R-C Sports Notebook: Grit defined

Not to belabor the point, but I doubt I've ever seen a more balanced team effort than what the Douglas football team put together on Friday night in a snow storm against Damonte Ranch.

It wasn't so much the way in which Douglas won (which was impressive enough with the Tigers rolling up over 400 yards of offense, allowing only 200 and change on defense and pulling off a last-second goal-line stand to clinch), but more so in what they had to do and who they had to replace to get there.

You don't have to look very far to see that bad weather games have not been the Tigers' forte over the past six or seven years.

Just mention the words "mud", "fog" or even the dreaded "snow" and you'll be regaled with stories about late season storms at home.

But Friday night was different. Despite the conditions and the fact that the Tigers had key players dropping like flies throughout the game, Douglas pulled together as a team and found a way to win.

While it only added one digit to the standings, it added a metric ton of character and confidence to this team. They learned how to play through adversity of every sort and picked up an important win doing it.

It's those types of lessons that determine how far a team will go into the playoffs.

It was tough to keep track of, because frankly every time I walked by Friday night it seemed I heard Douglas trainers asking someone new "Do you know what day it is?" or "Where does it hurt?"

Wide receiver James McLaughlin is out for six weeks with a broken leg, and running back Jordan Cruz dislocated his shoulder, which appeared to be the most serious of the lot.

That six weeks ends during the second round of the regional playoffs, so time will tell whether McLaughlin's season is over yet or not.

Quarterback Tim Rudnick and running back-linebacker Johnny Pollack were both battered and bruised with noticable limps after the game. Cornerback Nico Barker came off at one point and sat out a series, but returned in time to seal the win with a last-second interception in the end zone.

Tackle Parker Robertson was already out with a knee injury, but he has targeted in next week's game against Manogue as a possible return date. Starting middle linebacker Jeff Kelly was also out with an illness, but coaches hope to have him back the next week or so.

Douglas does get an extra day to work with this week (They travel to Wooster Saturday afternoon), which will help the recovery effort, but I got the feeling after Friday's game that the remaining crew was pumped up enough to go out and play again the following morning. That could be bad news for the Colts.

Of all of the teams at Douglas High this fall, the one I've seen the least of (with the exception of girls' golf, which sometimes goes a whole year without a home tournament) is the top-ranked Tiger volleyball team.

That'll all change this week as Douglas returns to Minden for key league matches against Galena and Damonte Ranch. The Tigers go back out on the road for Wooster and Manogue the following week and close out the season at home with South Tahoe and Carson.

The interesting thing about this year's Tigers is that they have played only four matches at home. They've been on the road for the remaining 24, 23 of which they've won.

That bodes well enough for the playoffs in itself, but consider also that Douglas took on an ambitious non-league schedule this season, taking on defending regional champs Reno, Yerington and Whittell on the road.

There is little doubt that this is a statement season for the Tigers and the team is taking every opportunity to make that statement.

Coach Suzi Townsell has used the phrase "We did (or didn't) play Douglas volleyball tonight" after every single match that has been covered by a regional media organization. After nearly missing the regional title last year, this year's Tigers are taking every chance they can to be the positive definition of that term.

There's still a lot of volleyball left to be played this year, but with four home matches left this year, there are still plenty of chances to see this team play.

- Douglas quarterback Tim Rudnick moved into second place on the school's all-time list for passing touchdowns in a career with 22. He trails Luke Rippee's 39. He moved into fourth place for passing yards in a season at 1,448 and into a tie for second in passing touchdowns in a season with 14.

- Zach McFadden stands in third place on the school list for career receiving yards at 929 behind Andy McIntosh (1,816) and Gabe Hatchett (1,048). He is third in career touchdown catches (10) behind McIntosh (17) and Brady Ovard (14). He is also fourth in receptions with 56 behind McIntosh (56) and Hatchett (76).

- Freshman Tia Lyons moved herself into the chase for the girls' soccer state record for goals in a season with her five goals in the past three games. She has 18 on the year and the record, held by former Tiger standout Morgan LeFever, is 26. That leaves Lyons needing eight goals to tie and nine goals to break the record with four games remaining.

Carson's Brandi Vega tied LeFever's career record of 56 goals on Saturday with a hat trick against Damonte Ranch. If the season ended today, Lyons would be on pace for 72 goals in her career.

- The 24 rushing yards allowed by the Douglas defense against Damonte Ranch was the lowest total since the Tigers held Fallon to negative yards on the ground last September.

- Did anyone else see the Damonte Ranch assistant football coach wearing shorts during Friday night's snow storm?

- Douglas was able to answer each of Damonte's three scores with a scoring drive of its own. Two of those came less than three minutes after the prevous Mustang score. One came just 29 seconds after a Damonte touchdown.

- So dominant was Douglas' run defense against Damonte that with the ball on the four -yard line with 30 seconds to go, Damonte opted for four consecutive passes rather than try to plunge up the middle or sweep toward the corner. Granted, it was also very much a time-conserving measure, but from four yards out you have to take at least one shot on the ground, right?

- Damonte's need to conserve time was set up by a subtle coaching move from Douglas with 1:48 left. Douglas was facing a fourth and 1 on its own 20 and rather than go for it initially, the Tigers brought out their punt team. Douglas has run a number of successful short-yardage fake punts this season, and the Damonte coaching staff needed to take a time out to think about the situation. Coming back, Douglas brought its offense back on and went for the first down, which they got on a one-yard keeper by Tim Rudnick. One has to wonder how much of a difference that time out would have made once Damonte ended up with the ball.

- The Douglas football has allowed first-quarter points to only two teams this year. They have also only allowed fourth-quarter points in two games this year.

Which teams have scored either first-quarter or fourth-quarter points against the Douglas football team this year?

- Spanish Springs football 37, North Valleys 7. I thought this one would be a little closer and perhaps even in North Valleys' favor. Spanish Springs looked like the next big regional power three years ago until opposing defenses figured out their misdirection rushing offense.

The new coaching staff brought in a new offensive system the next season and it appears the Cougars are beginning to return to form.

- Hug football 43, Reno 7. This was the big one for me last week. I've been saying all along that Reno is a lot better than a lot of people think. So either I am flat out wrong or Hug is a whole lot better than I thought. Probably a combination of both.

- Wooster boys' soccer. Okay, I jumped on the bandwagon when the Colts were rolling, but losses to Douglas and Carson last week pretty much eliminated their shot at the league title.

- Elko girls' soccer. The Indians were coming into the final stretch as serious league title contenders in the High Desert, but they lost to Reed and McQueen last week. Either way, it appears the Sierra League is much more powerful this season, so the race for the High Desert League title may not end up meaning that much at all this year.

- Not so much. Douglas boys' soccer 1, Wooster 0. This has been a budding rivalry in the sport for several years, but the two teams have now settled for regular-season splits in three of the past five seasons. As soon as the Colts picked up a 4-1 win in Reno this year, I started getting a pretty good feeling that Douglas would be able to carry the Minden matchup.

If I had a vote for overall player of the year in the Northern 4A Regional football honors ballots (and I don't), this is what it would look like, based mostly on their respective performances over the last week:

1. Kyle Van Noy, McQueen; 2. Tim Rudnick, Douglas; 3. Patrick Riggs, Manogue; 4. Courtney Gardner, Hug; 5. Ray Daniels, Damonte Ranch

The top athletes, regardless of sport, at Douglas High determined by production during competition, overall value to their team, ability to perform with consistency in routine situations, performance compared to others at the same position throughout the state/region, ability to come up big in clutch situations, versatility, attitude, sportsmanship, overall athletic ability, heart, potential at the next level, and a host of other intangibles (emotional leadership, role-playing value, work ethic, etc.) This is all, of course, just my opinion.

Fall Sports

1T. Amelia Ritger, tennis

1T. Bethany Wurster, golf

3. Megan Mitchell, volleyball

4. Tim Rudnick, football

5. Tanner Thomas, football

6. Johnny Pollack, football

7. Ally Freitas, soccer

8. Tia Lyons, soccer

9. Ross Gardner, soccer

10. Taryn Williams, volleyball

If there were more spots on the list: Taylor Biaggi, cross country; Alex Laing, soccer; Jourdan Burke, volleyball; James McLaughlin, football; Shelby Louie, golf; Jessica Waggoner, volleyball; James TenBroeck, tennis; Parker Robertson, football; Zach McFadden, football; Cesarina Ceglia, girls' tennis.

We made the mistake of renting M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" over the weekend. The premise seemed interesting enough " Hundreds of thousands of people suddenly start dying on the east coast while Mark Wahlberg goes on the run with his family.

What we didn't know is that the people are dying from a widespread outbreak of varied and gruesome self-infliction.

It kind of leaves you with that same hollow and empty feeling you get after watching back-to-back-to-back-to-back presidential campaign ads.

After woefully neglecting my car for the past, I don't even know, probably eight months, I finally gave in and took it to the car wash.

Feeling pretty proud of my new clean car, I left work the next day to find that a flock of birds had dive-bombed the windshield and driver's side door.

Not that any of it mattered, because it snowed two days later.

I've been able to trace my irrational fear of the letter U back to that Sesame Street skit with Smokey Robinson singing You Really Got a Hold On Me while being manhandled by a clingy feminine-looking letter "U".

Back to my losing ways, I missed on my first five picks of the weekend and went downhill from there. It really is a guessing game every week. Anyone can beat anyone, just look at the St. Louis Rams.

I'm exercising a new strategy this week, we'll see how it works out. I'm picking against my snap reaction on every game just to see how bad my prognosticating abilities are. We'll see how it works.

You can still sign up for the weekely contest at www.recordcourier.profootball.upickem.net.

Contgratulations to the week 6 winner, Joe Brinsky.

Here are my picks for week 7:

Rams over Cowboys

Chiefs over Titans

49ers over the Giants

Ravens over Dolphins

Bills over Chargers

Saints over Panthers

Bears over Vikings

Bengals over Steelers

Lions over Texans

Browns over Redskins

Raiders over Jets

Packers over Colts

Patriots over Broncos

Seahawks over Tampa

Season record: 44-44. Record last week: 6-8. Season survivor: Out.

- The show will get exponentially more creepy when Rod Serling makes a guest appearance in this year's season premeire.

Reed, Galena and Fallon.