By Matt Mauney | Associate Editor
It had been over a year since the Durant players and coaches felt the way they felt Friday night.
On the same field that saw the Cougars lose in the region quarterfinals to Gaither in 2011, Durant was handed its first loss of the season, as district rival Newsome came out on the better end of a 21-14 game in the 7A Region 2 semifinals.
The loss ends Durant’s season at 11-1 overall, the best record in the history of the program. Durant went 10-0 in the regular season for the first time since the school opened in 1995.
The Cougars haven’t found themselves down many times this year, but Newsome took a 14-0 lead into the half Friday, which was the largest deficit faced by the Cougars this season.
After winning the opening coin toss and deferring to the second half, Durant mounted a drive to open the third quarter. After a penalty made it a fourth-and-four, the Cougars called a fake punt which was direct snapped to Jamarlon Hamilton who powered his way to a first down.
Several medium yard runs by Hamilton and a 22-yard pass from Trey VanDeGrift to Zach Hooper set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Hamilton, making it 14-7.
On the ensuing possession, Durant came up with a momentum-shifting play when Chris Smith intercepted a Will Worth pass and returned it to the Newsome 2-yard-line. Hamilton then tied the game with a short run up the middle.
“I was proud of our team of how they were able to come back,” said head coach Mike Gottman. “At 14-14, it could have gone either way, but they made more plays down the stretch.”
The difference int he game came in the fourth quarter when Newsome drove the ball down inside the 5-yard-line, but the Durant defense held to force a field goal. The short attempt was good, but a Durant penalty on the play set the Wolves up with a first down that led to a 1-yard touchdown run by Clint Carnell.
Durant came into the game with an impressive plus-23 turnover differential, but a costly turnover on the Cougars second to last drive all but put the game away.
The fumble on a quarterback to running back exchange was recovered by Newsome on the Durant 44-yard line. It was just the third lost fumble all year by the Cougars offense.
The Wolves took advantage by milking clock with their Wing-T option attack, but a fumble of their own on the Durant 4-yard line with just over a minute and a half to play gave the Cougars one last shot at tying things up.
With no timeouts, Durant drove down the field as VanDeGrift completed 7-of-9 passes, but a last second heave to the end zone fell out of the reach of Corey Roberts and the season ended for the Cougars.
“I’m proud of this team with the effort they showed at the end,” Gottman said. “I just wish we could have had a miracle at the end to send it into overtime, but it just wasn’t meant to be.”
Newsome went up 14-0 at the half after scoring on its first possession of the game before tacking on another score in the second quarter when Worth found Matt Hines on an 18-yard pass. That score was set up by a 64-yard run by Worth, who had another strong night running the football. Worth passed and rushed for 135 yards against Durant earlier this season in a game the Cougars won 38-28.
While the loss was hard to swallow, Gottman said that nothing can be taken away from what his team was able to accomplish this year.
“These kids have accomplished something that no team here has ever done before,” he said. “At this point right now you don’t think about that. You just think about the loss, but I’m going to tell the kids I love them and that I’m proud of everything they’ve accomplished this season.”
Be sure to pick up next week’s copy of the Plant City Observer for a full season recap and analysis on Durant’s historic season.
