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Durant 24, East Bay 21, FINAL

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 7, 2007

PLANT CITY - Durant and East Bay combined for 565 yards rushing Friday, but it was Evan Kelly's 24-yard field goal as time expired that decided the game as the Cougars won, 24-21.

'It was one of those games that was a truly back-and-forth game,' Durant coach Mike Gottman said.

East Bay struck first, with Ryan Stubbs scoring on an 85-yard run on the Indians' first play.

Durant answered with seven rushing plays, going 80 yards and tying the game on Duron Armstead's 2-yard run.

Ryan Rice was the Cougars' workhorse, rushing 24 times for 140 yards. His touchdown in the second quarter gave Durant a 14-7 lead.

'Ryan is a guy who is going to come downhill and pound it, and pound it and pound it,' Gottman said. 'I told him to keep running at the safeties because at the end of the game they are not going to want anything to do with you.'

'This was exactly what we wanted to do,' Gottman said of his offense. 'We knew we had to grind it out because both teams were ground teams.'

The Indians' second score came on a 29-yard scramble by quarterback Rex Ballenger.

Durant went ahead 21-14 in the third quarter on a 16-play, eight-minute drive, taking the lead on a 5-yard scoring pass from Jeremy Fussell to Royce Rose.

East Bay tied the game late in the fourth quarter on Ballenger's lone completion of the game, a 4-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Allen.

Durant took over with 5:55 to play and marched 71 yards, setting up the last-second kick by Kelly.

'I had plenty of worries on the kick,' Gottman said. 'Not because of Evan Kelly, but I'm saying we had to snap it, we had to hold it and we had to kick it through. And that's what we did.'

Stubbs had 163 yards rushing to lead East Bay.

D - Armstead 2 run (Kelly kick)

D - Rice 6 run (Kelly kick)

EB - Ballenger 29 run (Meredith kick)

D - Rose 5 pass from Fussell (Kelly kick)

EB - Allen 4 pass from Ballenger (Meredith kick)

D - FG Kelly 24

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