Ross Gardner's goal in the 65th minute of Saturday's matchup at South Tahoe propelled the Douglas boys' soccer team to an upset 1-0 win over the No. 2 Vikings.
The win marked the first for the Tigers against South Tahoe in six years, dating back to Sept. 26, 2001 when Douglas topped the Vikings 3-1 at the Lake.
Since then, South Tahoe had gone 13-0 against the Tigers until Saturday.
"This was a huge win for us," Douglas coach Milko Vasquez said. "We hadn't beaten Tahoe in a long time, so the guys were really up for this one."
Gardner's goal came after a wild flurry of events late in the game.
Douglas' Dustin Goldade was fouled outside of the box, setting up a free kick that the Vikings were able to deflect across the baseline.
Brian Jaggard took the corner for Douglas and Jeff Crozier sent a header off the kick toward the goal. A Viking defender got in the way of the shot, but Gardner pounced on it and sent it home for the lead.
Douglas had a huge game from its defense, starting with goalkeeper Ivan Gonzalez, who made a total of eight saves in the game, four of which were from point-blank range.
The Tiger backline of Geoff Rahe, Eddie Vega, Jose Alcaraz, Ray Kaffer and Brian Randall came up big as well, although Vega had to leave midway through the second half with a hamstring pull.
Vasquez said Robbie Forest, Christian Salazar, Andrew Andraski, Jaggard and Kyle Gardner all had a big part in the win as well.
"It was a complete team effort," Vasquez said. "Everyone played with a lot of heart and did what they could.
"We maintained our composure throughout and just kept ourselves in it. It was an up-and-down game, and it was a lot of fun to watch."
Douglas improved to 11-2 on the year overall and 5-1 in league play. The Tigers won't get much time to recover as they will take on No. 3 Carson Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Carson City.
