For the past two seasons, the group of athletes playing on the 2006 Douglas Pop Warner Pee Wee football team have been unbeatable.
More than that, they've been next to impenetrable defensively.
Not much changed Saturday at the Snow Bowl championship as the Tigers beat the Sparks Wolfpack 21-6 in Sparks.
It marked the second consecutive Snow Bowl victory for this group of Tigers, which won last year as junior pee wees.
As it was, the Snow Bowl lived up to its name.
"The weather was awful," Douglas coach Clay Peterson said. "It was windy, rainy, snowy, anything you can imagine. But the guys rose to the test."
The six points Sparks scored was the first touchdown the Tigers had given up in 18 full games played in the state of Nevada.
Even with that, the Douglas defense still didn't break as the touchdown was scored on a kick return.
"It was bound to happen eventually," Peterson said. "Of course, we wanted to keep that scoreless streak going, but we were proud we were able to keep it up as long as we could."
The Tiger defense turned in another dominating performance, getting interceptions from Michael Hoyt and Michael Nolting and fumble recoveries from Jack Crawford and Conner Peterson.
Peterson, Nolting and Colton McKone scored the Tigers' touchdowns.
Douglas advances to play the Las Vegas Green Machine in the state championship at Damonte Ranch High School Nov. 25 at 11 a.m.
Douglas' roster includes Nolting, Peterson, Crawford, Hoyt, McKone, Isaac Keway, JP Garner, Jack Gooding, Adam Munoz, Dusty Fisher, Cody Hayes, Brett Ferrari, Sullivan Cauley, Joshua Valdez, EJ Rose, Luke Nagey, Jimmy King, Keith Becker, Andew Martinez, Jason Connolly, Jacob Connolly, Dylan Wilson, Jesse Urteaga Jr., Kurtis Dimitri, Jackson Ketron, Geordan Gutierrez, Christopher Eshe, Joseph White, Connor Greth, Steven Lehman-Werth, Jimmie Bryan, Steven Hiatt, Timmy Jacobsen and Lee Rusie.
Coaches are Clay Peterson, John Fisher, Brad Hoyt, Jesse McKone, Mark Munoz, Andy Nolting, Craig Crawford and Jesse Urteaga. Nan Heathman was the team manager and Brock Peterson, Brandon Lowrance and Geo Gutierrez all served as junior coaches.
MITEY MITES
The Douglas Mitey Mites finished their season by pounding Carson Blue 20-0 in the Snow Bowl last Saturday.
Battling in cold, rain, snow and heavy winds didn't slow this Tiger team down a bit.
The Tigers kicked off to open the game with swarming coverage and hard hitting to set the tone. Carson's opening possession went three and out, with the Tiger defense not only stopping them, but also forcing negative yardage each play.
The Tiger offense dominated the entire game.
Quarterback Abreu had two scores on bootlegs and running back Reid took a sweep to the house. Running back Lippincott powered in two extra points. Tough runs were also made by Sullivan and Tierney. Tight ends Gervais and Werth anchored the ends, and along with the line rotation of Loshbough, Borino, Graham, Smithen, Valenzuela, Stulac, Hinks, Hargreaves, Walker, Nolting, Bolanos and Manoukian, these blockers dominated to control the line of scrimmage and open holes all game in what was probably their best effort of the season.
The Tiger defense was relentless, forcing many tackles for a loss.
Linebackers Gervais, Hansen, Miller, Loshbough and Meierdierck, along with defensive backs Lippincott, Simons and Sullivan, not only shut down the run, but also thwarted Carson's passing attack.
Lippincott had a nice interception. Defensive ends Abreu, Reid, Hansen and Lippincott shut down the outside, while defensive lineman Ahart, Rusler, Swayne, Borino, Morris, Reed, Clark, Reid, Oleshak and McAlester plugged the middle, making huge plays in the Carson backfield all game.
The Tiger special teams once again put the offense in great field position and stopped Carson with sure, aggressive tackling.
The Tigers ran their record to 8-2 and will take on the Sparks Wolfpack next week.
