Football: Douglas to take on No. 1 McQueen

It will be the Douglas football team's home-away-from-home-opener Saturday afternoon against top-ranked McQueen Saturday at Manogue High School.

What was originally scheduled to be the Tigers' home-opener in their new $2-million football stadium will instead be at a neutral site due to delays with Sportexe, the company contracted to install artificial turf at Keith "Duke" Roman Field.

Even though the game will still be in Reno, it will be a welcome shift for the Tigers from the windy hills of Northwest Reno where the Lancers have roughed up Douglas to the tune of 104-28 during the schools' last three meetings.

McQueen, currently ranked No. 1 in the Sierra Nevada Sports Media Rankings, is coming off a 33-14 season-opening win against North Valleys.

Douglas picked up its first win of the year last week with a 19-7 win over Spanish Springs highlighted by an impressive showing by the Tiger defense.

The game will pose an interesting matchup as both squads are featuring relatively new faces at most of the key skill positions.

It can't go without mention that the Douglas junior varsity squad, led by this season's varsity starting quarterback David Laird, running back Brock Peterson and receiver Kyle Heidt, beat McQueen in Reno last season 35-15.

It was only the second win at any level for the Tigers over the Lancers in the last 15 years. The Douglas freshman squad topped McQueen in 1994.

Douglas has never beaten McQueen at the varsity level.

Defensively, Douglas could not have had a better outing last week against Spanish Springs.

The Tigers allowed just seven yards on the ground and 89 yards through the air, 49 of which came on the final drive of the game against the Tigers' second-team defense.

Douglas is loaded with talent on the front line with ends Nate Whalin and Phil Mannelly, tackles Jeff Nady and Sean Molina and nose guard Anthony Alvitre making up one of the largest, and quickest, defensive fronts in the region.

Linebackers Brent Koontz, Peterson, Reese Kizer and Brandon Lawrence have done an impressive job through two games and defensive backs Sean Peralta, Cole Hamzik and Niko Saladis have been solid with Peralta picking off two passes last week.

McQueen outgained North Valleys 340-231 in its season-opener last week, holding the Panthers to 57 yards on the ground.

Running back/defensive end Kyle Stewart scored three touchdowns last week, two on pass receptions from quarterback Brian Barnett and the other on defense.

Douglas, on the other hand, gained 276 yards against Spanish Springs, 142 of which came on the ground.

Kizer has established himself as the Tigers' workhorse back, having carried the ball 40 times for 127 yards and two touchdowns through the first two games.

Tyler Tinstman has been used as a change-of-pace back and has made the most of it, averaging four yards a carry on 15 tries.

Perhaps the most promising development last week was the arrival of the Tigers' passing game.

The team moved away from trying to eat up large chunks of yardage on long pass attempts, like it did against Reed, and instead worked the ball underneath and in the flat, resulting in a 10 of 19 performance for Laird, who has passed for 198 yards on the season.

While Heidt led the team with four catches last week, the team made use of its big tight ends - Koontz, Kevin Emm, Whalin and Nady - splitting them out and utilizing their distinct height advantage to throw off the Cougars.

As a result, Laird completed passes to six different receivers which was the most for a Tiger quarterback since Roman Davis competed passes to seven different receivers in a playoff loss in 2004.

Kickoff will be at noon Saturday at Manogue High School. Check www.recordcourier.com for updates throughout the game.

-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.