The month of October hasn’t been particularly kind to either the Durant Cougars or the Strawberry Crest Chargers, but the good news for these teams is that one of them will finally get a win on Friday night.
Durant, which started the month with a 34-6 win over Sumner on Oct. 2, has lost two consecutive games to Bloomingdale and Lakeland, respectively. Crest, which had a bye week on Oct. 9, is winless in both October games against Lakeland and Plant City, respectively. Both teams haven’t been able to get on the scoreboard in each of their last two games.
Last week, Durant finished its two-game road trip at Lakeland and took a 35-0 loss to the Dreadnaughts. Lakeland picked up 260 rushing yards and 115 passing yards against the Cougars’ defense, and the defense came up with three interceptions, a fumble recovery and a goal-line stand in the third quarter. Durant did not post its offensive stats for the game to MaxPreps.com.
Meanwhile, at Plant City, the Chargers took a 30-0 loss to the Raiders. Forced to get creative to work around its quarterbacks not being able to play, Crest came up with a game plan that worked quite well other than the lack of scoring. With Marcus Springfield and Jesse Waldrop splitting snaps behind center, the Chargers aimed to be as confusing to the Plant City defense as humanly possible to draw penalties, extend drives and create running lanes by way of the Raiders not having time to get in their proper positions. Nearly every offensive snap featured some element of trickery — and it paid off in the form of a slew of flags against PCHS, a huge difference in the time of possession battle (Crest ran 43 offensive plays and Plant City only ran 20) and a game tempo the Raiders didn’t care for. The Chargers gained 137 yards on 39 carries with Springfield posting a team-high 61 yards and 22 runs, and he completed both of his passing attempts for 25 yards. Waldrop ran nine times for 35 yards and completed one of two pass attempts.
Durant will undoubtedly be relieved to get back to Cougar Path for a Friday night game against a familiar foe. Crest will be relieved to get its quarterbacks back, which may mean the Chargers run with a more traditional game plan against the Cougars this week.
OTHER GAMES TO WATCH
Plant City
at Kathleen, 7:30 p.m.
Last week, Plant City was forced to use the big play to make up for lost time. But that did work for the Raiders: three of Nick Felice’s eight completed passes were touchdowns and one of his two runs also went for six points. Felice finished the game with eight completions on 10 attempts for 254 yards, throwing touchdown passes to Mario Williams, Reagan Ealy and Brent Coton. The Raiders only ran the ball six times, two of which came from Felice (25 yards, one touchdown) and Romeo Jones gained 45 yards on his two carries.
This week, the Raiders will travel to Kathleen (2-2) with the hope of handing the Red Devils their third consecutive loss. Kathleen went to Bloomingdale last week and took a 43-6 loss to the Bulls (5-0) in a game where all of the scoring happened in the first half. Though Kathleen trailed by just eight points after the first quarter, Bloomingdale’s offense and special teams went on the attack in the second quarter to the tune of 29 points. The Bulls’ first two touchdowns came on punt returns and the last two were touchdown passes of 75 and 34 yards, respectively.