Football: Tigers fall victim to turnovers in loss to Lancers

Every time the Douglas football team would start to grab hold of the momentum Friday night at McQueen, it would literally slip right out of their grasp.

The Tigers lost three fumbles - two of which killed promising drives and the third setting the Lancers up inside the Douglas 10 - as McQueen rumbled ahead to a 28-0 win in Reno.

It was only the second time in the last eight years that Douglas was shut out (Reed won 21-0 in 2006 and McQueen won 56-0 in 2002).

"We played well defensively, but the bottom line was that there are things we have to get fixed," Douglas coach Mike Rippee said. "There were three or four drives we should have finished but we didn't.

"The turnovers hurt, those are things you just can't have."

Douglas sputtered offensively, managing just 177 total yards and going three-and-out or less on eight of its 11 possessions.

The Tiger defense was able to hold serve as the offense went three-and-out on its first three possessions. The Tigers' Nate VonAhsen and Matt Metz picked off passes in the end zone to end the Lancers' first two drives and the defense forced a three-and-out on McQueen's third possession to end the first quarter.

Ryen Ake gained 26 yards on a counter play to open the second quarter with the Tigers' first first down of the game. The run kicked off a solid seven-play, 66-yard drive befor a fumble gave the ball back to the Lancers inside their own 20.

The teams swapped possessions again, each forcing a punt, before the Lancers scored on a 22-yard screen pass from Christian Stolo to Arnold Carillo.

Douglas turned the ball over on downs during its next possession but the defense forced McQueen into a punt after five plays.

The Tigers quickly drove inside McQueen territory, but the ball was punched out after a big gain up the middle by Ake and the Lancers recovered at their own 20.

McQueen took the 7-0 lead into halftime and the Douglas defense stayed strong to open the second half, stopping the Lancers at their own 35.

On the ensuing punt, however, another Douglas fumble set the Lancers up at the Douglas 10.

McQueen's Eric Martinez score on a four-yard run two plays later to put the Lancers up 14-0.

"We're a play away from getting into the end zone there and taking control of the game and it didn't happen," Rippee said. "We got outplayed on special teams and that's a frustrating thing, because we've worked really hard there."

From there, the Lancers tacked on a 46-yard touchdown run from Mike Harrison and a 45-yard score from Carillo, along with a safety awarded after Douglas was called for intentional grounding in the end zone.

"I think too the kids are still trying to get to the point where they believe they can beat McQueen," Rippee said. They're a good football team, but they're not 28-0 better than us."

August Greth led the Tigers defensively with a pair of sacks while Connor Hughes had a fumble recovery and a nice pass breakup in the end zone. The defense also blocked a PAT.

Ake had 26 carries for 85 yards to go with six catches for 37 yards and a completed pass for 10 yards. Conner Peterson had three carries for 35 yards and Sam Cochran had five carries for 11 yards.

Cochran completed seven passes for 39 yards.