Douglas to play for league title tonight

They've done it seemingly under the radar, but the Douglas High School football team will be playing for the Sierra League title tonight when it takes the field at Reno High School.

With two weeks left in the season, the Tigers find themselves on a five-game win streak and a 6-2 record overall, with their only two losses coming against the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in the region.

Things seem to be clicking at the right time as Douglas has rolled up nearly 700 yards of total offense and 109 points in the last two weeks.

The defense, the team's strong point all season, is giving up just 101 yards rushing per game and 115 yards passing.

The Tigers have given up only four touchdowns since a loss to McQueen in week three and only one of those has come on a drive that started outside of Tiger territory, and that came against the Douglas second- and third-stringers late in a 75-7 blowout win over South Tahoe.

Of course, on the other side of the ball tonight will be probably the most talent-laden team the Tigers have seen all year.

Reno enters the game with at least two viable Division I recruits in quarterback Jon Dankworth and tight end Dan Knapp.

Dankworth has passed for 1,368 yards and 14 touchdowns on the year.

The Huskies passing game, however, has been able to open up their strong running game in recent weeks as Kevin Kahan has emerged as one of their top threats from the backfield.

Last week against North Valleys, Kahan ran for 135 and three touchdowns.

Douglas, on the other hand, saw the emergence of a two-back attack last week as Tyler Tinstman ran for 102 yards and Reese Kizer ran for 80 against Hug.

Tinstman has explosive speed and has 518 yards and four touchdowns on the year, averaging 5.9 yards a carry.

Kizer is a rumbling power back and has put up 458 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 4.4 yards a carry.

The Tigers' offensive line has been progressively getting better as the season progresses.

The line of Keith Lowe, Trevor McCarthy, Kevin Rogers, Curtis Hartzell, Mike Colyer and Kevin Emm, along with Brent Koontz and Luke Wartgow has allowed just four sacks on the year and is tough at the line of scrimmage, despite often being outsized.

Quarterback David Laird has thrown for 795 yards and four touchdowns, and has run for another five, all on short-yardage goal-line situations.

Emm leads the team in receiving with 10 catches for 191 yards and Kyle Heidt has nine catches for 135 yards.

Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. tonight at Reno. Check www.recordcourier.com throughout the night for updates and highlights from the game.