Carson High's Emiliano Bravo (17) gets surrounded by teammates after scoring the game-tying goal in extra time against Wooster.
Photo by Carter Eckl.
The Carson and Wooster boys soccer rivalry is alive and well after Wednesday night’s contest on the Senators’ home field.
Carson trailed 2-0 in the 70th minute before the real drama started.
It was Luis Carrillo who cut the deficit in half to get Carson on the team.
The Senators piled into goal to try and quickly get the ball back to midfield in order to get the game restarted.
With eight minutes to go, the Senators were mistakenly dropped to 10 players after the center official gave a Carson midfielder a second yellow.
The Senator midfield didn’t have a card to that point, but the Senators were still forced to play shorthanded for the next few minutes before the mistake was fixed.
Ultimately, playing down a player didn’t come back to hurt Carson as Emiliano Bravo scored the game-tying goal in the final moments of stoppage time, resulting in a 2-2 tie.
As he ran toward his bench draped in teammates, the Senator sideline spilled onto the field in a dog pile.
“It’s up there,” said head coach Frank Martinez of the comeback. “This one was pretty sweet because we played horrible in the first half, … but we pulled it off.”
Before Bravo’s game-tying goal, the Senators had flooded the Colts with opportunities.
Carrillo had a free kick that went wide of the net after Wooster’s keeper made an aggressive tackle on a breakaway and took a yellow card.
“I was yelling at him, hard and low,” Martinez said. “It was a brand new goalie. … I didn’t think we were going to get another chance after that.”
For Bravo, the moment hadn’t set in postgame.
“I don’t even feel here,” said Bravo. “It doesn’t feel real.”
It was a quality second-half effort from the royal blue and white on their home turf.
The Senators trailed 2-0 within the first 20 minutes of the opening half Wednesday evening.
Martinez said the key to preventing slow starts is for his team to start taking practices as seriously as competitive contests.
“I told them at the beginning, we are rivals. If you don’t come in here strong, they are going to give it to you,” said Martinez. “They thought I was kidding, I guess.”
While intensity needs to pick up on the practice field, the Senators have a boat load of confidence after an improbable tie earned them a point in the standings.
UP NEXT: Carson (1-2-1) will likely face its toughest test of the season Saturday, traveling to take on Sparks (7-0-1).
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