As the rain continued to fall into the 70th minute Tuesday night, Carson High School girls soccer (4-3) was on the verge of dropping an early-season contest to Reed (1-5-1).
The Senators’ trailed 1-0 after a 58th minute tally by Reed, but in the final 10 minutes rallied with two goals to secure a 2-1 win.
The first goal came from Carson senior captain Makayla Rabideau, who stepped up to hit a free kick from about 25 yards away from net.
Rabideau struck the ball over the Raider wall and up into the top corner of the net over Reed’s keeper.
“They tried getting in my head and I feel like it was self motivation for me to really put it in the back of the net,” said Rabideau.
It wasn’t exactly the easiest angle for the senior, who tucked the free kick right over top of the keeper’s head.
In the 77th minute, Sophia Vega swiped a steal from a Reed defender, broke in on net and buried the game-winner as the Senators’ celebrated under their new flashing stadium lights.
“We didn’t give up. We kept going, we kept pushing to the end and that’s what made us win,” said Vega.
EARLY CHANCES
The first half saw Carson pepper Reed with chances as the Senators racked up a half-dozen shots on net and five corner kicks.
Though, Carson wasn’t able to net its first tally of the game in the first 40 minutes, neither was Reed.
The Senators were relying on emergency goalkeeper freshman Sydney Heyder, who stepped into net moments before the game started out of necessity after an injury.
Heyder, who usually plays in the field, kept the Raiders off the board in the first half and did enough to allow the Senator comeback in the second.
“For not playing keeper and stepping in, she did an amazing job,” said Rabideau of Heyder’s work in net.
“I think she deserves a shout out,” added senior captain Lillian Turner. “She didn’t want to be in goal. We put her in goal anyway and she showed up. She made saves. She tried her best and we really needed her.”
Carson had to adapt to some slippery turf, but it didn’t limit the Senators’ scoring opportunities.
Claire Billings had a header sail just over the crossbar in the 19th minute off a pass from Rabideau. The sophomore defender had two more chances and just missed out scoring on both.
Kali Nelson and Arianna Guerrero both had shots on goal steered away by Reed’s goalie.
With all the first-half looks on net, Carson didn’t want to drop Tuesday night’s rain-filled matchup with the Raiders.
“It was really nice. In the end when we all got chippy, we wanted to prove to them they can’t come to Carson, talk to us like that and go away with the win,” said Turner. “That’s not how that works.”
To read the Carson High girls season outlook, click here.
UP NEXT: Carson (5-3) will travel to take on Reno (1-1-2) Thursday at 3:30 p.m.
(Carson High School’s Kali Nelson breaks in on net Tuesday night against Reed. The Senators bested the Raiders, 2-1, in the final moments. Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage)