For Thursday night football the Mansfield 7th grade Tigers hosted the Paris Eagles with the intention of doing everything in their power to hold tight to their undefeated season. The game was evenly paced to start with the Tigers merely toying with the Eagles allowing them to think that they might have a chance to win. But when the Eagles least expected it. BAM! Mansfield grounded Paris from their flight and took the win 34-14 securing their undefeated title and upgrading their season record to 3-0.
Paris was first to put points on the board mere minutes into the start of the game and by the halfway mark the score read 14-0 Paris. But in true Tiger fashion, Mansfield had their prey right where they wanted them and it was time for the takedown. Sharpshooter, Brandon Raynor, got his hands on the ball for a 60 yard run downfield snatching the first Tiger touchdown and setting the score to 14-6 Paris. With 13 seconds left in the half, Quarterback, Jeremy Strozier, threw a beautiful spiral to Austin Oldham who ran the ball in for a 59-yard touchdown and with a Strozier quarterback keeper for the two-point conversion, Mansfield and Paris walked into halftime tied 14-14.
With fans barely able to get back to their seats for the second half of the game, the action was already kicking off. The Tigers ball got intercepted by Paris who immediately turned around and fumbled it allowing Mansfield to snatch it back up as if nothing had happened. After a Strozier handoff to rapidly charged Running Back, Trey Powell, for a huge run resulted in a Tiger touchdown, the score sat 20-14 Mansfield.
Now with the upper hand, the Tigers wanted to make sure that the Eagles couldn’t come back and try to steal the victory. So dynamic duo Strozier and Winston Allison teamed up to add another touchdown to the board. Coupled with the extra two-point conversion by Strozier and the Tigers stayed in the lead 28-14. With 10 seconds left in the game, Strozier locked down a 25-yard run, perfectly setting his team up for one more attempt at glory. With the clock reading 0:00, Powell rooted down one more Tiger touchdown and the game came to an end 34-14 Mansfield. The Mansfield Tigers will play away at West Fork on September 26 starting at 5:30 p.m.
