There's little doubt that the South Tahoe girls' soccer team is peaking at the right time.
The Vikings extended their win-streak to six Tuesday night, upsetting top-ranked Douglas 2-1 in Minden and dealing the Tigers a severe blow to their league title hopes in the process.
"We've been working really hard in the second half of the season and we are definitely peaking at the right time," South Tahoe coach Clint Lockhart said. "The girls are playing really, really well and this is definitely a big win.
"Douglas is a well-coached team, one of the top teams in the league. Being able to win here tonight just shows the hard work the girls have put in. They've really turned things on here."
The Vikings took a slightly different approach in avenging a loss to Douglas at the Lake earlier this season.
"We did some different things," Lockhart said. "We had some injuries the first time around and we were still working on our cohesiveness.
"We wanted to play a little bit more direct tonight, especially since the field here at Douglas is so small. We knew we had to go direct rather than try to play possession ball. We figured we'd need to get some goals on some counter attacks."
And that's exactly what they got.
Barely two minutes into the game, Ali Palacios broke free behind the Tiger defense on the right side of the field, received a long pass and dribbled past a Tiger defender before scoring to the far post.
Douglas answered in the 33rd minute when Jillian Brune collected a rebound to the right side off a laser shot from Alex Laing and punched it home to tie the game.
Barely even 30 seconds later, though, South Tahoe was awarded a direct kick just outside the Tiger penalty box and Erika Cook put a beautiful shot just under the crossbar for what would prove to be the game-winner.
"Erika is our free kick specialist and she's gotten two or three like that this year," Lockhart said. "I don't think any keeper in the league could have made that save. It was just a well-placed ball."
Douglas held a decided edge in scoring chances and shots (20-7) in the game, but Tahoe keeper Mickey Segers came up with a number of brilliant saves, including one at point-blank range on a one-on-one breakaway against Douglas' Tia Lyons in the 58th minute.
"Their keeper was amazing," Douglas coach Lorraine Fitzhugh said. "You just have to give credit to her. We were able to get some penetration throughout the game and test her but she stood up to it."
Lockhart was also impressed.
"She played very, very well," he said. "She came into the high school program having never played the keeper position. She's a junior now and she's really growing into the role."
Lockhart also noted the play of Cook at sweeper and Ashley Killeen on the left side for anchoring the defensive effort.
On Douglas' part, the loss meant that first-place Carson would need to lose at least two games out of its final three, including on Saturday against the Tigers, in order to claim the league title.
"It was a great game, perfect preparation for Carson," Fitzhugh said. "We just had an unfortunate first goal against us. The girls took that on their shoulders and it's a learning experience from there.
"Our emotion and our urgency were there, but it put our touch off a little bit. It's good growing pains. These are better lessons to learn now than later on. It's just a matter of taking that energy and emotion and connecting it into the game.
"They want to grow from this and if that's how they learn from a game like this, that says a lot about their character. Their chins are definitely up at this point."
