It may have started off a little ugly for the Tigers, but in the end they managed to haul in a 19-12 victory over archrival Carson Saturday afternoon at Bishop Manogue High School in Reno, marking coach Mike Rippee's 100th career victory.
School administrators made a special presentation of the game ball to Rippee after the win, but Rippee was hesitant to accept.
"This isn't about me," he said. "It's about the kids. They're the ones who won this game. That was nice, but this really isn't about me."
One thing it certainly was about, however, was the arrival of the Douglas ground game, which had been steady through its first three games but still something short of what the Tigers have gotten used to over the last several seasons.
Douglas rolled up 201 yards on the ground, including 88 and a touchdown from Reese Kizer and 54 from Tyler Tinstman in the win while the Tiger defense clamped down to allow just 53 yards rushing and 112 yards through the air, 54 of which came on the Senators' first three drives.
"We finally figured things out," Rippee said. "We made some mistakes eary on, but the kids were able to hang in and figure out a way to win this thing.
"You have to give a lot of credit to Carson. They came out ready to play and (Carson coach) Shane Quilling had them coached up and ready to go."
Carson nearly ran away with the game early on.
Tinstman fumbled the ball on the Tigers' first drive at the Douglas 32 and two plays later, Carson quarterback Mitch Hammond found Will Hulbert wide open in the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown pass. Hulbert made a stunning one-handed catch and fell into the end zone for the score.
The teams swapped possessions and Carson drove to the Douglas seven, highlighted by another Hulbert catch for 24 yards, before turning it over on downs.
Kizer fumbled two plays later, giving the Senators the ball at the 8-yard line.
Hammon found Johnny Hazeltine across the middlefor a touchdown on the next play.
The Senators attempted a bunt kick on the ensuing kickoff, but Douglas managed to recover.
The Tigers followed with their first extended drive of the game, going 53 yards in six plays before David Laird punched in the scored on a quarterback keeper from the 1-yard line with 11 seconds left in the first quarter.
Kizer keyed the drive with an 18-yard catch on a screen pass and followed with an 18-yard rumble up the middle.
From that point on, the Douglas defense put the clamps on, allowing just one more catch from Hulbert, one that went for a loss of a yard, and just 58 yards through the air over the final three quarters.
Hulbert actually had what would have been a 34-yard touchdown reception later in the second quarter, making a nice diving catch in the end zone, but that play was called back on a holding penalty and the Tigers' stopped the Senators on the next two plays.
"We made a couple adjustments and the kids closed up the coverage on those passes over the middle," Rippee said. "I think we started getting some good pressure on the quarterback too. We didn't give him time to find his receivers and that affected their game a lot."
Douglas got two sacks from Sean Molina and one from Jeff Nady in the game. Brent Koontz had a sack, an interception and a fumble recovery and Cole Hamzik picked off a pass in the second half.
Offensively for Douglas, Laird passed for 145 yards on eight completions, including a 24-yard go-ahead touchdown to Kevin Emm just before halftime.
Kyle Heidt had two catches for 44 yards, Parker Fellows had two catches for 31 yards, Emm had two for 30 and Niko Saladis had one for 22.
Kizer scored on a 37-yard run off tackle in the third quarter for the game's final points, but went down on the next drive with a bad ankle sprain.
Douglas managed to run out the clock using four other ball carriers, led by Tinstman, Will Sheerin (three carries, 16 yards), Ryan Pruitt (2-24) and Brandon Lawrence (2-7).
The offensive line was also impressive, not allowing any sacks in the game and opening up big holes for the Tiger backs. The line was led by Emm, Keith Lowe, Curtis Hartzell, Mike Colyer, Kevin Rogers and Trevor McCarthy.
Carson had a chance to tie the game up late after Heidt was called for offensive pass intereference in the end zone on a fourth-and-5 at the Tiger 28.
Carson got the ball at their own 44 with 5:22 remaining and advanced across the 50 with a six-yard scramble by Hammond and a 3-yard gain from Travis Lamborn.
Lamborn gained another three yards on the next play, but coughed the ball up where Douglas' Koontz was there to recover.
Douglas ran out the clock from there on 10 consecutive carries.
For the game, Lamborn had 29 yards on 15 carries, Hulbert had 20 yards on three carries and Robbie Bozin had 11 yards on three carries.
Hammond finished with 112 yards passing on 11 completions and 18 attempts.
Douglas improved to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in Sierra League play while Carson dropped to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in league play.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
