Durant dominated all three phases of the game and notched its largest margin of victory in 16 years in throttling Tulsa East Central, 59-0, in District 5A-3 football action on the road last week.
The Lions picked up their first league win and improved to 2-3 with another crucial contest this week at home Friday when Tulsa Edison visits Paul Laird Field for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Edison enters the game at 1-4 on the year with its lone win a 64-0 blitzing of Tulsa Memorial. The Eagles fell to Bishop Kelley (53-7) and McAlester (38-0) to start district play at 0-2.
Coach Todd Vargas’ club took full advantage of a plethora of East Central special team blunders, recovering muffed kickoffs twice in the opening half while also capitalizing on three Cardinal turnovers in building an insurmountable 49-0 cushion at intermission. It was the school’s most lopsided gridiron win since blasting Capitol Hill, 630, in 2009.
The Lions took the opening kickoff and marched 70 yards in 10 rushing plays with Cole Robbins covering the final 11 yards on a run to paydirt. Otto Baskin’s extra point made it 7-0 and the rout was on.
Cleveland Williamson picked off the first pass of the game moments later and raced 33 yards untouched for a second score.
Aiden Polk fell on the ensuing kickoff at the Cardinal 26 and Aiden Diviney rushed seven yards for a third touchdown following a short four-play drive with 3:44 left in the opening period.
Another short field resulted in a nine-yard touchdown toss from Robbins to Holdan Robinson on the next series that made it 28-0.
Stephen Manhard covered an East Central fumble to set up the next Robbins’ one-yard scoring plunge. Following a second DHS kickoff recovery, Manhard got in on the scoring with a 12-yard touchdown run to push the advantage to 42-0.
Durant then cashed in a Robinson interception for a Diviney 10yard scoring run only six seconds before the half.
The Lion defense continued to dominate through the second half and Durant managed 10 more points in spite of a running clock the entire final two stanzas.
Kaden Cabrera capped the only Durant possession of the third quarter with a 35-yard field goal and Jahir Asencio found the end zone on a 10-yard run in the fourth to wrap up the scoring.
East Central ended with minus-5 total yards for the game and one first down against an aggressive Lion defense while Durant posted 282 yards on 53 plays from scrimmage.
Manhard eclipsed the century mark with 111 yards on 14 totes while Robbins added 10 carries for 74 yards. Shajen Davis pitched in three receptions for 22 yards.