Carson girls blank Reed, 3-0

It was over almost before it started.Carson got goals from Mayra Olivares and Michelle Sandage in the first 13 minutes, and rode those early scores to a 3-0 win over visiting Reed in the opening round of the NIAA Division I Northern Regional on Tuesday night.The win sends the second-seeded Senators into the semis on Thursday at 6 p.m. where they will face Spanish Springs which beat Galena 3-2 (4-3 in the shootout). The other semi at 4 p.m. matches up Douglas, a 7-1 winner over McQueen, against Reno, a 3-0 winner over Manogue.Carson dominated from start to finish, but appeared to relax after the two early goals.“I think so,” Danielle Sandage said. “I think we settled in and started to play more possession.”“We came out with pretty high energy the first 20 minutes,” Carson coach Greg Lehman said. “I don’t know if we took our foot off the throttle or not and it’s hard to keep that kind of pace up for 80 minutes.”Carson scored in the 7th minute on its second shot of the game. Olivares carried the ball along the right sideline and crossed it to the opposite post. Reed goalie Angie Pastor appeared to think it was going wide and failed to make an aggressive move toward the ball. The ball grazed the left post and went in.“I definitely thought it was going out,” Olivares said. “Then I saw it hit the post. It was a pretty lucky goal.”Reed threatened several minutes later when Carson keeper Emmy Heller was unable to control a shot. The ball squirted away, but a Carson defender cleared the ball before the Raiders could get off a shot.Three minutes later, Carson was on the board again. Kenzie Tillitt got her foot on a ball, and when Pastor was a little slow coming out, Michelle Sandage ran on to the ball and tapped it in to make it 2-0.“Kenzie hit it back so it rolled forward,” Michelle Sandage said. “I kept running into it. I thought for sure it was going to be wide ... I kept running at it to make sure it was going in.”Reed had a good look in the 31st minute, but the shot sailed high. There were no more serious threats the remainder of the half. In the 48th minute, Reed’s Katelynn Raatz blasted one over the crossbar from about 20 yards away. Carson scored the game’s final goal nine minutes later when Tillitt headed a ball that Pastor caught, but stumbled backward and apparently crossed the goal line.The teams tied earlier in the year 2-2, but Carson played that game without both Kiahna Pimental and Tillitt, both of whom are important players for the Senators.“Having our key players helped tonight,” Michelle Sandage said.