The Cougars will end the 2018 regular season in Seffner on Friday.
The first year of the Durant Cougars’ latest rebuilding project wraps up with Friday night’s game at Armwood.
Durant’s coming into the game after taking a 42-0 loss at Bloomingdale last week, which ensured the Cougars would finish district play with a 3-3 record. It was the only time Durant has been shut out all season, but not for lack of trying: the Cougars were knocking on the door on the final play of the game but got stopped just one yard away from paydirt. The shutout was the Bulls’ sixth of the season and ensured Durant will finish 2018 with a losing record for the first time in four seasons.
Though this season won’t go down as one of the best and brightest in program history, it did serve its purpose. Head coach Mike Gottman said from the get-go that the goal for this sophomore and junior-heavy team was to grow and develop, and the Cougars certainly showed signs of good things to come. Take the stretch from Sept. 7 through Oct. 5, for example — Durant won three of the four games (and stayed competitive in the 28-14 loss to Newsome) and outscored its opponents 79-62. It at one point stood with Plant City, Bloomingdale and Tampa Bay Tech as the only unbeaten teams in 7A-District 9 play. Many of the key starters will be back next year and should get better from the experience.
Friday’s game won’t be a walk in the park for the Cougars, though that’s the case for many Armwood opponents. Last week’s game saw two talented defenses go head-to-head at Hillsborough High School and Armwood was able to pull off a 10-6 win over the Terriers to lock up the district title. The Terriers snapped Armwood’s four-week streak of scoring more than 40 points per game as well as their two-week shutout streak, but the Hawks defense held strong throughout the game and especially in the fourth quarter to keep Hillsborough from capitalizing on a lost fumble.
Durant is quite familiar with several Armwood players — wideout Agiye Hall played for the Cougars last year and Eric Wilson, Myles Forte and Adrian Olivo all faced the Cougars as Plant City Raiders in the past — but the away team still has a tough task ahead of it tomorrow night.
Whether the Cougars win or lose Friday night, one thing is certain: next year’s team will be about as experienced and battle-tested as can be.
