Tonight’s the night. The night football fans have all been waiting for. The night that for the first time in 21 years, the Mansfield Sr High Tigers and the Magazine Sr High Rattlers will come face to face in a bloodthirsty non-conference battle royal. This will be the first non-scrimmage game of the schedule for each team and it very well could set the tone for the rest of the season. “Magazine is highly regarded and considered a favorite to win their conference,” explained head coach, Tim Cothran. “They have a big physical line along with great skill athletes. We are excited to be playing them because this will be a good test for us.”
Last season, the Tigers finished 5th in their 3A-1 division and ended with a total season record of 7-4. Magazine ranked undefeated 5-0 in their 2A-4 division and 8-2 in total season play. The Rattlers lost seven seniors from the 2019-2020 season while Mansfield said good-bye to a whopping 12 seniors including All-American QB, Ethan Stovall. “We are relying heavily on our seniors. Randall Claude and Bri Sanderson are two seniors that will need to set the tone for us.” Junior, Zayne Dugan is manning the Quarterback position for the Tigers this season. “Zayne will be relied upon to a great degree to lead our offense.”
When Mansfield took on Mena in last week’s scrimmage, the Tigers needed a minute to get warmed up but once they did, they were unshakable. “We can’t have any slow starts night. We started way too slow in our match against Mena. We have got to hit the ground running. But once we did get going in Mena, I was very pleased. Magazine is going to be a good challenge for our line. I think both teams are starting new bodies on the line as well. Their skill guys are more experienced than ours so it’s going to be interesting to see how we play tonight.”
The Mansfield Tigers will be playing in Magazine tonight, August 28 starting at 7 pm.
