Both the Bishop Manogue and Douglas football teams saw some familiar storylines come up Saturday afternoon.
For Manogue, it was another case of a balanced team victory as the Miners rolled to a 47-13 win over the Tigers in Reno. For Douglas, unfortunately, it was a host of new injuries to impact players.
Manogue's Josh Dupree ran for 186 yards and three touchdowns and Nate Lytle ran for 152 yards and a score as the Miners put up a team total of 470 yards and six touchdowns on the ground in the blowout.
For Douglas, leading receiver Zach McFadden was carried off the field in the second quarter with an injury to his lower left leg, nose guard/offensive guard Ryan Moglich suffered a knee injury, kicker Niko Vasquez injured his shoulder after making a tackle on a late kickoff and defensive tackle Robbie O'Dell came out after the first quarter complaining of dizziness.
"This is where character really comes in to play," Douglas coach Mike Rippee said, speaking about how his team has to regroup for the final two weeks of the regular season. "This is the first big bump in the road all year long.
"We got beat by Vegas to open the year, but we saw some good things in that.
"Today there is not much redeeming value in getting beat 47-13. We really got handled, the score wasn't really indicative of how bad they beat us."
The Miners, who improved to 5-0 in Sierra League play and now hold the clear advantage in the race for the league title, rolled up 556 yards of total offense and never really let the Tiger offense settle into a rhythm. The game came down to play in the trenches, and the Miners offensive and defensive lines clearly came out on top.
By halftime, Manogue had outgained Douglas 282 to 41 on the ground.
"They controlled us from the get-go on both sides of the ball," Rippee said. "We had kids out there playing hard, but the bottom line is we didn't execute and do what we had to do. Offensively, you have to be able to run the ball. You can't throw three out of four times and expect to beat good teams.
"You have to run the ball and stop the run. We did neither."
On the positive side, Douglas quarterback Tim Rudnick tied the school mark for touchdown passes in a season (17) during the second quarter when Tanner Thomas slipped behind the Miner defense and hauled in a pass before sprinting in for a 67-yard touchdown.
Rudnick finished with 275 yards passing and a pair of interceptions. He moved into second place on the school career passing yardage list and is within 67 yards of Luke Rippee's single-season passing record.
Thomas' touchdown cut Manogue's lead to 21-7 and breathed life into the Tigers.
The Miners grabbed the momentum right back, however, with a nine-play, 80-yard drive that resulted in a four-yard touchdown run from Dupree. The back-breaker of the drive, and perhaps the game, came on second-and-6 from the Douglas 46 when Miner quarterback Pat Riggs fumbled a snap, picked it up and scrambled 23 yards on a broken play.
"We just didn't take care of the little things," Rippee said. "The ball is on the ground there and we can't get to it. You have to make some plays like that to beat teams like this."
Douglas came up with a stop on Manogue's first drive of the game, but Miner punter Alex McCarty got a good bounce deep in Tiger territory for a 49-yard punt that rolled out at the 4-yard line.
Manogue later got the ball back at the Douglas 42 after an intercepted fake punt attempt and Dupree took the first play 42 yards for a score.
After a Riggs two-yard run made it 14-0, Douglas forced the Miners to punt on their next possession, only to see this one roll dead at the 2-yard line.
"That was another one of those things," Rippee said. "We work on catching the ball in the air, but those punts back us up against the goal line and it is tough to get things going. Field position was big there early on."
Riggs finished the game with 74 yards passing and 95 yards and two touchdowns on the ground for the Miners.
Barron Santiago led the Tigers on the ground with 47 rushing yards while Thomas had five catches for 108 yards. Austin Neddenreip, who was called up from junior varsity two weeks ago, had a breakout game with five catches for 48 yards, Eric Guzman had two catches for 45 yards and McFadden, Luis-Pina Duarte, Conner Dillon, Danny King and Matt Garren each had one catch. Nico Barker had an interception defensively and a one-yard touchdown run to account for the rest of Douglas' scoring.
Douglas has a quick turnaround this week and will take on South Tahoe on Thursday in Minden.
"It's a test of character," Rippee said. "We've got more guys down, but what are you doing to do? Feel sorry for ourselves? I don't think South Tahoe will feel sorry for us. We just have to step up and rise to this challenge."
