Midgets fall in regional finals

There won't be a return trip to the National Championships for the Carson Midgets Pop Warner Football team.

Carson was beaten 28-0 by Sunnyvale, Calif., on Saturday in the Pacific Northwest Regional Championship in Woodside, Calif. Sunnyvale, the defending national champion, will make a return trip to Orlando, Fla., to defend its title.

Carson coach Ron Pacheco said when he and his team arrived in the parking lot and he looked at the opponents, he knew it could be a long day.

"Oh boy we're in trouble, we better have a our A game," said Pacheco about what he thought. "We had our A game.

"We just didn't have the horses to compete with those guys. They're big and fast. I'm proud of the way the kids played. They played with heart."

Pacheco noted that Sunnyvale is twice the size of Carson and has just one midgets team like Carson.

Carson's defense played well, Pacheco said. Two of Sunnyvale's touchdowns came off of turnovers and another came on a punt return. "Our defense played very, very strong," Pacheco said.

Among the defensive leaders were Dylan Sawyers, Connor Beattie, Patrick Craugh, Austin Pacheco, Logan Peternell, Gabriel Pongasi, Cody Odiorne and Jacob Myers.

Pacheco said his team was also hurt by the loss of two-way starter Tim Baylor, who had to come out of the game after the first play with a shoulder injury.

Despite the loss, it's been a successful run for the nucleus of the team, the majority of which are eighth graders. The group has won three Snow Bowl Northern Nevada titles in the last four years and made one trip to nationals.