It was a tale of two halves for the Durant football team Friday in the preseason classic against Oak Ridge (Orlando).
The Cougars went into the half down 21-14, but outscored the Pioneers 28-6 in the final two quarters to win 42-27. John Hendricks, a transfer from Newsome, scored on two runs for all of Durant’s points in the first half.
Garrett Rentz, a 6-5 receiver, caught a touchdown pass early in the third quarter to pull Durant within one after a failed PAT. The Cougars then took the lead on a 5-yard run by junior Cris Atkins, which was set up after an interception from defensive back Gabe Brown. Kadarius Griffin then scored to extend Durant’s lead to 35-21.
Jalen Forte scored Durant’s final points of the game with less than two minutes to play. The Cougars host Armwood next week for their regular season opener.
“I think we settled in there in the second half,” said head coach Mike Gottman. “We came out pretty jittery there in the first quarter. What I was impressed with was that we kept coming back and kept scrapping. We were making a ton of mistakes early and we’ve got a young team and I was curious to see how we were going to play tonight. We’ve got to grow up quick and I was happy with some of the adjustments we made.”