Big plays will once again be the key Friday night when the Durant Lions renew their annual rivalry with the Ardmore Tigers at Paul Laird Field for the 99th all-time meeting.
It will be the first gridiron battle between the two Highway 70 combatants since 2019.
Ardmore is coming off a dominant 34-7 triumph over Ada in its season opener, riding the strength of long-distance touchdowns of 88, 81, 69 and 73 yards while racking up 496 total yards on only 20 offensive plays.
Durant saw early explosive touchdowns by Broken Bow build a big lead out the gate and the Savages never looked back for a 48-0 romp in the home opener last Friday.
“We knew they were really talented,” Durant head coach Todd Vargas said afterward. “We have a lot of young guys and didn’t help ourselves. We made a lot of mistakes. When you mix that with an extremely talented team it makes things very difficult. We’ve got to get better though. We’ve got to get ready for Ardmore. It’s about the process but I think we’ll be better this week.”
University of Oklahoma commit Greydon Howell lived up to billing in the Broken Bow contest, scoring long-distance touchdowns the first two times he touched the ball. He rumbled 50 yards on his initial rush to paydirt with only two minutes gone in the contest.
Howell then snagged a Durant punt two and a half minutes later and raced 46 yards for another touchdown and 14-0 lead.
The Savages took advantage of a short field following a blocked punt and charged 30 yards in just four plays with Howell firing a 14-yard scoring pass with 3:32 still remaining in the first stanza.
Durant followed with it’s best drive of the night, thanks to 16yard and 36-yard completions from Joseph Flores to James Wallis and Josh Bull but the 70-yard march stalled on downs in the Broken Bow red zone at the Savage 9.
The visitors took possession and answered with a 91-yard, nine-play scoring march and Howell sparked a late two-minute scoring drive with a 33-yard run before completing a 10-yard touchdown pass with 34 seconds left. That made it 34-0 at intermission.
After tallying just 45 total yards in the first two stanzas, thanks largely to minus-7 on the ground, things only got worse after the break as Durant was held in check with minus-18 yards overall.
A Carson Finley interception and 10-yard return on the first play of the second half was one of the few Durant highlights, but the Lion offense was forced to punt three plays later after taking over in Broken Bow territory.
Howell completed another 21-yard touchdown pass midway through the third frame and his night was done with 285 all-purpose yards.
Draegen Baker had 10 yards rushing and Cael Moring added nine yards as a few of the Lions’ positive rushing yards against the stingy Broken Bow defense.
