R-C Sports Notebook: Two QBs leads to big yardage

The two-quarterback system.

It¹s something I've never seen from a Mike Rippee-coach team before. But

there it was during the first half on Friday night.

There was some question all week leading up to the game as to who would

start. Douglas senior Lucas Peterson had started the previous two weeks

while junior Zach Williams recovered from an injury.

With it being senior night, Rippee did as he traditionally does, giving the

first drive to the ranking senior QB on the roster ‹ which obviously was

Peterson.

"It's a tough call there, but Lucas had stepped in and done a wonderful job

for us the last two weeks," Rippee said. "It's senior night and we gave him

the start."

Peterson led a nice scoring drive, and when the Tiger offense re-took the

field, it was Williams under center, who also led a nice scoring drive.

But then Peterson returned in the second quarter and completed a couple nice

passes before Williams came in to complete the drive.

"It was good because I don¹t think Manogue knew who exactly to prepare for,"

Rippee said. "They both bring some very valuable things to the field. Lucas

is a very smart player, he protects the football and he manages the game

very well."

"Zach gives us some flexibility with the option and he's got a great arm."

Whatever it was, worked. Douglas passed for a season-high 232 yards.

Peterson was efficient, completing four of five passes for 66 yards and a

touchdown while Williams had some more success with the long ball, throwing

for 10 completions on 17 attempts for 167 yards, including six passes for

more than 10 yards and two for more than 30.

He also rushed for 50 yards on 10 carries, one of which was for a 14-yard

loss on a sack.

And all of that was against one of the better defenses in the region.

Having the two capable quarterbacks could come in to play in two weeks

against Carson. For one, it¹s an insurance policy in case of injury.

Secondly, it allows for some different looks to throw at Carson¹s defense.

Third, if one guy or another struggles, it gives the staff an option of

pulling him out and letting him watch the game for a series or two to figure

out the coverages and schemes being thrown at him.

³Lucas isn¹t out of the picture,² Rippee said. ³Using both guys worked

tonight. Zack did some good things and when it came time to put him forward,

Lucas was right there leading the cheers and supporting his team. He¹s such

a quality kid and he believes in this team. I have so much faith in him as a

player and a leader.²

I saw the Coleville football team taking some guff on the RGJ Web site from

the commentors because of the perception that the Wolves were running up the

score. This can only be that these people either A) Know nothing about

eight-man football or B) no nothing about Coleville.

Coleville, of course, beat Hawthorne 108-30 on Saturday. Yes, 108 points. No

typo.

Coleville coach Will Sandy regularly makes a habit out of taking his

starters out with the game well in hand, but ³well in hand² in eight-man

football is an entirely different definition than in 11-man football.

Remember, it was Coleville last year who lost a game 128-74. In the

playoffs, no less.

On top of that, Coleville only has 14 players on its roster. Putting the

second team in usually just means rotating everyone around volleyball-style.

In a situation like Saturday, I suspect you¹d just do that until you found

someone who didn¹t score.

Hawthorne, by the way, had 37 players on its roster (according to our man on

the scene Dave Price) and physically had several players in the 290-, 260-,

250-pound range. Just for a frame of reference, that is bigger than anyone

on the Douglas High roster (and only nine players short, numbers-wise).

The Serpents were also unbeaten heading into the game and had dropped down

from the 2A this year (Dropping a class in sports terms is like bringing the

New York Yankees down to play minor league ball). Most people heading into

the game were picking Hawthorne to win.

No, what happened Saturday was Coleville simply outplaying the guys on the

other side up and down the field.

As Price said, "That'd be a crazy score for a basketball game."

Congrats to the Wolves.

I'm planning to be at these games this week, so check online for updates

(Cover It Live is the tool we use to post automatic updates during games and

also allows for comments and questions from fans during the game, so be sure

to check out our Web site if you can¹t make it to the games I will be

posting from.):

Tuesday: Douglas vs. South Tahoe girls' soccer (Cover It Live)

Wednesday: Douglas vs. South Tahoe boys' soccer (Cover It Live)

Thursday: Douglas vs. Manogue volleyball (Cover It Live)

Saturday: Douglas at South Tahoe football (Cover It Live) or Carson-Douglas soccer ... It'll be a gameday decision.

- It's been a season of firsts and bests for the Douglas tennis program.

They added a couple more to the list over the weekend. The TenBroecks are

believed to be the first brother-sister tandem in Northern 4A to have

claimed the regional singles title in the same year. It¹s also the first

time Douglas has ever won both the boys and girls titles in the same year.

- Nikolai Vasquez nailed a 55-yard field goal during warm-ups Friday night.

Four of his five kickoffs on the night were touchbacks, including one that

split the uprights (He got to kick off 15 yards closer due to a pass

interefence penalty on Manogue on the previous touchdown, but still ...).

- Both Manogue's and Douglas' first drives Friday night went 80 yards in 11

plays for touchdowns. Each drive took about four minutes.

- You'll all be glad to know Pizza Hut is advertising that you can now order

a pizza via your iPhone. You know, just in case every other phone in the

world didn¹t work.

- I seriously thought the Taco Bell Black Jack Taco commercial was going to

be one of those joke ads, like "Surprise, we're really selling you spark

plugs and diet soda," or "Have you really taken the time to consider

supplemental life insurance?" I didn't think anyone would honestly try to

sell a taco that looks like it was left in a toaster oven overnight.

- When I was in high school, coffee was gross. In college, it was a

finals-week staple. My first few years in the working world, it was an

occasional luxury. After one kid, it was mildly overpriced. With two kids,

it¹s worth its weight in gold.

Sign-up is free and you will be competing for local and national prizes.

Visit recordcourier.com/profootball to sign up and make your picks.

This happened to me last year, I got booted from regular season survivor

because the I forgot to save my picks for the week ‹ Exactly the same thing

that happened last week.

Congratulations to Jeff Greer, who picked a perfect 10 out of 14 games

correctly.

Here are my picks for week 7:

Packers over Browns

49ers over Texans

Chargers over Chiefs

Steelers over Vikings

Colts over Rams

Patriots over Tampa

Panthers over Bills

Jets over Raiders

Falcons over Cowboys

Saints over Dolphins

Bengals over Bears

Tiebreaker: Giants 35, Cardinals 21

Last week: 9-5. Season: 61-29. Season Survivor: Out.

Celebrating Edd Roush, the only player ever ejected from a Major League

Baseball game for sleeping in the outfield.

- Poor Jim Zorn. The Washington Redskins informed him Monday he's still the

head coach, he¹s just not allowed to call plays any more. Instead that job

goes to a guy the front office brought in several weeks ago who, up until

then, had been passing his retirment by calling local senior bingo nights.

There's a vote of confidence.

- The Ottowa Citizen in Canada reported last week that a group of 60 teenage

hockey players from Ontario traveled to France in August only to discover

the tournament they each paid around $3,500 to participate in a tournament

that didn¹t exist.

A 42-year-old Toronto man has been charged with defrauding the public after

he promised the teenagers they'd get to play in a tournament where

professional scouts would be watching in exchange for $2,800, although many

families paid more with travel costs.

- Sorry Reno Aces, I have a new favorite Minor League Baseball team.

Richmond, Virginia¹s brand-new Double-A franchise will be called the Flying

Squirrels.

Among several other finalists considered for the Giants' affiliate were the

Hush Puppies and the Flatheads.

Make sure to drop by my "From the Bleachers" blog this week at

www.recordcourier.com/bleachers.

The basic schedule goes like this:

Mondays: How the Top 10 fared

Tuesdays: Four Surprises and One Not-So-Much

Wednesdays: Sierra Nevada Sports Media Rankings + my ballot

Thursdays: My Player of the Year Ballot this week

Friday: Weekend picks