Douglas girls soccer comes from 2-0 down to beat Reno

MINDEN - In 13 games this season, the Douglas High girls soccer team has only trailed twice at halftime. The first time was against Carson nearly a month ago. The Tigers ended up losing the game 1-0.

The second time was on Tuesday against Reno as the Huskies led 2-1 at the break, even though the Tigers dominated most of the half.

"It was probably some the best soccer we've played all season but we still found ourselves two goals down," Douglas coach Fred Schmidt said.

But in the second half, Jessica Girdner and Andrea Chaney each scored goals to complete the Tiger comeback as they beat the Huskies 3-2.

"At the start of the season, we got up on good teams like Reed and Galena but ended up losing," Schmidt said. "Now we've shown that we can get behind on a good team and come back and win, so that's good."

After starting the season 4-3, Douglas has now reeled off six straight wins and is in second place behind Carson in the Sierra League standings with a 10-3 record.

"Were in pretty good shape," Schmidt said. "The top two seeds have home field advantage in the first game of the 4A playoffs and hopefully, we'll stay in second."

Although the game turned out in Schmidt's favor, he was still disappointed about how his team responded after Reno went up 1-0.

"The only bad part of the game for us was that we got scored on and the girls let down," Schmidt said. "Then Reno took over the game for about the next 10 minutes and scored on us again."

But in the 32nd minute, just two minutes after Reno went up 2-0, Douglas forward Abby Aldrich scored off a nice pass from Amber Gwinn, which sent the Tigers into halftime down 2-1.

"That (Reno's second goal) really woke us up," Schmidt said. "And it also brought out the team's true character."

Mid-way through the second half, Kali Schmidt was fouled outside Reno's penalty box and was awarded a free kick. After the penalty, Schmidt then fired a hard shot that the Husky goalie couldn't handle and Jessica Girdner followed up the shot and scored to make it 2-2.

"We talked about that at half-time," coach Schmidt said. "I told them don't let up because in the first half, there were a couple of times that we didn't follow our shots. Girdner just made a heads up play and popped it right in."

Then 10 minutes later, Andrea Chaney and Tracey Hawk connected for the Tigers third goal. Hawks beat two Husky defenders down the sideline and then slotted a ball across Reno's goal mouth to a wide-open Chaney, who easily scored to finish the scoring at 3-2.

Six different Douglas players contributed in the win, which is indicative of how the Tigers season.

"That's what's been happening all year long," coach Schmidt said. "We don't have any record goal scorers this season and we don't care about who gets the goals."