Running back’s career game helps Douglass to second straight district crown
Darius Neal of Frederick Douglass picked a pretty good spot for the best game of his career.
Neal rushed for 168 yards and three of his four touchdowns, including the Broncos’ first three scores in a 39-21 win over Scott County Friday at the Birds’ Nest as Douglass captured its second straight 6th District title and a berth in next week’s regional finals of the Class 5A state playoffs.
Neal knows he’s a big part of the offense. He didn’t think he’d be this big a part Friday.
“I mean, I want to, but not everything goes to plan,” Neal said. “So I just got out there, and when I got the ball, I made plays.”
Neal’s first touchdown set a tone for the night. Douglass penalties negated two straight would-be scores on its opening drive and put the Broncos in a third-and-17 situation on Scott County’s 47-yard line. That was a perfect spot for the first receiving TD of Neal’s career on Douglass’s third try. Neal made a double-move on his pass pattern out of the backfield, caught the ball over the middle and sprinted into the end zone.
“Not many people see me as a receiving back, so just to get that and put it on the map — that, you don’t just have to watch out for me running, you’re going to see something else — that takes my game to a different level,” he said.
Overcoming penalties would be another theme for the night for Douglass. The Broncos racked up 17 flags for a total of 219 negative yards. In one third quarter sequence, Douglass got whistled for four consecutive penalties: a holding call, an illegal block, an unsportsmanlike conduct, and another illegal block.
“We had some penalties, and I think a lot of that is attributed to the emotions of a rivalry game,” Douglass Coach Nathan McPeek said. Douglass has won four of the last five games against the school its staff and players only refer to as “The Team Up North.” Two attempts to play this district rivalry in the regular season were canceled due to COVID-19 issues. “We’ve got to clean those up, but our kids played really physical, man.”
Amazingly, just like in the first half when Douglass overcame two penalties for their first score, in their third-quarter flag fest, Douglass turned a first-and-35 at its own 21-yard line into a 12-play scoring drive capped by a 1-yard TD pass from Samuel Cornett to Dekel Crowdus. Crowdus, a University of Kentucky commit, led Douglass with 100 yards receiving.
But Jager Burton, the Broncos’ senior team captain, knows Douglass can’t keep accumulating flags and expect to win.
“People can argue about the refs or whatever, but we’ve got to clean that up,” said Burton, Douglass’s two-way man in the trenches and another University of Kentucky commit as an offensive lineman. “Part of that is that we’ve only really practiced and there’s no refs at practice, and we’ve got to clean that up.”
Douglass spent almost a month idle without an opponent in October due to COVID-19 cancellations.
The Broncos forced the Cardinals to punt on their first three series, but Scott County clawed into the game in the second quarter after getting the ball in Broncos’ territory after a punt return and a Broncos’ face-mask penalty on the play.
Zane Patton’s 18-yard TD pass to Jaxon Saylor cut the Douglass lead to 13-7 with 3:13 left until halftime.
Douglass answered immediately.
TJ Horton returned the ensuing kickoff 50 yards to the Scott County 30. Five plays later, Neal walked into the end zone untouched from the 1 yard line with under a minute left until half.
Neal credited his offensive line “smashing dudes” for his success. A pancake block from Burton cleared the hole. Burton couldn’t have been happier for the team’s primary rusher.
“He works so hard. He’s the hardest worker,” Burton said. “You should have seen him during corona — just him and his dad, one-on-one training sessions and him posting them every day. … He deserves it all.”
Coach McPeek also praised his running back.
“I don’t know why more colleges haven’t offered him — he’s a beast,” McPeek said. “He’s proven every Friday night how good he is. A lot of people don’t talk about him, but our offensive line and him are big keys to our run in the playoffs and have been for a while.”
Douglass opened the second half with the ball and took less that two minutes for Cornett to connect with wideout Dane Key on a 38-yard TD. After another Scott County punt, Neal got two consecutive handoffs and took the second one 49 yards to put Douglass up 33-7 midway through the third quarter, essentially sealing the game.
Next up, Douglass will have to travel to Southwestern on Friday, the same opponent it beat 44-8 in the regional round last year, except, this time, it will be on the Warriors’ turf.
Regardless, Neal is ready for the next step.
“We feel as good as we’ve ever been,” Neal said. “This team came out, you can see tonight, we came out ready to play. … It’s just a testament to how hard we’ve worked.”
Highlights
This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 2:39 AM.
