Wildcats fall to Belle Plaine in district opener

 DURANT — Durant welcomed in the rushing leaders in Class A District 6 last Thursday when Belle Plaine came to town. The Plainsmen are the top rushing team through the first four non-district games of 2019. Belle Plaine rushed for 291 yards on 56 carries for a 5.1-yard per carry average to help them secure a 32-14 win over Durant. The Wildcats fell to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in district play while Belle Plaine improved to 3-2 and 1-0 in district play. The loss was the first District 6 loss in two years. Last year, Durant beat Belle Plaine 38-16 last year in Belle Plaine. The game was moved to Thursday, from Friday, to beat the expected poor weather moving in late last week.
 Belle Plaine took a 14-0 halftime lead and never trailed. Belle Plaine extended their lead to 20-0 when Luke DeMeulenaere returned the second half kick-off 85 yards for a touchdown. Belle Plaine led 26-0 before Durant scored their first touchdown on a 5-yard Nolan DeLong scoring run. Belle Plaine scored on their ensuing drive to set the score at 32-7. A late Keagan Head touchdown pass to Marcus Engstler for 10 yards to set the final score at 32-14.
 Keagan Head passed for 165 yards on 14-of-21 attempts with one touchdown and one interception. He also rushed for 38 yards on ten carries. Nolan DeLong rushed for 57 yards on 11 carries and had one touchdown. Four Wildcat receivers caught three or more passes. DeLong caught four passes for 42 yards. Engstler had three catches for 47 yards and a touchdown. Jake Willkomm caught three passes for 35 yards, and Tony Dillabough had three catches for 32 yards.
 Defensively, Engstler had a team-high 14 tackles and Nolan DeLong had 13 tackles. Dillabough had 7 and Jake Willkomm had 6 tackles. The Plainsmen threw for only eight yards and had 291 rushing yards. Trevin Straight rushed for a team-high 144 yards and two touchdowns. Straight is ranked in the top-10 in Class A for rushing. Luke DeMeulenaere rushed for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Defensively, Luke DeMeulenaere and Trevin Straight led Belle Plaine with eight tackles each.