Douglas to face Galena in playoffs

by Darrell Moody, Sports Editor

Mike Rippee said the Douglas Tigers, despite their 9-0 record and Sierra League championship, are starting over.

"Everybody is 0-0," said Rippee, whose undefeated squad hosts Galena in the first round of the NIAA 4A zone playoffs today at 7 p.m. at Keith Roman Field. "It's been so long since we played them, I feel they're a brand new team."

Douglas pounded the Grizzlies 49-0 back on Sept. 19, holding them to 77 yards total offense.

"Obviously the kids have to get that (49-0 win over Galena) out of their mind," Rippee said. "As coaches, it's our job to get it out of their minds. It's a whole new season; a whole new year. That's the attitude we have to take with everybody.

"We played very well and they didn't play as good as they can. Basically things got steamrolling and they couldn't seem to get on track. (Ben) Fry was banged up earlier in the year. We can't go on what happened in the first game. The only real change is we're at home."

Rippee said that Galena is running some "50" on defense, deviating from its normal 4-4-3 defense.

Offense is another story. Colby Smith relieved Robert Keever at quarterback last week, and threw two touchdown passes to tie McQueen at 14. The Grizzlies eventually lost in overtime. Coach Steve Struzyk was unavailable for comment, so Douglas really won't know who will be under center on Friday.

"They like to bunch up their receivers," Rippee said. "They aren't doing anything that we haven't seen somewhere down the line."

The Tigers' defense will be without starting inside linebacker Kyle Luken, who has a broken fibula. Rippee said that depending on how far the Tigers go in the playoffs, Luken could return to the field.

"He had hurt (his leg) before," Rippee said. "It just gradually got worse. He was limping in practice. He never complained. He just figured he could go on it. Maybe the cold weather on Thursday caused some of the problems. I could tell something was wrong when he was last down the field on kickoff coverage and he missed an open-field tackle. He never does that. I feel bad for him."

Andy McIntosh, Keenan Copp and Tyree Holdridge are the logical candidates to replace Luken. McIntosh, in fact, nearly played the entire game on defense when Luken came out of the Carson game. Holdridge is nursing a sore shoulder suffered in the Wooster game.

"We have enough depth at wide receiver," Rippee said. "We want to have our best players on defense. Defense will take us as far as we go from this point on. That's not taking anything away from our offense, but many of our games we could have scored 10 points and won a lot of games."

Rippee has been pleased with the defense the entire season. It has yielded a shade over 10 points a game. In five of the nine games, the Tigers have allowed less than 10 points.

Led by quarterback Luke Rippee, running back Dusty Cooper, McIntosh and a spectacular line, the offense is averaging 42 points a game. Rippee has passed for 1,288 yards. His favorite target McIntosh has caught 35 balls for 629 yards. Cooper has rushed for 1,219 yards and is averaging 7.3 per carry.

Rippee has no doubts that his team will come to play today, and that has a lot to do with the leadership on the team and the maturity that comes with 30-plus seniors on the squad.

"The kids have shown great tenacity," Rippee said. "This is where we wanted to get to and we're glad to be here. This group wants to win as bad as anybody I've ever been around."

Notes: No season-ticket passes will be honored at the gate for Friday's game because it is a playoff game. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for students. Senior citizens and children 8 and under will be admitted free of charge. The only passes honored will be NIAA courtesy cards (photo ID required), NIAA lifetime passes and press passes.

In last year's playoff opener (7-6 Galena win), the teams played in a downpour.

The winner of today's game will meet the winner of the Hug-Reed game next Friday.