Facing up against one of the more potent offenses in the region, the Douglas football was up to the test.
And then some.
The Tiger defense shut out North Valleys, running its consecutive scoreless quarter total to 11 and picking off five passes along the way, and the offense found ways to control the clock and put enough points on the board to pick up a 14-0 win in Reno Friday night.
"We knew they had the ability to play this way" Douglas coach Mike Rippee said. "They did great, just great.
"The defense played hard, very, very hard. We bent a little bit, but we came up with some big plays when we had to."
North Valleys put up 128 rushing yards and 46 yards in the air in the first half with its misdirection offense, primarily on sweeps from speedy back Archie Kovich (15 carries, 93 yards in the game).
The Tigers made several adjustments at halftime, primarily in taking away the Panthers' trap play and buttoned down the North Valleys' ground game to just 20 yards for the rest of the game.
To go on top of that, Douglas ended all but three of the Panthers' drives with an interception, with the remaining three ending on a punt, the clock expiring on the first half and a turnover on downs on the final drive of the game.
In the meantime, Cole Hamzik picked off two passes and Niko Saladis, Brock Peterson and Ryan Pruitt each picked off one.
Anthony Alvitre recorded his sixth sack of the season, this one for a loss of 13 yards, and Jeff Nady had his fourth sack. Both came on the Panthers' final drive of the game.
For its part, the Tiger offense was efficient, not turning the ball over or making any dire mistakes and put points on the board when it needed to.
After Douglas stuffed the Panthers on a three-and-out to open the game, the Tiger followed with an 11-play, 65-yard drive that culminated in a two-yard run from Tyler Tinstman for the early 7-0 lead.
That held through the fourth quarter when the Tigers got stopped on a third-and-14 on their own 14 with 2:21 left in the game.
Douglas had been stopped for losses of six yards on the previous two plays and appeared to be ready for a pass play.
Tinstman took the handoff on a draw play, however, and blasted through a big hole opened up in the middle by the offensive line. He juked the Panther linebacker with a nifty stutter step and rocketed to the sideline for an 86-yard touchdown, marking the Tigers' longest play from scrimmage this season.
"Tyler's run was huge," Rippee said. "I can't tell you how big it was. It was a great run by Tyler, a great call from coach (Ernie) Monfilletto and just a great hole opened up by the line. That gave us some breathing room."
Aside from the two scoring drives, the Tigers were exceptional in managing the clock, running nearly seven minutes off on the opening drive of the second half - a 13-play jaunt that died at the North Valleys' 41.
"That was control ball," Rippee said. "We didn't get any points off it, but that was big. The offense came out and played a great game. They did what we asked them to do."
Quarterback David Laird had his most efficient game of the year, completing 12 of 16 passes for 115 yards to seven different receivers.
Steven Passalacqua led the Tiger receivers with four catches for 22 yards.
Tinstman finished the game with 20 carries for 146 yards and one catch for nine yards.
The offensive line of Mike Colyer, Trevor McCarthy, Keith Lowe, Kevin Rogers, Curtis Hartzell, Brent Koontz and Kevin Emm led the way to 164 yards for the Douglas ground game. They also didn't allowing any sacks.
Douglas improved to 4-2 overall and 3-0 in Sierra League with the win.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
