Tigers thump Colts 55-7 in home debut

The Douglas football team had a little bit of everything working well Thursday night as they made their home debut in the regular season finale.

After playing the majority of the season on the road, Douglas came out strong on its new field as the Tiger running backs racked up 346 yards on the ground in a 55-7 romp over Wooster.

The Tigers improved to 8-2 overall and 7-0 in league play on the year.

"Now it all begins," Douglas coach Mike Rippee said. "We're where we want to be."

Douglas will host the High Desert League No. 4 seed next week at 7 p.m. in Minden.

Most of the Tiger starters got most of the second half off, giving them a good chance to rest up before next week's game.

Will Sheerin led the Tigers with two touchdowns and 99 yards on five carries, all in the second half, while Reese Kizer had 88 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns, Brandon Lawrence had 77 yards and a touchdown and Tyler Tinstman had 55 yards and a touchdown.

"Wooster has had a tough year but coach Wells has done a good job with them and has really kept that team together," Rippee said. "They've come out and played harder every week and they came out fired up tonight, so we knew it would be tough.

"We felt we could run the football on them and do some things, give some different people a look and we did so."

Quarterback David Laird completed seven passes for 79 yards and one touchdown, Kevin Emm caught two passes for 24 yards and Phil Mannelly caught one pass for 21 yards and a touchdown.

Laird completed his first five passes of the night to different receivers.

Wooster attempted an onside kick to open the game, but Douglas recovered and drove downfield from there.

Nine plays into the game, Reese Kizer cut back through a wide open hole on the line and took the ball 25 yards for the first touchdown on the new field, putting Douglas up 7-0.

The teams swapped possessions before the Tigers drove 51 yards in 10 plays and punched the ball in on a three-yard run up the middle from Kizer.

Douglas' defense forced a three-and-out on Wooster's next drive and the Colts snapped the ball long over their punter's head. Nate Whalin and Brock Peterson tackled the Wooster punter at the one-yard line.

Tyler Tinstman went untouched up the middle two plays later for the 21-0 lead.

Niko Saladis ended the Colts' next drive with his sixth interception on the year and Julius Bailey took the ball on a sweep to the outside and then cut back to the middle for a 17-yard touchdown five plays later.

That gave the Tigers a 28-0 lead heading into the locker room.

The second half was mostly just Douglas getting its second- and third-stringers into the game after Laird completed a 21-yard pass to Mannelly for the 35-0 lead early in the third.

On Douglas' next drive, Sheerin carried the ball 12 yards on his first touch of the night and then broke 40 yards upfield for a touchdown and the 41-0 lead.

Cole Hamzik ended the Colts' next drive with his fourth interception of the year and Lawrence had an impressive, weaving 45-yard run to score on the last play of the third quarter.

Wooster mounted a 10-play, 96-yard drive late in the fourth, culminating in a five-yard touchdown run from Darren Starkey to get on the board, but Sheerin scored on a 39-yard sweep after Wooster attempted an onside kick that Douglas' Nate Whalin was able to recover.

Defensively, Anthony Alvitre had two sacks for the Tigers and Sean Molina and Phil Mannelly each had one.

Whalin also recovered a fumble.

n Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.