The Eric Masters Era at Carson High has started with a bang.
The Carson's boys soccer team, under the guidance of the first-year head coach, got two early goals from Sam Hutchinson and rolled to its fourth consecutive win of the year, knocking off Douglas 4-0 Wednesday night.
Carson is 4-0, while Douglas dropped to 0-4. Carson has outscored its opponents 10-2 thus far.
"Everybody has been doing great," said Jason Martinez, one of three Carson captains. "It's not quiet out here anymore. Coach (Masters) is training us very well. We have confidence in each other."
Carson has a lot of new faces, but most of them played together on Carson's successful junior varsity squad. It's made for a smooth transition. There hasn't been grumbling about playing time, but that's more because of the success the team is having.
Carson dominated, outshooting Douglas 17-3. The Tigers, who were missing five players, never had a serious scoring threat the entire match.
"The first 20 minutes we were pinging the ball in," Masters said. "The last 15 minutes (of the first half) they got on top of us. We got complacent. A 2-0 score is the most dangerous because one goal has you back into the game."
"We have no continuity right now," Douglas coach Milko Vasquez said. "I don't know if I ever saw five passes strung together. We worked too hard to only get three shots."
Four minutes into the match Victor Romero hit the right post, and a little more than a minute later, Carson played a nice through ball which forced the Douglas goalie to come out and make a sliding stop.
In the 7th minute, Louis Camacho sent a diagonal pass over to Hutchinson, who rammed it home for a 1-0 lead. In the 14th minute, Martinez missed wide left, and four minutes later Hutchinson scored for the second time.
"Sam is on some kind of run," Masters said. "Every game we've played he's had the first or second assist or the goal on all of our goals. He's very good 1-on-1."
"It's getting to the right spots and having the composure to put it away," said Hutchinson, who was quick to praise his teammate's unselfishness.
According to Vasquez, those two early goals changed the whole complexion of the game.
"They (the two goals) took some of the steam out of us," he said. "When you fall behind early like that, you don't play the type of game you're set up for. We set up to play possession because they are quicker than us."
In the 54th minute, Carson extended its lead to 3-0 on a goal by Juan Carlos Munoz. The Carson defender had his first shot blocked by a Douglas defender. The ball spun back toward him, and Munoz was able to get control of the ball and score.
Carson's last score was an own goal, Christian Hernandez fired a shot toward the goal and a Douglas defender deflected it past his goalkeeper with less than three minutes remaining.
Masters praised the play of Romero, Jonathan Lopez and Jaime Lopez. Carson goalie Marco Magallon had just two saves.
CARSON JVs WIN
Francisco Barrios scored Carson's first two goals to lead the Senators to a 4-1 win.
Carson improved to 4-0, and the team has allowed one goal in that span.
Barrios' scores came in the 11 and 20th minute, respectively. Billy Goulardt made it 3-0 in the 28th minute off an assist by Robert Abundis.
Douglas closed to 3-1 with a goal in the 65th minute. Mario Escalante closed the scoring in the 75th minute.
Nate King, Arnaldo Diaz, Adam Shoaf and Bryan Dones all played well defensively for Carson.