2012 NIAA Girls Soccer Semifinals, Douglas vs. Reno, Carson vs. Spanish Springs

Double header NIAA Northern Division 1 Girls Soccer Semifinals today at Damonte Ranch High School.  Douglas faced Reno and Carson faced Spanish Springs.

Reno High took the win in the first semifinal 4-1 over Douglas.  Douglas, with a very young team will certainly be back in the coming years… I believe they have at least two starting freshman this year if not more and several starting sophomores… look for them to be back atop again next year….  Carson, in my opinion, easily won the second semifinal 3-0 against Spanish Springs.  These two met about two weeks ago at Carson with a much closer game (2-1 Carson) but today, Carson was playing with some urgency… urgency to move on to the next round in Vegas!

The Carson team that I’ve seen Tuesday at home and tonight at Damonte, if they show up to play like this will be needing to book their tickets to Vegas for the State Tournament next weekend for sure!  Again, well done ladies!

The Carson Girls play for the Regional Championship on Saturday at 2:00 PM back at Damonte… and they follow the Carson Boys who will play for the Regional Championship at noon.  Good luck Senators!

Here are some shot from the Girls Semifinals today…

Here I am again, playing around… 🙂  I was scouting setting up a remote… the clouds make this photo… I don’t think it would have near the interest without them… Yes, I’ve boosted the colors to make it a bit more punchy… this is the Reno goalkeeper warming up before the first semifinal….McKenna shooting her NIAA record tying 29th goal of the season… she’s a freshman…… some tough defending in the midfield from Douglas…To make it 3-1 Reno…And onto the Carson vs. Spanish Springs game… Once again, Ms. Sandage causing some trouble… she scored one tonight.  These two were also “featured” in my post from the Carson home game that I labeled “The Dance”… no arm grab in this one! 🙂Kenzie taking a shot on goal… She also netted one tonight (not on this shot…)

The lights at Damonte are… well, they’re parking lot lights, not stadium lights… I used settings on the camera tonight that I’ve never even thought of using to try to balance the color… and then they had a very strange fluctuation that I see frequently but just not like there… very strange stuff… Not really anxious to shoot there again at night! 🙂

2012 NIAA Girls Soccer Playoffs at Carson High vs. Reed

The Carson Girls are on their way to the second round of the playoffs with a win tonight over Reed.  Two first half goals and a rather strange second half goal… Carson pushed hard early on and secured their lead within the first 15 minutes and somewhat coasted to a pretty simple win… They’re off to Damonte Thursday to face Spanish Springs (who apparently had a tough time with Galena winning in penalty kicks…)… that may be a great deal for Carson, fresher legs are always better!  Good Luck Ladies!

Some photos from the night…!

I took a little creative license with the color controls… I’ll call them “Sunset on Soccer at Carson High 2012″… 😉  After all… it IS Carson Blue, right?… and the action… Ms. Sandage was pretty commanding tonight of the Reed defense in the first half… she pretty much was able to run free while Reed had Kenzie pinned down with her own personal mark… Clearly the other teams need to watch some film of Carson games! 🙂There’s that flying in the air again!

2012 NIAA Boys Soccer Playoffs at Carson High vs. McQueen

You missed a good one if you weren’t in the stands!  And I don’t just mean that because Carson won… it was a good game, period!  Mostly a very tough midfield battle… but two goals and a lot of pressure on the Carson defense in the second half… but in the end Carson came away with a 2-0 win!

I would have to say that McQueen controlled the flow of play a bit better.  They possessed the ball better… however they weren’t moving forward and making any attempts on goal, they were just possessing the ball… you have to make attempts on goal if you want to win… and while Carson was in a bit of a mad scramble much of the game to work to regain possession… they made attempts on goal… and put two away.  Get into that penalty area and make enough serious threats on goal… one’s bound to go in!  Carson was also awarded a penalty kick late in the game, not a questionable call at all, it was completely legit… again, get in the penalty area enough and good things happen…

Carson advances to play Hug at Damonte on Halloween @ 6:00 PM.  Good luck guys, I hope to see you on Saturday in the Regional Championship!

Pre-game… (with some effects…)

This one tells a lot of the night… a tough battle in the middle of the field.

This didn’t result in a scoring opportunity… but they all add up, get in the penalty area enough times… 🙂  But I already said that… I love this game! 🙂… and something not really “game” related… The moon popped up over the hill…

… and now for a little something different… The Cutters @ Halloween 2012

This is a fun job I have… Thursday night I was invited to shoot something a little different than my “normal”… I did a little research so I didn’t really… well, I wanted to make sure I had a fighting chance… I had a GREAT time!!

Found a place I didn’t even know existed… heard a band I didn’t know existed… and they’re good!

The costumes may fool you!  Tonight was a Halloween Party at the 11th Frame at the Carson Lanes facility… Check it out!  My first band shoot ever!  OH, and THANK YOU for the invite!  I had a lot of fun!!

I learned a lot shooting tonight, always rewarding to try something new, particularly when you can just experiment.

Scroll down to see some VERY dramatic costume photos I grabbed… REALLY like some of them!

Here’s a link to the gallery (or check the sidebar…)

Do you know this guy? 🙂… and the makeup on these two was AMAZING!!!  I was going to ask them if I could photograph them using some of the rather dramatic lighting… then they hit the dance floor and I got these!  The nicest couple… the coolest makeup job!This guy was just too good to pass up…

2012 Carson High Football vs. Douglas…

Senior Night, last regular season game, playoffs on the line… what most thought at the start of the season would be the NIAA Northern Division 1 Sierra League game to determine #1 & #2… the game was certainly entertaining!  A good battle for the last playoff spot for the Sierra League… and as always, I’ll leave the story writing to the journalists… 🙂

The Tigers returned to their early season form last night.  VERY tough running by Conner Peterson, that kid is a battering ram.  Michael Nolting had time in the pocket and was able to pick his receivers, Joey at the Record-Courier tweeted at the half that he had completed 10 consecutive passes and to seven different receivers…. Those offensive weapons led them to their early season 50+ point games.

On to the photos…

I tried something new tonight with this shot.  When this lens first came out I knew it had some very interesting possibilities and within a few days this concept popped up in Leading Off in the first few pages of Sports Illustrated (See more details about this at the end of the post… )… I knew I had to try the same thing at the Carson Douglas Football game. 🙂  And here it is!

Before the game Carson had their Senior Night Ceremony… while the were starting the seniors lined up their helmets off the end of the field… I had to grab this photo.… and THIS is the kind of night I was hoping it would be… This photo is of significance to me for a few reasons.  Douglas #33, Cale Kynett is a kid I’ve shown here before (in his Varsity debut)… and I was very pleased to get this photo.  I would have liked it without #48 hanging on him because then I would have had #33, a sophomore vs. #21, a sophomore… but adding #48 (Luke, a senior and a big strong kid…) to the photo just helps show why Cale is a Varsity starter.  I’ve covered Cale every year I’ve been here in Northern Nevada… never… never not seen Cale “bring it” at game time!  This kid loves to compete and I LOVE that! Good stuff Cale!  This is also going to be a shot I have a feeling I’m going to get the next few years… 🙂  Colby and Cale going head to head… already looking forward to next year’s Carson Douglas game! 🙂

Hindsight is always 20-20 and this photo, to me, shows a very confident Tiger team walking onto the field before the game…... and very quickly we had this…… so, “photographically” this photo is missing something, right?  Where’s the ball?  That’s the point.  Logan, #20 stripped the ball from Conner Peterson which set up Carson’s first touchdown early in the first quarter.  The follow on shots in the Carson gallery show the ball bouncing around behind them…

Then Nolting and the Tiger Offense went to work…… and Colby ran for a touchdown…
… and more game action… a tough stop by the Carson Defense…… and Dusty Fisher making a catch late in the 4th to help set up the game winning field goal…

How did they know they’d need this sign? 🙂  They were right!  Here’s the Douglas crowd after the game winning field goal.Good Luck to Douglas next week as they travel to Reed to play in the first round of the playoffs!

To the Seniors of both teams.  Thank you fellas for another fun year. I know I’ll be seeing some of you again on the basketball court and some on the baseball field but I just wanted to wish you all the very best of luck.  When you come out and play hard and compete it makes my job a lot more fun, I thank you for that! Good Luck Fellas!

Here is the shot by Peter Read Miller, Sports Illustrated that I “copied” for mine above… As he states, “A fisheye lens isn’t something you can use every day, but it’s a great creative challenge to come up with ideas for situations when you can use it. In this case the combination of a cool piece of gear, a majestic setting and a cooperative team combined to allow me to make an interesting and more importantly a different picture.”

Peter Read Miller, Sports Illustrated

Coin toss of the Dallas Cowboys during the Cowboys 24-23 preseason win over the Denver Broncos at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Aug. 11, 2011.

2012 Carson High Volleyball vs. Wooster… Senior Night…

Just a quick post tonight… it’s a VERY busy week… still three games to go in the next two days… five games tonight, three volleyball and two soccer… I’m not working this being at two places at the same time out very well! 🙂

It was Senior night for the Volleyball and Boys Soccer teams tonight… check out the galleries for the images… I’ve just got two photos for tonight to post… one because it’s how we started the season with these two…… and one just because I like it… 🙂

2012 Carson High Girls Soccer vs. Douglas… Senior Night

Tonight ended the regular season for Carson and Douglas Girls Soccer programs, thus it was senior night at Carson High… The Senior Senators also made a point during the half time ceremony to recognize the Douglas Seniors, I know you all play club together and know each other well but that’s very classy ladies, well done.

The Carson Supporters were out… “Take a picture, take a picture…” 🙂

… and onto the game… 🙂

McKenna is going to be a marked player for the next few years up top for Douglas!It’s been fun seeing these two go at it over the years…

Rivals or not, friends or not, this game started to get a little chippy in the midfield as Douglas started putting the game away…

We should see both teams go pretty deep into the Regional Championships next week… I believe both will host a first round game on Tuesday October 30th at 6:00PM.  Click HERE for the NIAA Bracket.

I wish both teams the very best through the playoffs!  It’s a pleasure covering your games, thank you ladies!

2012 Carson High Soccer vs. Wooster

All the fall sports seasons are wrapping up… only one more week of regular season left… so today was the last day of Saturday “regular schedule” games!  So I got out and tried to take advantage of the sunshine…

The boys varsity game was known to be a battle… there were two red cards in the last meeting… and this one although got a little chippy… it stayed pretty clean… (here comes that proverbial but…)  BUT… there were three red cards and at least one Carson Senior will miss Senior Night on Tuesday (and his last game against rival Douglas…)… but the games must go on!

On to the images!

To give you a little reference… Zach is known to be one of the best defenders in the North State… I would say 99 times out of 100 you would expect to see these rolls reversed… this just shows the intensity of this game! Having played most of my soccer career in the center back position… you just don’t typically see a forward grabbing and fighting with defender like this… 🙂 The boys game ended 2-1 Carson.Francisco avoiding a slide down the far side of the field…… and Christian “flying” through the midfield…The girls played too!  Carson is atop the Sierra League and took an easy win today.

I’ve built up quite a few of these “flying” photos this season… they’re kinda fun!

Be sure to check out more in the Carson High Athletics gallery!Some Girls JV action too!

2012 Carson High Football vs. Bishop Manogue…

Carson hosted Bishop Manogue tonight… what started out as a battle between the 20 yard marks ended with Manogue going ahead 21-14 with about a minute and a half left… Carson drove the distance, passed to the endzone on 4th down… and yellow flag… offensive pass interference… with 30 seconds left on the clock.

I have said it a lot of times here that I don’t understand this game very well, the rules particularly… but this is the second game I’ve seen this year that has been decided by the officials and not by the players on the field.  No question, if there was an infraction it should be called… but…

Overall, it was a good game… tough battles back and forth… in the end it was Manogue… I believe this moves them into second place in the Sierra league behind Galena… Galena clinched the Sierra League championship tonight with a win over Damonte.  Next week’s Carson vs. Douglas game will determine who stays home for the playoffs… winner takes 4th and heads off to either Spanish Springs or Reed… YIKES!

So let’s get to the action!  Got some fun stuff tonight!

Before the game entering the field…When the play comes too close and you’re committed with the long lens, gotta do something!  These are great because you can see right in that face mask!This run by Nevin set up the pass play that was called offensive pass interference…… and I can’t leave out some of the cool shots I got of Bishop Manogue… first a punt return…… and the pass that set up the ending drive…… which connected with the catch… 🙂

2012 Carson High Volleyball… vs. Spanish Springs

The season is winding down, just a few more matches to go… tonight wasn’t such a good result for the Senators…  But there here’s some of the action from the evening! 🙂

Check out more at the Carson High link on the side…

Getting better at these!  One from a senior…

And one from a Freshman (on the varsity team…!)

And like the last soccer posting… I’m adding a JV photo in the mix today… Just liked the action… 🙂