just four snaps to get back into the end zone as sophomore Dylan Sawyers scored on a 21-yard run to cap a 46-yard drive. Witter's PAT made it 14-0.
Carson increased its lead to 21-0 on its next drive, as Jensen broke loose for a 59-yard TD run with 2:56 left. Witter again added the PAT.
Nine snaps and 21 points. That's execution at its finest.
After the Carson defense stymied South Tahoe for the fourth time, the Senators went on a 61-yard drive which ended with a 29-yard field goal by Witter to make it 24-0 with 10:20 left in the half. Runs of 13 and 19 yards by Jeremy Cannon keyed the drive.
South Tahoe got its first downs of the game on its next drive, but still had to punt the ball away.
Carson drove from its own 15 to the South Tahoe 6, but came up empty when Jensen was sacked on third down and Witter missed a 30-yard field goal.
Carter and Sawyers scored on runs of 28 and 6 yards, respectively for a 38-0 lead at the half.
Carson ran off 30 first-half plays and scored six touchdowns.
Carter went untouched 46 yards with 10:30 left in the third quarter to make it 45-0, and the rest of the game was played with a running clock.
Carson's last score was a 7-yard run by Andrew Johnson. Austin Pacheco set up the score with a 50-yard run.