DAYTONA BEACH - The Cougars had not only broken down the tapes on Daytona Beach Mainland, they had flipped them, reversed them and just about worn them out.
So what happened Friday to Mainland's passing game? How did it suddenly get so darned efficient?
"Shoot, we didn't expect any passing," Durant defensive lineman Kenneth Crosby said. "On the tape they didn't pass at all. They were run, run, run.
"Run, run, run."
Mainland still did its share of running, racking up 214 yards, but it didn't do much of it on crucial third downs. That's where lefthanded quarterback Jon Garner stepped up, hitting one wide-open receiver after another.
The Bucs ended up converting 12 of 16 third-down attempts, with Garner throwing for eight of those.
It turns out Mainland watched its share of tape as well.
"We thought (Durant) had some weaknesses (in the secondary) that we could attack," said Garner, who finished 12-of-17 for 119 yards. "Then our offensive line and receivers did their job. They got open and I just hit them."
As far as the notion of feeling more pressure on third down, Garner just shrugged and said, "Every play is a big play in a game like this. You don't think about what down it is. You just do it."
Arguably the biggest conversion for Mainland was a third-and-6 from its own 35-yard line with five minutes remaining. If Durant, which had just scored a quick touchdown to cut the gap to 16-14, got a stop on that play, it would have forced the Bucs into punting into a stiff wind.
Instead Garner smoothly swung a pass to Travis Parks, who stretched to make the first down by a yard. From there, Mainland drove in for its final touchdownwith two minutes on the clock.
In the end, Mainland had 24 first downs to Durant's eight, a fact Durant coach Mike Gottman said he felt all too well, particularly when it came to all those third-down conversions.
"We simply couldn't get enough stops," Gottman said. As Crosby said, "They caught us off guard with the passing. We just didn't expect that."
