Football: Douglas, Carson renew rivalry

While the Carson football team still owns the advantage in the all-time series, Douglas has taken control of it over the last four years.

The schools will renew their rivalry for the 58th time Saturday afternoon with a noon kickoff at Bishop Manogue High School in south Reno.

The four-game win streak is the longest in the series since the Senators rattled off six wins between 1982 and 1987.

Carson is coming off a 26-0 loss to No. 4 Manogue and Douglas is coming off a 34-31 near miss in overtime against No. 1 McQueen.

Douglas' defense has taken large strides with every week over the first three games and was nothing short of dominant against the larger McQueen offensive line during the second half last week.

The defense has forced eight takeways and scored two touchdowns in the last two weeks, getting two interceptions apiece from Sean Peralta and Brent Koontz and getting another from Niko Saladis.

Saladis, Anthony Alvitre and Phil Mannelly have all forced fumbles, Nate Whalin blocked a punt and Koontz and Sean Molina have each scored.

Against McQueen, Douglas allowed just 23 total yards to the Lancers in the third quarter and allowed just seven yards rushing for the entire game the week prior against Spanish Springs.

The Tigers also got a boost last week from the return of starting all-league linebacker Ryan Pruitt.

Douglas' imposing defensive line of Whalin, Molina, Alvitre, Jeff Nady and Mannelly has been backed up nicely by the linebacking crew of Koontz, Pruitt and Brock Peterson.

The defensive backfield of Saladis, Peralta and Cole Hamzik also did an admirable job of adjusting to McQueen's bigger receivers last week to clamp down toward the end.

Offensively, Reese Kizer came into his own last week, rushing for 146 yards and a touchdown to improve his season total to 273 yards on 70 carries. He also kicked a 20-yard field goal in the loss.

Douglas' offensive line of Mike Colyer, Keith Lowe, Trevor McCarthy, Forrest Scott, Jordan Volk, Luke Wartgow, Curtis Hartzell, Cody Hannah, Kevin Rogers and Ben Johnson has been steadily improving and has helped Douglas ball carriers pile up 442 yards on the ground this season, good enough for a 4.3-yards-per-carry average.

They also didn't allow any sacks last week against the big Lancer defensive line. Through three games, they've only allowed one sack, which came against Spanish Springs.

Carson (1-2) will be led by running back Travis Lamborn and quarterback Mitch Hammond.

Kyle Banko, the team's star running back, suffered a knee injury last week against Manogue.

Lamborn had 69 yards on eight carries against Manogue and Hammond passed for 60 yards in the game.

This will be the Sierra League opener for both teams.

Carson leads the all-time series 38-17-2, but Douglas five of the last seven meetings.

JV

The Douglas junior varsity squad lost to McQueen 59-29 last week.

Nico Barker carried the ball 11 tiems for 97 yards and a touchdown and Tim Rudnick passed for 85 yards and a 65-yard touchdown pass to Zach McFadden.

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