Douglas girls soccer clinches home field advantage in playoffs with a 4-2 over South Tahoe

MINDEN - Tracey Hawks scored two goals and Amber Gwinn had two assists as the Douglas High girls soccer team beat South Tahoe 4-2 on Saturday.

Douglas (11-3) can now do no worse than the Sierra League's No. 2 seed in next month's Northern 4A playoffs. The top two seeds from each league host the first game of playoffs while the semifinals and finals are both played at Reed High in Sparks.

The Tigers have now won seven games in a row since starting the season 4-3 and coach Fred Schmidt is pleased at where his team is at heading into the playoffs.

"I feel like we're peaking really well right now," Schmidt said. "The home field advantage in the playoffs was very important to us and now we've done that."

Against South Tahoe, Douglas mid-fielder Hawks put the Tigers up 1-0 just seven minutes into the game after receiving a nice pass from Lindsey Porter.

Then in the second half, Douglas scored three goals in a 19-minute stretch that increased their lead to 4-0.

In the 45th minute, Gwinn beat three South Tahoe defenders down the right sideline and crossed a ball into the Viking penalty box, which found Kali Schmidt, who then placed a shot underneath South Tahoe's goalie for a 2-0 lead. Then less than five minutes later, Gwinn again beat the Viking defense down the sideline but this time her pass found Molly Hernandez, who put the Tigers up 3-0 with her only goal of the game.

In the 59th minute, Abby Aldrich set up Hawks, who scored her second goal of the game to make it 4-0. Schmidt then replaced several starters with players off the bench, which he admitted may have been a bit too premature.

South Tahoe scored twice within a five-minute span but would get no closer as the Vikings dropped to 8-4-1 on the season.

"We got a little carried away when we went up 4-0," Schmidt said. "But we like everybody to get playing time."

The Vikings have already qualified for the playoffs and are battling Reno for the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds. South Tahoe plays Carson on Tuesday. Schmidt feels that the Vikings have a chance against the first-place Senators but must play well for the entire game.

"They played really well against us in the first half, " Schmidt said. "We need them to take that confidence into their game against Carson next week."

The Tigers host Hug on Tuesday, which is their last home game of the season. They then travel to Carson on Thursday for a match that could determine the league champion.

If Carson loses to South Tahoe and Douglas beats the Hawks, then Thursday's season finale between the Senators and the Tigers would determine the Sierra League champion.