They're coming into the home stretch battered and bruised, but the Douglas boys' soccer team's playoff hopes are still very much alive.
The Tigers stayed in the driver's seat for the Sierra League No. 4 seed with a come-from behind 2-1 victory at Hug Wednesday afternoon.
"It was a pretty chaotic game in terms of ball possession," Douglas coach Milko Vasquez said. "We didn't do well on their field.
"But you have to give the kids credit for stepping up and finding a way to win."
Hug opened up the scoring in the 30th minute when they took advantage of a misplayed pass by a Douglas defender, scoring on their only shot of the first half.
The Hawks held that lead through the first half, but Douglas came back four minutes into the second when Oscar Gonzalez played a corner kick into the middle, where Mike Gransbery was waiting to deflect it in for his 28th goal this season and 59th of his career.
"That goal gave us the momentum," Vasquez said. "We started getting more confident and more patient."
Michael Barnes scored the game-winner, his 14th goal of the season, in the 65th minute after trading a series of give-and-go passes with Gransbery in the penalty box.
"We just held on after that," Vasquez said.
Douglas is still missing the bulk of its starting lineup on defense, all out due to assorted injuries, and Vasquez has had to literally reshuffle his lineup every game for the last two weeks to recover.
Standout midfielder Ross Gardner was switched to sweeper Tuesday, and Vasquez said he played well there.
"Hopefully he can get acclimated to that position, because we may need him as the season rolls on," Vasquez said. "We need to be able to heal up from our injuries."
Vasquez said Edgar Arceo played well on defense and Eddie Vega and Andrew Andraski turned in some quality minutes in the middle.
Goalie Jose Alcaraz had three saves.
The Tigers (13-5-1, 7-5) have two remaining games, hosting Reno Saturday and traveling to Wooster Monday. They need a win or a Wooster loss to clinch.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
