Football Preview: Tampa Bay Tech Titans vs. Durant Cougars
Tampa Bay Tech is 6-1 against Durant since September of 2014, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. After both having extra time off, both will shake off the cobwebs and challenge one another at 7:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Tech is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 37.2 points per game this season.
Durant is hoping to do what Spoto couldn't back in September: put an end to Tampa Bay Tech's winning streak, which now stands at three games. Tampa Bay Tech breezed by Spoto at home to the tune of 42-7. Given the Titans' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida football rankings (they are ranked 23rd, while the Spartans are ranked 262nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
The critical scores for Tampa Bay Tech came from Michael Dempsey, Jordyn Murray, Trevon Moore, William Simmons, Edmarien Gwinn, and Adarius Norton. The team also got some help courtesy of Andreas Zayas, who rushed for 101 yards on only ten carries.
Tampa Bay Tech's defense made their presence known, laying out Nathan Richardson. 6.5 times. Spoto's QB won't forget James Jolly anytime soon given he sacked him three times. With that strong performance, Jolly is now averaging an impressive 5.6 total tackles per game. Another thorn in Spoto's side was Tre'Variez Jacobs, who picked up 1.5 sacks, forced a fumble, and made eight total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Tampa Bay Tech was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 205 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Spoto only rushed for 83.
Meanwhile, Durant was just a hair shy of victory last Friday and fell 20-19 to Newsome.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Michael Ryan, who threw for 127 yards and a touchdown, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. Emmanuel Lee helped Ryan out on the ground, rushing for 85 yards and a touchdown.
Tampa Bay Tech's win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 4-2. As for Durant, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-3.
Tampa Bay Tech didn't have too much breathing room in their match against Durant in their previous matchup back in November of 2020, but they still walked away with a 7-3 victory. Will Tampa Bay Tech repeat their success, or does Durant have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
