Scrimmages are a great indicator of a high school team’s strengths and weaknesses before they enter non-conference play each season. These games give fans a first glance at their program in live action while giving coaches a laundry list of things to polish up. The Mansfield Tigers traveled to Mena on Thursday, August 22nd for what has become a pretty decent game over the past few years. While both teams weren’t going full tilt against each other, the result ended up being a lengthy to-do list for Mansfield as the Tigers fell 7-6 in the last half of the scrimmage.
The scrimmage was played out with the usual rules of each team getting twelve plays on offense and twelve plays on defense to allow subs to gain on-field experience followed by a game like two quarters of football with the starters. In the first series of twelve, Mansfield’s offensive backups started things off with a high pitch that was fumbled and recovered by Mena. Although the Tigers could keep the ball due to the scrimmage layout, it wasn’t how they wanted to start things off. Two plays later though, Samuel Burton took a handoff from quarterback, Cooper Edwards, and darted downfield for a 69-yard touchdown. The Tigers did not tack on the two-point conversion, leaving the score with a 6-0 Mansfield lead. Still with a handful of offensive plays left, the Tigers went right back to work with Andrew Burton who broke five tackles and continued driving the ball for a 30-yard gain until six Bearcats finally brought him down. Andrew Burton got the next handoff and again bulldozed through the Mena defense, this time for a 15-yard gain. With all defensive eyes on the Tigers’ running backs, quarterback Cooper Edwards faked a handoff and pulled a “Cooper Keeper” to stroll into the end zone for a Tiger touchdown. Samuel Burton slipped into the endzone to add on a Mansfield two-point conversion giving the Tigers a 14-0 lead to close out the Tigers twelve-play offensive series.
The second-string Tigers then showed Mansfield’s depth of defense as they beard down on the Bearcats offense for twelve plays. James Bausley kicked things off by stripping and recovering the ball from Mena on the first snap of the series. Mena busted into the open field for a score on the next play, but a penalty brought the Bearcats back which negated the points. The Bearcats continued to try to push the ball to the perimeters of the field, but the Tiger’s defensive line stretched them out to allow linebackers Dalton Knowles, Alex Hecox, and Pacen Strozier to clean up with tackles. Mansfield forced Mena into passing situations which allowed defensive lineman, Matthew Burton, to feast on a couple of quarterback sacks. While no score was kept on the scoreboard for the series of twelves, the score on paper put the Tigers with a 14-0 win in the scrimmage of backups. Overall, the Tigers’ so-called subs held their own against a larger Mena squad showing that even with just a 21-man roster, the Tigers are deep with talent.
For the second section of the scrimmage, both teams played a game-like half of football with the clock running and all game-day rules in effect. Mena’s offense took the field first allowing the Tigers to show that their defense from the 2023 season wasn’t a fluke. The Tigers only allowed Mena to gain 21 yards on their first series before forcing the Bearcats to punt. It didn’t take long for Mansfield’s offense to strike as Daniel Burton took a handoff on the third play of the series for a 58-yard touchdown. But hold everything, there was a flag on the play which took the Tigers points off the scoreboard. A few solid runs by Andrew Burton, Trey Powell, and Daniel Burton put the Tigers back in scoring range at the four-yard line, but a fumble shut the drive down giving Mena the ball. The Bearcats wasted little time capitalizing on Mansfield’s fumble as Mena stormed downfield for a 96-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive. The Bearcats tacked on the extra point kick to set the score up with a 7-0 Mena lead. Mansfield jumped right back into the mix once they got the ball back though as Daniel Burton again made his way to the endzone, this time with a 62-yard run for a touchdown and no yellow laundry on the field. The Tigers went for a two-point conversion to take the lead but didn’t cross the line leaving Mena with a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter of play.
For the final quarter of the scrimmage, both Mena and Mansfield played like a pair of rams battling for the top spot on the mountain. Scoreboards and records may have meant nothing in this scrimmage, but each team still gave it their all. Unfortunately for Mansfield’s offense, there were multiple fumbles, miscues, and penalties mixed into their final quarter which prevented them from putting together a successful drive. The Tigers defense held their own and kept Mena from going into the endzone again, but the Tigers couldn’t stop the clock with enough time to get their offense a shot at a decent drive. The scrimmage overall was a good one for both teams involved as both Mansfield and Mena put on quite the show. True, mistakes were made on Mansfield’s side and the Tigers ended up falling to Mena with a 7-6 final score, but it was a solid scrimmage for the players to get the bugs out of their system before regular season play begins.
The Tigers weren’t alone in their scrimmage loss as Booneville, Charleston, Hackett, and Lavaca also all dropped their scrimmages this week leaving each program in the southern 3A-1 with a foul taste heading into the non-conference schedule. Even though no coach plays their entire starting squad for a full scrimmage and the final scores won’t land on a program’s record, a loss of any kind lands hard on a team’s pride. Pride or not though, the season will still move forward as Week0 begins next week for the Tigers making every game count in the record book from then on. Mansfield will have to put their scrimmage against Mena behind them and fix their mistakes as they travel to Bismarck next week to take on a senior-heavy Bismarck Lions team. Bismarck had the same kind of shocking success last season as the Tigers and was in attendance at the Mena scrimmage to scout their upcoming opponent. Both teams have been pegged to be 3A hurricanes in 2024 preseason talk so with all of the big games next week, you won’t want to miss this particular Week0 game on Friday, August 30th. Kickoff will be at 7:00 pm in Bismarck.
