The Mansfield Jr Tigers faced a familiar foe on Thursday, October 29th in the Cedarville Pirates. The Jr Pirates had held the Tigers number the past few years and the Tigers knew this game wouldn’t be a walk in the park. Mansfield chose to receive the ball on the opening kickoff and sent the offense on the field to start racking up points. Unfortunately, the Pirates fired all defensive cannons at will and sent Mansfield off the field with a quick three and out. Mansfield’s defense was up next and they repaid what the Pirates had looted from them sending Cedarville out on a three and out also.
Back and forth the teams went as both offenses tried to get their feet under them. Trey Powell was able to take a blistering run for 23 yards and everyone knew at that point that it was game on. Unfortunately, miscommunications and penalties kept the Tigers offense with their noses just above the water. It was a cold night and the Tiger defense must’ve been frozen to the ground at the beginning of the second quarter when Cedarville’s power back blasted right up the middle of the field for a big run and touchdown. After the Pirates tacked on the two-point conversion, Mansfield was down 8-0.
Mansfield would not let an iceberg touchdown sink them though. The Tigers got the ball back and went right to work. Quarterback, Peyton Martin, scrambled out of the pocket to pick up positive yardage and then hit Toby Towe with a precision pass for a Mansfield Tiger first down. After the big catch followed by big runs by Martin, Powell, and Jeremy Strozier, Cedarville called a time out to patch the hole in their boat. Apparently, they didn’t use Flex Seal though because the tigers came right back at the Pirates with a barrage of runs by Powell and Strozier. Martin then zipped a pass to Tyler Turnipseed for a big gain, but a penalty brought the ball back. The Tigers made a mistake and quickly made up for it as Martin found a wide-open Powell in the end zone for a Tiger touchdown with 3:02 left in the first quarter.
With defenders Towe and Dakota Langford punching holes in the Pirates hulls at every snap of the ball, Cedarville wound up turning the ball over on downs to Mansfield again. It was now time for Mansfield’s offense to drop a Tiger Torpedo on the Pirates. A quick pass to Strozier and then to Towe drew the Pirates defense to load one side of the field which the Tigers made them pay for. Mansfield called a timeout and on the ensuing play, Martin connected with Turnipseed for another Tiger TD. Turnipseed tacked on the two-point conversion and the score was set at 14-8 Mansfield going into halftime.
After the half, Cedarville came out cannons blazing………but so did the Tigers. Mansfield’s defense began to shred Cedarville’s game plan piece by piece. Although there were big-time solo tackles, for the most part, every ball carrier in blue and white was met with an ambush of red jerseys. Mansfield did miss the boat on one play though as the Pirates took a quick run for a score tying the game up toward the end of the third quarter. But that would be the last time Mansfield would allow something like that to happen.
As the teams entered the fourth quarter tied, it was clear both teams were tied on the field as well. No one could get the edge on the other. As the clock ticked down, Cedarville began to make costly mistakes. Dakota Langford recovered not one, but two fumbles by the Pirates to help set up the game-winning drive for Mansfield. Mansfield started driving the ball with runs by Powell and Strozier. As the Pirates began to key on the Tiger’s running backs, Peyton Martin found a gap for a first down. Then another. Then another. Then the end zone as Martin darted in from a yard out. Martin then doubled down and put up the two-point conversion giving the Tigers a 22-14 lead with only 24 seconds left in the game. Out of an act of desperation, Cedarville threw a hail marry pass and the ball dropped right into the hands of Tyler Turnipseed for the nail in the coffin interception. The final in this thriller of a game was Mansfield 22 / Cedarville 14.
You don’t win games with defenses or offenses, you win them with a pure 100% team and Mansfield proved that. The Jr Tigers improve to 3-3 in conference on the season as they continue to grow as a team and rewrite their 2020 season. Next Tuesday, the Tigers will travel into hostile territory as they go to Hackett to take on the Hornets in what is sure to be another great Jr High face-off.
PASSING
NAME COMP ATT YDS TD INT
PEYTON MARTIN 7 13 85 2 1
RUSHING
NAME ATT YDS TD
PEYTON MARTIN 8 48 1
TREYSHON POWELL 5 33 0
JEREMY STROZIER 4 25 0
ZANDER WALTERS 1 1 0
RECEIVING
NAME REC YDS TD
TYLER TURNIPSEED 3 44 1
TOBIAS TOWE 2 21 0
TREYSHON POWELL 1 13 1
JEREMY STROZIER 1 7 0
TOTALS
192 YDS, 3 TD, 0 FUMBLE, 1 INTERCEPTION
85 YDS PASSING, 107 YDS RUSHING
1 SACK/-4 YDS
2/3 PAT (MARTIN TO TURNIPSEED, MARTIN RUN)
TYLER TURNIPSEED 1 INT, JEREMY STROZIER FUMBLE CAUSED, DAKOTA LANGFORD 2 FUMBLES REC
