The Durant Cougars will look to move to 4-0 this Friday night as they head down the road to Newsome High School for the Alafia River Rivalry.
Born of a natural geographic rivalry, Newsome sits just a few miles up the road from Durant. In fact, if you look across the field and over the line of trees that sits to the south of the Cougars’ football stadium on a Friday night in the fall, you can see the lights that shine from Newsome’s football games.
To add even more to the rivalry, Joe E. Newsome, the namesake for Newsome High School, is the grandfather of Durant’s newest head coach Claybo Varnum.
After 18 years under former head coach Mike Gottman, Varnum has lead the Cougars’ to a 3-0 record to start the year with wins over Sumner, Lennard and Brandon. And once a team known for their smash-mouth, hard-nosed defense and a penchant for controlling the ball on the ground, Durant has outscored their opponents 110-18 through three games, most recently coming off of a 59-0 shutout of Brandon.
The Cougars have been led offensively by junior running back Calub Connell who has totaled 312 rushing yards and five touchdowns, as well as senior quarterback Marcus Miguele. Miguele has done his own damage in the run game with 199 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground, but has thrown the ball well over the past two games and has now totaled 258 yards and five touchdowns through the air heading into Week 4.
Wide receiver Jeremiah Gines has been the typical target with 145 receiving yards and four touchdowns. To add to the backfield, running back Alex Daley made his return to action last Saturday against Brandon where he notched 36 yards and his first touchdown of the season on five carries.
When Durant heads to Newsome they’ll face a 2-1 Wolves team led by fourth-year head coach Christian Yockey, a team that is fresh off of an 8A Regional Finals appearance in 2020.
Newsome has racked up wins over Lennard and Steinbrenner to kick off 2021, with their lone loss coming in a 16-10 overtime contest against Bloomingdale.
The Wolves are led by a stable of running backs, most notably senior Jason Albritton and junior J.C. Roque. The duo have combined for 701 rushing yards and six of Newsome’s eight offensive touchdowns on 106 carries through three games.
A lot will be asked of Durant’s front seven if they plan on keeping Newsome from continuing that stretch of dominance in the run game, led by inside linebackers Jacob Reed and Austin Bovee. Reed and Bovee pace the Cougars with 28 and 16 total tackles, respectively, while combining for eight tackles for loss.
Up front, the junior defensive line duo of Leo Tabakovic and Gage Aroz have added a combined three sacks and seven tackles for loss of their own.
The Wolves and Cougars will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sep. 17 at Newsome High School.