After a tough loss to South Tahoe last week, the Douglas High boys' soccer team was facing an uphill road in order to qualify for the Northern 4A Regional Playoffs.
First, they needed to win at Carson - a place they hadn't won in at least eight years. And win they did.
Second, they needed to beat Fallon, a team that upset the Tigers earlier in the season in Churchill County, in order to secure a berth.
Mission accomplished.
Douglas got a first-half goal from freshman Audrick Anderson, who deflected a corner kick from Cole Cline in the 32nd minute to take a 1-0 win Tuesday night in Minden. The win clinched the No. 4 seed out of the Sierra League for Douglas.
"We accomplished something that we set out to do at the beginning of the year," Douglas coach Milko Vasquez said. "We are a playoff team. It doesn't matter so much what place you finish in, it's all about getting to the dance.
"Once you're there, anything can happen."
Getting there, though, was a chore in its own.
Tuesday's matchup with Fallon was a wild, physical affair that saw at least four yellow cards and one red card - issued to Fallon's Alfredo Gonzales in the 58th minute, forcing the Greenwave to just nine players in the field through the end of the game.
The game took a physical turn from early on and Gonzales was awarded a direct kick from 30 yards out in the 20th minute, which Douglas keeper Ivan Gonzalez made a diving save to his left on.
In the 27th minute, Douglas' Luke Prinz was fouled inside the penalty box and Edgar Arceo took the kick, but the Fallon goalkeeper made an impressive save on it, diving to his left.
The game's lone goal, though, was set up five minutes later when Cline played the ball in a nice arc toward the middle of the net and Anderson got his head on it for the score.
"The freshman gets in there in front of the goalie, waited for the ball and put it in," Vasquez said. "He has a lot of promise. Sometimes, we play with too much tightness. A kid like that, a freshman, doesn't know the tightness of the game yet. He stepped up and made a big play,"
From there, the game became a defensive struggle, with Douglas packing its defense in against Fallon's attempts to mount an attack.
Douglas will face Reed or Hug in the first round, although Reed is the more likely opponent as the Raiders needed only to beat winless North Valleys Tuesday to clinch the No. 1 seed out of the High Desert League.
"It was a wild game, but this is the intensity that they are going to have to play with in the playoffs," Vasquez said. "We'll see a team that will come at us physically and try to run through us.
"We have to work on how we handle our emotions because a mental lapse for 10 or 15 seconds can cost you a game.
"Tonight though, the seniors really brought it. Guys like Brian Randall, Arceo, Cole Cline, Corbin Zumpft and Luke Prinz - they showed up to play. That was the most important thing.
"I'm very proud of these kids. They are going to the next level, which is what we wanted to do."
