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Sanchez scores as Senators stay atop Sierra Division

Darrell Moody

Carson High’s girls soccer team won’t get any style points for its performance on Saturday, but the Senators will gladly take the win.

Speedy Kayla Sanchez scored in the 60th minute to give the Senators a hard-fought 1-0 win over South Tahoe at South Tahoe Middle School Saturday afternoon. The victory improved Carson’s Sierra Division record to 5-0 while South Tahoe dropped to 3-2.

“It was not a pretty game,” Carson coach Randy Roser said. “When you play on a small field, it’s always close. It (the field) is narrow and short. It was a very physical game. Anytime you play at Tahoe, there is no place to go. Somebody is always on top of you.”



Physical turned to dirty when Sanchez broke the scoreless tie. While Sanchez was in hot pursuit of a free ball, Viking goalie Ellie Vermillion came off her line and tried to dive on the ball. Sanchez poked the ball loose and scored.

South Tahoe coach Jose Gonzalez, though, said Sanchez roughed up Vermillion to get the ball loose, then put away the game’s only goal. Sanchez thought the play developed differently.



“She started to dive when I went to take the kick,” Sanchez said. “The ball rebounded off her chest.”

Either way, Sanchez didn’t have time to celebrate her goal. South Tahoe defender Courtney Blann, seeking to defend her goalie, shoved Sanchez to the ground, and then Sanchez retaliated with a shove of her own.

Blann received a red card for her actions and Sanchez was given a yellow card.

“After that play, that’s when everything fell apart,” Gonzalez said. “I was OK with Courtney receiving the red card. But then to not give the other girl a red card for the same thing, that frustrated the girls.”

During the melee, STHS captain Bailey Flood asked the referee the reasoning behind the call. He issued Flood a yellow card. While Flood was walking to the sideline, she verbally communicated her feelings about the yellow card, and then the ref gave her a red card.

Then in the 62nd minute, Shannon Siefert received her second yellow card of the game for a hard challenge, leaving South Tahoe with only eight players for the remainder of the game. But Gonzalez said the Vikings outshot the Senators 6-1 the restof the way but never got the equalizer.

“We still controlled the game with only eight players,” Gonzalez said. “It would’ve been nice to end the game in a tie after all of that but it just didn’t happen for us. We’ll come around again. We still have to play Douglas and Carson again.”

The Vikings (4-3 overall, 3-2 division) host North Tahoe today at 3 p.m., then continue division play with a game at North Valleys on Thursday and against Hug on Saturday at South Tahoe Middle School.


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