It was only fitting that after getting scorched for 128 rushing yards on Galena's first eight carries, the Douglas defense was able to find redemption with two game-changing fumble recoveries in the fourth quarter.
Douglas quarterback Zack Williams connected with Austin Neddenriep on a pair of touchdown passes within 60 seconds of each other on the back of the two recoveries.
The scores, and a late 23-yard field goal from Nikolai Vasquez, pushed Douglas to a 24-18 win over the Grizzlies in Reno Friday night after the Tigers trailed 16-7 with just under eight minutes in the game.
"We gave the kids ownership of it and they took care of it," Douglas coach Mike Rippee said. "It (the slow start) can be frustrating, but they play hard, they believe in each other and even when we're down, I have a feeling they'll do what it takes to come back and at least make a game of it.
Aside from the slow start, it was a masterful defensive performance for the Tigers, who allowed just 23 rushing yards in the second half and held Galena standout quarterback Beau Bickel to 106 yards through the air on 11 completions.
Williams passed for a career-high 198 yards and two touchdowns, throwing an efficient 16 completions on 23 attempts, to lead the Tigers. Johnny Pollack ran for 116 yards on 18 carries, including a key 46-yard run with 2:45 left to set up Vasquez's field goal.
Galena took an early 7-0 lead in the game, for a three-and-out on Douglas' first possession and then driving 68 yard on seven plays to score on a six-yard run from Eric Howsley.
Seven plays on the drive were runs, all of which were for positive yardage.
Galena forced another quick three-and-out from Douglas, and appeared ready to break the game wide open when Howsley blazed downfield for a 52-yard gain the Tiger 35.
Douglas, though, came up with two consecutive sacks and forced an incompletion to push Galena to punt the ball.
From that drive on, Douglas allowed just 66 more rushing yards and 172 yards total.
"We had our backs against the wall and we came up and played hard from that point on," Douglas cornerback Will Dornbrook said. "They weren't doing anything unexpected, we just had to get in there and execute.
"I think we kind of came out slow, there had to be points on the board before we realized that we had to come out and play."
Rippee was also impressed with Galena's effort.
"Galena played an outstanding game," Rippee said. "They were well prepared for us. They wanted a piece of us and we were lucky to take care of things in the fourth quarter and come away with a win."
Things got worse, though, before they got better for the Tigers.
Following the Galena punt, Douglas took over at its own 12 and quickly lost a yard on the next carry. On the following play, Williams faced heavy pressure after dropping back into the end zone and dumped the ball off before he was hit. He was called for intentional grounding and Galena was awarded a safety with 2:24 left in the first quarter for the 9-0 lead.
It wasn't until 25 seconds remained in the first quarter that Douglas got its first first down of the night. The Tigers broke through on the scoreboard with 5:18 left in the half on a one-yard plunge from Pollack to culminate a 15-play, 64-yard drive.
Still leading 9-7, Galena came right back with a 12-play, 80-yard drive of its own, finishing with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Bickel to Garrett Shutt with 1:23 left in the half.
Douglas strung a nice drive together just before the half, with Williams completing four passes for 50 yards before Vasquez's 37-yard field goal attempt with seven seconds left in the half sailed wide right.
The teams shut each out in a quick third quarter that saw a combined 18 carries, and Douglas punted the ball away with 8:26 left in the game after a promising nine-play drive stalled at the its own 45-yard line.
That's when things got interesting.
On the second play of the drive, Bickel carried the ball for six yards before couging it up into the hands of Douglas linebacker Conner Dillon.
Williams hit Neddenriep for a 32-yard pass on the next play to cut the score to 16-14.
Howsley fumbled on Galena's next play from scrimmage, with the ball popping right into the hands of Douglas' Dornbrook, who returned the ball into the end zone for the apparent go-ahead touchdown. The run was called back on a clipping penalty, though, and Douglas set up at the Galena 25.
"The ball just popped into my hands," Dornbrook said. "It kind of surprised me."
Two plays later, Williams found Neddenriep on an indentical play down the sideline, this time for a 27-yard touchdown and the 21-16 lead.
Neddenriep finished with four catches for 69 yards, while Danny King had five catches for 64.
Douglas stopped Galena on a fourth-and-5 attempt at the Grizzlies 49 on the ensuing drive and Pollack's run set the Tigers up deep in Galena territory. Vasquez punched his field goal through with 1:13 left to make it an eight-point game.
Douglas safety Matthew Metz sealed the game for good on the next drive, intercepting a Bickel pass with 10 seconds left and running the clock out on the return.
"Defensively, it was just a matter of not taking sides, closing the seams down and eating up the blocks," Rippee said. "We shut the run down from there. It was a great team effort. You had guys out there like Johnny Pollack, (defensive tackle) Ryan Moglich, (defensive lineman) Garrett Tenney and (defensive lineman) Jacob Phillips who are our senior leaders and really did a nice job for us."
Douglas (3-2 overall, 2-0 Sierra League) travels to Damonte Ranch next Friday for a 7:30 p.m. game.
The Douglas football team will be in search of its first winning record of the year tonight at Galena against a team look for the exact same thing.
Both the Tigers and Grizzlies have posted 2-2 records on the year so, with their wins and losses coming similar circumstances.
Both teams have nice wins over Reno to their credit (Galena won 34-20 in the season-opener and Douglas won 20-6 a week later). They each took big wins in their league openers last week with Douglas beating Fallon 35-0 and Galena beating Damonte Ranch 34-7.
Each team has a lopsided loss to its credit (Douglas 48-21 against Las Vegas to open the season and Galena a 42-20 loss to Spanish Springs two weeks ago) and each team has suffered a loss in the final seconds of the game (Douglas fell 35-32 on the road against McQueen and Galena lost 47-40 to North Valleys in week 2).
One more striking similarity between the two teams is that both possess mobile quarterbacks who also happen to throw a nice ball.
Galena senior Beau Bickel has completed 46 passes for 630 yards and eight touchdowns compared to four interceptions this year. He's run for 204 yards and five touchdowns as well.
Douglas junior Zack Williams has also completed 46 passes, totaling 413 yards and six touchdowns. He's run for 235 yards and four touchdowns.
Each team features a strong go-to running back as well as Galena's Eric Howsley has run for 423 yards and three touchdowns and Douglas' Johnny Pollack has run for 436 yards and three scores.
The similarities more or less end there. Douglas will depend on its punishing ground game (949 yards on 160 carries this year) and Galena has more of a balanced attack, passing for an average of 158 yards per game and running for an average of 171.
The big difference between the two running games appears to be that Douglas has more secondary options to carry the ball, including Ryen Ake, who has run for 139 yards so far. Jordan Cruz and Colton Hughes have each run for a little more than 65 yards on the year as well.
Galena's No. 3 rusher, behind Howsley and Bickel, is Dustin Granata, who has run for 55 yards on the year.
Garrett Shutt is the Grizzlies' top receiver this season with 18 catches for 333 yards. Austin Neddenriep leads the Tigers with 12 catches for 133 and Danny King has 11 for an even 100. Tight end Luis Pina-Duarte has seven catches for 114 yards as well.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. The Record-Courier will be posting updates throughout the game at www.recordcourier.com.
Notes: Douglas leads the all-time series between the two teams 7-2 and won last year's matchup 42-21 in Minden.
The last time the two teams played in Reno was in 2003 and Douglas came away a 49-0 winner.
Douglas has since played at Galena's field, against Damonte Ranch in 2006 while artificial turf was being installed in Minden. The Tigers won that game 13-0.
