Douglas defense comes through again

Beating the 2023 edition of the Douglas football team is going to be an issue for anyone who meets the Tigers in the upcoming 5A-Division III playoffs.

At this point, even scoring will be an issue.

Douglas threw another shutout on Friday, blanking visiting Carson, 35-0, in the teams’ 100^th-anniversary game. The win capped a perfect 5-0 league record for the Tigers, who enter the 5A-III playoffs as the No. 1 seed.

It also extended Douglas’ shutout streak to four games — and 17 straight quarters — and lowered the Tigers’ points-per-game average to 5.8.

The last team to score against the Tigers? That would be Galena, which put up 21 in a 51-21 loss a month ago.

So, what’s the best way to limit teams to less than a touchdown per game over a 10-game regular season? For Douglas, it’s all about the black hats.

“The school has a proud tradition of playing defense and playing 'Blackhat Football,'” Douglas defensive coordinator Ryan Moglich said. “These guys have done nothing but just buy into it.

And, yes, the “hats” are the helmets — the basic Douglas black with orange logos.

“It’s just 11 hats to the football,” Moglich said. “At the end of the game, those black hats should have color on them.”

Against Carson on Friday, the Tigers were their usual swarming selves, stacking up Carson runs to the inside, sealing off runs to the outside, and eventually forcing the Senators to try to find some success through the air. Overall, Douglas limited Carson to 105 yards of total offense, with just 17 coming on the ground.

“That was our goal there. They’re a heavy run team; we knew that coming in. But our defense is built for a run team,” senior linebacker Aaron Tekansik said. “We knew what we had to do … stop the run to force them to pass. They got some good passes in, but we would just rally to the ball.”

The Tigers also did what all good defenses do — put their own offense back on the field. Douglas got second-half interceptions from Zach Jackson and Brenton Weston to close the door on any thoughts of a comeback for Carson.

It’s been that sort of season for the Douglas defense, which got off to a great start — a 40-0 shutout of Argonaut (Calif.) — and really never let up. The Tigers’ points allowed can basically be recited from memory: 42 combined to Galena and Reed, nine to Elko, and seven to Damonte Ranch.

Everyone else: Zero.

Was there a turning point for the unit? A sense that Douglas was fielding not just a good defense, but a potentially historic one?

It depends on who is answering, but by the third week of the season, The Tigers had posted two shutouts and also beaten a solid Elko team.

“I would say when we were playing Spring Creek (Sept. 1), and we weren't playing that great, but we were still shutting them out,” senior linebacker Cole Smalley said. “That's when I kind of knew.”

Smalley went on to echo his coaches and teammates in describing what the Tigers are doing on defense. Sure, there’s schemes and adjustments — but no need to over-complicate things.

“There's some stuff that goes into it, like some of our packages and our blitzes,” he said. “But other than that, it's just hard-nosed defense, old-school defense, swarming to the ball.”

DOUGLAS DEFENSE

Points: 58

PPG: 5.8

Shutouts: 5

Leaders: Chris Smalley (110 tackles, 23 TFL); Aaron Tekansik (63 tackles, 3 int.); Trace Estes (45 tackles, 12 TFL); Kyle Koontz (9 sacks); Connor Jackson (4 int.); Zach Jackson (4 int.); Aaron Moss (3 int.); Brenton Weston (3 int.)

Notable: The Tigers have outscored their last four opponents, 152-0