Football: Douglas looking to break through against Reed

They say the playoffs are the start of a new season.

Everyone is 0-0 and anything can happen.

That is especially the case in the Northern 4A football league this season as all eight playoff teams come in with remarkably strong parity.

Simply put, there isn't much separating top from bottom.

Top-seeded McQueen needed a last-second fourth-down touchdown on a broken play to defeat seventh-seeded Spanish Springs earlier this year.

Second-seeded Carson escaped with an overtime win against sixth-seeded Douglas at the season's halfway point.

Third-seeded Reed destroyed McQueen and then fell flat on its face against fourth-seeded Manogue.

Manogue beat Douglas by only one-point and fifth-seeded Reno moved up two slots in the final five minutes of the season by scoring 21 unanswered points to topple Carson's hopes of an unbeaten season and a regular-season league title.

Indeed, the only team in the playoffs without a win against any of the other playoff teams is No. 8 North Valleys.

The Panthers, though, came within a point of Spanish Springs and within four points of Reno while posting an average of 26.6 points and 335 yards of total offense per game. The Panthers are also the only playoff team with the advantage of having already played every other playoff team.

Douglas enters tonight's first-round matchup with Reed essentially trying to put an injury-riddled regular season far in the past and focus on peaking in the postseason.

The Tigers are coming off a 30-29 loss at Galena during which they fumbled eight times and turned the ball over on five occasions.

Reed, on the other hand, is coming in having played its best football of the year after a nightmarish game at Manogue in Week 7 (The Raiders lost 41-14).

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Sparks.

The two teams met in Week 2, which was Douglas' season opener. Reed walked away with a 25-14 win while the Tiger offense suffered some early-season miscues.

Reed brought in one of the biggest and most physical lines on both sides of the ball while Douglas had new starters at every spot on the offensive line. The ground game was held to a season-low 77 yards.

In the time since, the Tigers have established one of the best rushing attacks in the region, totaling 2,175 yards on 356 carries (an impressive 6.1 yards-per-carry average). Douglas' multi-pronged ground game totaled 283, 439 and 381 yards as a team leading up to last week's misstep against Galena (just 118 yards on 35 carries).

Senior running back Ryen Ake (172 carries, 897 yards, 10 TD) missed last week with an injury, though, as did hard-blocking tight end Trevor Shaffer. Both should be back this week.

Sophomore Conner Peterson has led the way on the ground with 1,002 yards on 105 carries and 10 touchdowns. He is believed to be the first sophomore in school history to break the 1,000-yard mark in a season and is one of only a handful of underclassmen region-wide to have ever accomplished the feat.

Zach Williams has been a key part of the running attack with his ability to read and scramble (39 carries, 136 yards, 4 touchdowns) as well as spread the defense through the air (71 completions, 888 yards, 5 TD).

Another plus is that Williams has had two of his highest passing-yard totals against two of the region's top defenses (172 against Reed to open the year and 272 against Carson). He threw for 226 against Galena last week.

In the first Reed game, Douglas trailed only 19-14 until late in the third quarter when Raider QB Brent Showalter scampered 11 yards up the middle on a broken play for the score.

Douglas outgained the Raiders 293-258 in total offense, held the advantage in first downs (12-10) and even forced Reed into eight punts.

The Tigers were impressive defensively against Reed, especially as the game progressed. That's been true of the entire season as the front line of Zach Falanga, Trevor Hemsath, Scott Rudnick and August Greth have improved every week and the linebacking core of Shane Connelly, Justin Tenney and Riley Griffith have been strong in run support.

Douglas has produced three defensive touchdowns in the past two weeks, all three coming on fumble returns.

Reed (8-2 overall, 7-1 league) has brought its offense along nicely, although the Raiders have depended much more on the run than they have in recent years.

The team has only attempted 172 passes on the year, while carrying the ball a whopping 411 times in 10 games.

Regional rushing champ John Covello has 167 carries for 1,063 yards and 11 touchdowns on the year while Showalter has 167 carries for 827 yards and 17 touchdowns. He has 95 completions for 1,141 yards and 12 touchdowns through the air.