Matched up against a physical Reno squad, the Douglas boys' soccer team didn't miss a beat as it took a 2-1 victory over the Huskies Wednesday night in the program's first game at Keith "Duke" Roman Field.
Playing under the lights with a larger-than-normal crowd in the stands, the Tigers struck quickly as Eddie Vega played a nice ball from the near post back to Jeff Crozier, who sent a lofting shot into the corner of the net in the fourth minute.
Douglas carried the lead, and most of the possession battle for the next 24 minutes before Oscar Gonzalez made a dump pass across to Vega, who slipped in behind the defense. Vega tapped the ball once to beat the Reno keeper and put it into the net on his second touch for a 2-0 lead.
The teams battled back and forth for the rest of the game on the narrow pitch marked out on the artificial turf but Reno got on the board late in the second half on a slight defensive breakdown in the 59th minute.
Douglas carried the lead, and most of the possession battle for the next 24 minutes before Oscar Gonzalez made a dump pass across to Vega, who slipped in behind the defense. Vega tapped the ball once to beat the Reno keeper and put it into the net on his second touch for a 2-0 lead.
The teams battled back and forth for the rest of the game on the narrow pitch marked out on the artificial turf but Reno got on the board late in the second half on a slight defensive breakdown in the 59th minute.
Douglas held on, though, and captured the win despite a very physical game that saw a wealth of yellow cards on both sides and one red card to Reno.
Defenslvely, Kyle Gardner, Brian Randall, Austin Shick stood out for the Tigers while Robbie Forest and Andrew Andraski made a number of nice runs during the game.
Sophomore Edgar Arceo put a couple of close shots on net but just missed out on a goal of his own.
Ivan Gonzalez had a couple of big saves in the first half and Jose Alcaraz assumed control of the net in the second, making a couple of saves of his own.
Douglas improved to 8-2 overall on the year and 2-1 in Sierra League play.
