Pictured #61 Zach Lowe
The Mansfield Sr Tigers knew that nothing would come easy this season. With a schedule full of daunting opponents, the Tigers started their “Death Row” slate of games Friday night at Greenland against the Pirates. The Tigers went back and forth all game with Greenland but eventually fell 21-18.
Greenland started off the game with an onside kick in an attempt to keep the ball away from the high powered Tigers offense, but it was to no avail as the Tigers recovered the ball. Mansfield drove the ball with a couple of quick plays but the Pirate defense was ready. As Greenland took over, Mansfield gave the pirates a taste of their own medicine laying the boom down on everyone in a green uniform. Greenland was forced to punt…..big mistake. Layton Howard took the Pirates punt and turned on the jets to scream downfield for the first points of the game.
The Tigers took a 6-0 lead but didn’t make the extra point after the score. After the Mansfield defense shut down another attempt by the Pirates offense, the Tigers took over again. Ethan Stovall threw an interception giving Greenland the ball right back, but only eleven seconds later, Tyler Holmes showed he had the Tiger QBs back as he picked off a Pirates pass giving Mansfield the ball right back. At the end of the first quarter, the Tigers led 6-0.
Mansfield came out in the second quarter slinging the ball all over the field. Stovall threw a strike to Tyler Holmes for a huge 27-yard boost before connecting with Howard for another Tiger touchdown giving the Tigers a 12-0 lead. The defenses held nothing back as they created a slugfest by pounding each other’s offenses for most of the second quarter. Greenland found a gap just before the close of the half with a speedy run for a score closing the gap to 12-7 before going into halftime.
Greenland started the second half with the ball, but again it was the Tiger D shutting them down from the start. Mansfield played the run game for the next series who forced the Pirates defense to tighten up, but that was all according to the master plan. The Tigers used a run play action to open up a huge Stovall to Howard 70 yard pass for a touchdown giving the Tigers an 18-7 lead with 9 minutes left in the third quarter. Greenland fired right back with a touchdown of their own setting up the scoreboard at 18-14.
The two juggernauts continued the battle deep into the fourth quarter. Standing toe to toe neither team seemed to have an answer for the other. Greenland was able to put together a drive late in the game with outside speed runs bringing them down to the 5-yard line. The Tigers held off the Pirates push for the first two downs, but the Pirates found a kink in the Mansfield defenses armor and stepped across the goal line to take their first lead of the game 21-18 with only 2:45 left.
The Mansfield offense shot downfield quickly getting into scoring range in less than a minute. Isaac Cothran got the call and pushed right to the razor’s edge of the goal line but when the dust settled, there was no touchdown. Greenland picked off the Tigers next pass with 0:46 seconds in the game and ran the clock out defeating Mansfield 21-18. The Tigers will hit the road again and head to Charleston to face the Tigers on October 11 at 7 p.m.
