The Mansfield JR Tigers took 2022 by storm racking up five consecutive wins over some pretty stiff competition along the way. The Tigers hadn’t seen this kind of performance in their JR High program in many years so fans high on the hog with their success. But with all of the success Mansfield had early on in the season, they knew that the middle of their schedule would bring along tough challenges. Those challenges started on Thursday, October 6th when Mansfield traveled to Charleston to take on the perineal powerhouse black and gold Tigers. With both teams coming into the contest undefeated, both knew that only one Tiger would reign supreme.
Mansfield started off with the ball and went straight to work with their ground and pound rushing attack. Ethan Martin took the first handoff and racked up a five yard gain and like clockwork, Zander Walters was picked to run the second play and gained four yards. Typical Mansfield JR High football right? Unfortunately for the Tigers, Charleston was able to do something no team up to that point had done. Charleston punched the Tigers right in the mouth on third and fourth down shutting down the run game and forcing Mansfield to turn the ball over. With Mansfield in still in shock, Charleston gave the Tigers a dose of their own medicine as they used their own rushing attack to drive 27 yards in three plays to score. Charleston added a two point conversion to take an early 8-0 lead on the JR Tigers.
The Tigers quickly jumped back into game mode after the ensuing kickoff, but not with their normal power run game. This time they showed their depth at the running back position as Travien Copeland used speed rather than power to run the ball for a big 20 yard pick up. Quarterback Cooper Edwards then jumped into the mix by faking the handoff and keeping the ball to eat up 18 yards putting Mansfield deep in Charleston territory. A Zander Walters run brought Mansfield within striking distance at the ten yard line but on the very next play, disaster struck. Charleston tipped a Mansfield pass and intercepted the ball taking it 90 yards for what looked to be a touchdown. A little bit on laundry on the field negated the Charleston score but they would not be denied as just two plays later they put the ball in the end zone. Another two point conversion put Charleston up 16-0 as the first quarter ended.
The Tigers again tried to shift their offense into drive, but Charleston forced them into reverse instead as Mansfield was forced to punt. Charleston’s offense on the other hand was in full on overdrive. Mansfield’s defense could not shut down Charleston’s three headed monstrous offense who passed the ball well, ran the ball great, and even threw in some options. The JR Tigers helped them out a little bit too by missing assignments and not tackling well. Charleston ate up five minutes of clock in the second quarter before scoring again on the Tigers defense. The teams would go back and forth for the next couple of series with Charleston ending up with the last possession of the half. Mansfield’s defense stood strong this time though as they held Charleston at the one yard line keeping them from scoring before halftime. The bowing up of the defense was good, but a tad late as Charleston lead Mansfield 24-0 at the half.
Charleston started the second half with the ball and began swinging for a knockout punch. Although Mansfield was down, they’re defense still swung back with all they had. Unfortunately, one of those swings missed and Charleston took advantage of it with a 58 yard run for a touchdown. Now down 32-0, a lot of teams would throw in the towel, but not the Tigers. Mansfield stuck to their guns and ran the ball with Zander Walters and Ethan Martin to get some momentum going. With the rushing attack starting to gain some speed, Cooper Edwards hit Ethan Martin on a swing route pass and Martin took it 49 yards downfield from there. The Tigers used some trickery with a cross pattern handoff between Walters and Martin with Martin getting the ball for a 4 yard Tiger Touchdown. Mansfield went for the two point conversion but it failed setting the score at 32-6 in Charleston’s favor with 3:55 left in the third quarter. That’s as close as Mansfield would get though as both squads went scoreless in the fourth quarter to end the game giving Charleston the 32-6 final score and victory.
Now sitting with a 5-1 overall record and 3-1 conference record, the JR Tigers still have a shot at gaining at least a share of the conference title or conference runner-up come seasons end. But if they plan to achieve that chance, they have to learn from their recent loss. Sometimes it takes a shot to the ol’ kisser for a team to realize that no matter how good they think they are, they will always have work to do. But they will have to work in a quick manner because the next team on their door step is the Booneville Bearcats. It’s been two years since Booneville has been in the 3A-1 so the players on the JR Tigers team have not had the chance to face them yet in their career and know little about the Bearcats. A win over such a prized program as Booneville could catapult them sky high while a loss could be detrimental to the rest of their season. Either way, the game is set and both teams will have to be ready when Mansfield hosts the Bearcats on Thursday, October 13th.
