Bad weather has plagued Douglas football playoff games at home for the last five years.
Rain, mud, snow, fog. You name it, the Tigers have had it.
Friday night, though, the only storm in town came in the form of Reed High School's potent offense.
The Raiders rolled up 486 yards of total offense, 343 through the air, in handing the Tigers a 43-6 defeat at Keith "Duke" Roman Field in the first round of the Northern 4A Regional playoffs.
"We had a great year, but the wheels kind of came off tonight," Douglas coach Mike Rippee said. "Reed is a good football team. Things just didn't go our way tonight."
After forcing an early Douglas punt, the Raiders marched 90 yards on a nine-play scoring drive capped by a seven-yard touchdown pass from Zack Parker to Casey Yocum for a 6-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
Douglas then put together a promising drive, going 38 yards on 11 plays before turning it over on downs at the Reed 35.
The Raiders turned around and completed two big passes to move to the Douglas 11 before Larry Cooper took the ball up the middle for the score and the 12-0 lead.
Douglas went three-and-out on its next possession and Reed answered with another scoring drive " this one culminating with a 37-yard touchdown pass from Parker to Tyler Olivero. Parker ran the ball in for the two-point conversion and the 20-0 lead.
It was a combination of everything happening at the right time for Reed and everything happening seemingly at the wrong time for Douglas.
"It was kind of the same thing as the first time we saw them this season (a game Reed won 38-15)," Rippee said. "We got behind early and that took us out of what we do best.
"Those things happen. I told the kids there's nothing to be ashamed of. They played hard, they gave it all they had. If you get beat, that's just the way it goes."
Parker finished with 324 yards in the air and three touchdown passes on 19 completions and rushed for another score. He had 199 yards passing by the end of the first half.
John VonSchimmelman led Reed on the ground with 114 yards on 16 carries.
After Reed got up 20-0, Douglas started pulling a few trick plays out in the hopes of sparking the offense.
On third-and-8 at the Reed 22, quarterback Tim Rudnick completed a five-yard pass to Drew Hughes, who then lateralled the ball to Brock Peterson, who was sweeping toward the sideline. Peterson took it another 23 yards to take the Tigers to the 45-yard line, but the drive sputtered there.
The Tiger defense came up with its first big stop of the game on the ensuing drive, bringing Parker down for a one-yard loss on fourth-and-1 from the Douglas 23.
Reed, however, got the ball back three plays later on an interception by Brad Wilson.
The Raiders settled for a 39-yard field goal on that drive to take a 23-0 lead.
Douglas moved the ball down to the Raider 35 on three passes and a Peterson run on the next drive, but Rudnick's pass attempt into the corner of the end zone was intercepted again by Wilson with just under three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Tiger defense came out in a 3-5 look on defense, however, and immediately began causing fits for the Raiders.
"We threw a little twist at them there," Rippee said. "We started putting a little more pressure to get things going.
Tony Ferris sacked Parker for a 10-yard loss and on the next play, the pressure from up front cleared Zack McFadden to intercept a Parker pass.
McFadden returned the ball into the end zone from 40 yards out, but the apparent touchdown was called back on a blocking in the back penalty.
Douglas kept the ball, but ran out of time.
"Things started working for us, but we couldn't put it in the end zone," Rippee said. "It's not because we didn't try, it's just things didn't go well. That's hard to deal with, but you deal with it."
Douglas got on the board in the fourth quarter on a pretty eight-yard pass and catch between Rudnick and McFadden with 8:43 remaining in the game.
McFadden made an over-the-shoulder catch in the corner of the end zone on the play and dragged one foot in-bounds to get the score.
Douglas appeared to have scored two plays earlier on an eight-yard run from Peterson, but that too was called back on a penalty.
Peterson finished with 124 yards rushing on 28 carries and had three catches for 43 yards. Rudnick threw for 109 yards and McFadden had three catches for 24 yards.
Hughes also finished with three catches, his total coming to 20.
Brandon Lowrance had 48 yards on the ground.
Lowrance also finished with a sack defensively, as did Forrest Scott.
Douglas finished its season at 8-3 overall and 6-1 in Sierra League play.
"I'm proud of these kids," Rippee said. "They did everything we asked them to do this year and I worked these guys as hard as I've ever worked anybody. They gave it all they had. It just didn't work out tonight."
