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MIKE READLINGDurant and Hillsborough meet tonight in a matchup of very similar teams. And we mean very similar.
DURANT - Somewhere, in all the football games in all the lands, two teams as evenly matched as Hillsborough and Durant have met. The occasion, however, has been very rare.
When the Terriers travel to take on the Cougars in tonight's Class 5A region final, they will find a team that is virtually an exact replica of the one they brought.
Hillsborough (10-2) will unload a defense that finished third in the county after allowing 184 yards of offense per game during the regular season. Durant was No. 4, less than 1 yard per game behind the Terriers.
Durant (11-1) will present an offense based heavily on the run and play-action pass. The Cougars are led by a sophomore quarterback - Chip Bowden - who has matured rapidly during the season.
Hillsborough has its own run-based offense led by sophomore quarterback Jarred Fayson.
Both coaches agree the similarities between the teams mean in order to win, the mistakes will have to be held to a minimum.
"It's simple," Durant coach Mike Gottman said. "Whoever doesn't turn the ball over, whoever can hold on to it and doesn't shoot themselves in the foot will win the game."
For Hillsborough, that means a bit of a turnaround from last week's 26-20 victory against Winter Springs.
"We certainly made enough mistakes last week to lose," coach Earl Garcia said. "Two extra points blocked and a field goal blocked. First and goal on the 1, and we didn't score. A touchdown called back on a penalty. We do these things against Durant, and we're in big trouble."
Because the teams are so much alike, the theory goes they should know where the other team's weaknesses are.
That's fine, Gottman said, except he can't find any weaknesses on Hillsborough's side. Garcia agreed, calling Durant's running backs "clones" and saying any one of them can break a long touchdown run.
Despite the fact these two met in last year's region quarterfinals (which Durant won 35-19) each coach has had to bone up extra hard for tonight because of how different the squads have become.
Bowden and Fayson have stepped up as reliable passers - something neither team had last year - and the defenses have come together in spectacular fashion. Perhaps the biggest change is the fact Gottman was defensive coordinator at East Bay last season.
He said when he took over the Cougars, he told them he wanted to win the district title, knowing that would put them in the playoffs.
"We'll see what happens from there," he told them.
What has happened is Durant is in the region final for the first time in school history and it is going against a Hillsborough team that hasn't been there since 1999. "We feel real good," Gottman said as he surveyed his team attacking a buffet of fried turkeys brought by some players' fathers Tuesday night.
"We have a new life. We're pretty fired up."
- Times Staff Writer Scott Purks contributed to this report.