Tygers slip past Knights in rain-soaked affair
On a wet and rainy night in Mansfield, victory, or a shot at it, slipped right through the hands of West Holmes Friday night, Oct. 9.After the Knights battled back to tie the game at 14-all in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, Mansfield Senior running back Terrell Dorsey broke through several tackles and scampered down the right sideline for a 63-yard scoring jaunt to give the Tygers a 21-14 win.
It was the fifth loss in a row for the Knights.
“Once again, we were just talking about it, it was missed tackles,” West Holmes coach Tom Eastep said. “I can’t be mad at the kids. The effort is there. We’re just not real good at tackling.
“We like to jump and leave our feet instead of wrapping and driving through people,” the coach continued. “It seemed like when we need a big hit or a big tackle, we just don’t get it.”
The Knights made Tyger sophomore running back Terrell Dorsey look more like former Denver running back Terrell Davis, as the speedster, who came into the game averaging less than three yards per carry, scored on a pair of long runs to finish the night with 142 yards on seven carries.
Both teams slogged through a scoreless first quarter, but the Tygers took advantage of a short field and put together a scoring drive of 12 plays, covering 48 yards, to take the lead early in the second quarter.
Quarterback Terrence Deemer scored on a bootleg from three yards out at 11:18 of the second period. Mike Evans tacked on the conversion kick for a 7-0 lead for the Tygers.
The Knights answered with a methodical 16-play drive that covered 74 yards and chewed up nearly nine minutes of the second quarter. Brandon Mackey did most of the work on the drive, carrying it eight times, but Zach Mathie scrambled in from six yards out to close the gap to 7-6. A high snap on the PAT attempt caused the kick to be blocked and West Holmes trailed 7-6 with 2:34 remaining in the first half.
On second-and-10 of the ensuing drive, Dorsey broke loose up the gut and darted 58 yards for a score to give the Tygers a 14-6 lead at intermission.
The third quarter was a scoreless battle, as was most of the fourth quarter.
The Knights finally managed to put together another scoring drive, covering 43 yards in eight plays, with Mathie taking it in the final 15 yards for the score. A steady dose of Mackey, who finished with 83 yards on 21 carries on the night, opened the door for Mathie to fake a handoff to the burly back and scamper untouched into the end zone.
Mackey then bulled his way into the end zone for the two-point conversion to knot things at 14, only to see Mansfield strike back three plays later for the 63-yard backbreaker.
“The effort was there, we just weren’t able to pull it off when we needed it. We’ve just got to get our young kids playing better and get our seniors to hang in there and not give up,” Eastep said. “Five losses in a row is tough for this senior group. Our kids don’t have any quit in them, at least up to this point. We’ve got to keep working on that and keep getting our younger kids better.”
One glaring statistic that didn’t help the Knights was the lack of a passing game. Mathie managed to complete only two passes in eight attempts for seven yards.
“If you know football, it’s no secret: our passing game has to help our running game,” Eastep said. “In the second half, they just put nine guys in the box. Nobody respects our passing game. We’ve got to figure out a way to fix that.”
Despite the loss, the coach expects the team will continue to play with a lot of heart.
“I’m from West Holmes and I have a lot of pride,” Eastep said. “Just because you lose a game, it isn’t the end of the world. We’ve got to keep coming and trying to get better every week.
“When I played, we went 0-9-1 and came back the next year and went 9-1,” he continued. “It’s all about staying within yourself and trying to get better every week. I thought it was a decent effort tonight. They just got two big plays on us, and our offense didn’t do much.”