BY JADEE O’STEEN
Special to the Telegraph-Times-Monitor
The Union County Tigers made quite the statement in front of a standing room-only crowd at Marvin Pritchett Field on Sept. 2, causing four turnovers and getting two touchdowns each from A.J. Cortese and Rayvon Durant in defeating visiting Class 3S Columbia 31-27.
This will easily be the game that everyone remembers from this season. It was a very anticipated matchup between the neighboring county schools, as they hadn’t played each other in since almost a century.
Union (1-1) was definitely considered the underdogs in this game against the former Class 6A visitors, who fell to 0-2.
“A lot of people doubted us going into this game,” said running back Durant, who had a total of 173 yards, with two touchdowns. He went on to say, “We knew exactly what we needed to do after halftime, and we came out on top.”
Durant was selected for player of the game.
Union had a total of 255 rushing yards and 336 total yards. The Tigers forced three fumbles, including two of by quarterback Tyler Jefferson, a University of Central Michigan commit.
The Tigers also had some of their previous star players back in action. Linebacker Dayviontae Thomas returned to the field after an injury kept him on the sideline for the first game. He had five tackles against Columbia.
Head Coach Andrew Thomas said, “When you have a player like Dayviontae, who can change the dynamic of the game, it makes our team a lot stronger.” He claimed that it was great to have him back on the field and that he will only get more playing time as the season progresses.
Defensive lineman Markus Strong, who had an ACL injury last year, had eight tackles (four for loss) and two sacks. He said, “It’s great to be back. It was a different atmosphere tonight.”
Strong, who also forced a fumble, said, “Everyone counted us out of this game. We were the 20-point underdogs, but we fought through adversity and showed them who we are.”
Jimmy Cox, Timmy Taylor and Thomas Williams each finished with five tackles, with Cox and Taylor each recovering a fumble.
It was a game of great defense on Union County’s side, but it was also great offensively. Quarterback Cortese had a big night, throwing for 81 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 73 yards. Cortese hooked up with Gavin Jenkins for a 41-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
Daylyn Diston had an interception and two catches for 21 yards. Diston helped the defense lock down Columbia wideout Cameron Frier (an FSU commit) and limit him to one catch for 3 yards.
“We knew we had to bring the pressure to win this game,” Thomas said. He added that the coaches had switched up some things on defense and applied pressure to help out the defensive backs.
The Tigers are off this week and will resume play in Gainesville on Friday, Sept. 16, against P.K. Yonge at 7 p.m. The Class 1S Blue Wave are 0-1 after a 48-21 loss to Class 2S Eastside on Aug. 26.
P.K. Yonge, a former Class 3A team, went 8-4 in 2021, which included a 1-1 record in the playoffs. One of the team’s losses came against Union by a score of 28-13.
