Durant suites up for another Friday night fight. Tonight, the Ardmore Tigers roll into town for the Lions’ Homecoming game.
The Tigers were dominated by Ada last week, 35-14, and coach Bryon Cordell and his Lions are itching to take out some frustration on the Tigers after letting Poteau steal a game at home last Friday.
The Tigers are one of Durant’s biggest rivals.
This will be the 91st meeting between the two teams and Ardmore holds the series record at 65-17-8. Lions have lost three straight to the Tigers since it’s 41-16 victory in 2008.
Against Poteau, the Lions jumped out to big lead - but wasn’t able to hold on. Poteau’s ground game dominated the second half and controlled the clock.
Ardmore could try to copy that same tactic, ball control.
“We can’t let Ardmore control the ball. Against Poteau, we let them control the ball in the second half and that kept it out of our hands. We got to do a better job at that.” said head coach Bryon Coredell, “They (Ardmore) runs the Flex-bone offense and they will try to keep it on the ground and run as many plays as they can to keep it out of our hands. We can’t allow that to happen.” said Cordell.
Though the Tigers defense was shredded by Ada, the Tigers “D” will be a force to deal with. The Tigers always pride themselves on their defense.
“They have a good defense, they run a really good scheme. It’s a big challenge for us, they held us to seven points last year,” Cordell continues, “They really got after us. We have to do a lot better job on execution than we did last week.”
Last week the Lions did a great job on offense and defense in the first half. Zac Cater threw for three touchdowns in the first half and the defense caused three turnovers. In the second half - things went south for Durant. They fumble right out of gate and when the Lions did have the ball, their drives stalled. They had problems converting on third downs to keep the drives alive.
“We came out in the third quarter and turn the ball over and let them have all the momentum. We didn’t run more than 15 to 16 plays in the second half,” said Cordell, “They ran three times the plays we did and we can’t let Ardmore do that.”
The old football saying, “Defense wins championships”, but we also know you have to score points. Especially in the red-zone.
“When we get the in the red-zone, we got to put points on the board. We got to convert on those opportunities and we didn’t against Poteau. They (Poteau) had something to do with, but it’s on us.” said Cordell. “On third down conversions, we didn’t do a good job. So, we got to do a better job and we will.” said Cordell.
Last Friday, Durant’s Chris Brown was injured and was carried off the field. Cordell says his is doing better and will play tonight against Ardmore.
Tonight isn’t just another game. It’s Homecoming and the Lions are ready to show the Tigers why they are the “Kings” of the football jungle. Kick off is at 7:30 p.m. at Paul Laird Field.
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