Carson’s Ethan Hendee drives for additional yardage after a reception against Basic Friday night at Carson High. Hendee caught some praise from his head coach postgame.
Photo by Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage.
It wasn’t a secret coming into Friday night’s game that Basic was going to be a handful for the Senators.
The Wolves were 2-0 and coming off a 24-point win over Centennial.
To add to the challenge, Carson was without four starters Friday night in a 34-2 loss to the Wolves.
Basic scored on its opening drive of the contest after a long kickoff return put the Wolves in Carson territory.
Down 7-0, the Senator offense mustered a couple of first downs behind Marcus Montes, but ultimately punted.
Another long return put the Wolves in the red zone and with 3:14 to go in the first quarter the Senators trailed 14-0.
Carson’s offense struggled after its opening drive and didn’t pick up another first down until the Senators’ final drive of the game in the fourth quarter.
“The opponents we’ve played are all very good defensive opponents and on top of that, we’re running a brand new offensive system,” said Carson High head coach Ryan Boshard. “We knew there was going to be bumps in the road, but the nice thing is with the talent we have, we’ll be able to get this rolling.”
Montes, who was in at punter for the injured Isaac Avina, had several long punts and pinned Basic at its own four-yard line inside of the final two minutes of the first half.
On third down, the Senators snuffed out a run play by the Wolves and a gang of blue and white tacklers got Carson on the board with a safety.
Though, it was the only points the Senators scored Friday evening, Boshard thought there were still productive takeaways from Carson’s non-league schedule to start the year.
“Not to give up,” said Boshard of his post-game message. “We had a lot of positives tonight. ... With that being said, I’m proud of the way these backups came in and fought. We knew it was going to be an uphill climb against a good team.”
One of those bright spots was sophomore Ethan Hendee, who helped jumpstart the offense in the fourth quarter.
The 5-foot-10 wideout hauled in a pair of first down receptions for the Senators in the closing moments with the two catches going for 45 yards.
“He played some great defense and then turned around on offense and sparked our offense. When you can have a sophomore make that kind of difference, it’s huge,” Boshard said of Hendee.
Cleaning up penalties will be an emphasis heading into league play as the Senators committed at least seven false starts and had a couple of delay of game calls as well that hamstrung the offenses ability to move the football.
UP NEXT: Carson (1-2) will travel north to take on Galena (2-1) in the first league contest of the year. Last season, the Senators bested the Grizzlies 48-0 in Carson City.
Area scores
Foothill 10, Galena 7
Bishop Manogue 51, Reed 15
Reno 30, Grant 21
Faith Lutheran 29, Damonte Ranch 7
Fallon 58, Sparks 6
Elko 43, Truckee 11
Pershing County 42, Dayton 6
Spring Creek 41, Hug 28
Douglas at McQueen, Saturday 10 a.m.
(Carson’s Marcus Montes runs through traffic during the game between the Basic Wolves and the Carson High Senators / Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage)
