Tyquan Vickers was every bit as elusive after Friday’s game as he was during Mansfield Senior’s rain-delayed 40-0 win over Clear Fork.
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Vickers rushed for a career-high 261 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries as the Tygers improved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference. The speedy sophomore was nowhere to be found after the win, but record-setting quarterback Jalen Reese was glad to speak on Vickers’ behalf.
“We knew Tyquan was capable of putting up big numbers,” said Reese, who completed 13 of 20 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns. “We are known for our spread and our passing game, but we can run the ball when we need to. When you have balance on offense, it puts the (opposing) defense in a bind.
“A lot of credit goes to the offensive line. Those guys up front dominated.”
When Vickers wasn’t running wild, Mansfield Senior’s rugged defense was smothering Clear Fork’s offense. The Colts (2-2, 0-1) managed just 122 total yards. Of Clear Fork’s 45 offensive plays, 16 results in for negative yardage.
“We definitely challenged them this week to get us a shutout,” Senior High coach Chioke Bradley said. “We’ve known for quite some time that those guys were capable of doing just that and we were just waiting on them to put it all together and do it.
“Clear Fork did a great job of making some plays but when it was all said and done defensively, those guys did a phenomenal job of bending but not breaking.”
Mansfield Senior jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead when Reese hooked up with Robert Jones on a 9-yard scoring strike early in the first quarter. But on the ensuing kickoff, Clear Fork’s Silas Finley fielded the ball at his own 9 yard line and raced 75 yards before being dragged down at the Mansfield Senior 16. A facemask penalty on the Tygers gave the Colts a first-and-goal at the 8 yard line, but Senior High’s defense stiffened. Quarterback Kadin Chrastina was thrown for a 5 yard loss on first down and a 12 yard loss on third and goal from the 12. On fourth down, Mansfield Senior linebacker Antonio Sanderfer sacked Chrastina back at the 30 yard line to force a turnover on downs.
“We had our chances in the first half,” Clear Fork coach Dave Carroll said. “Their defense in incredible. We tried to tell our linemen how quick they are. It’s hard to simulate that in practice.
“You can tell we got whooped up front. We have blocking rules that are simple as they can be but I don’t think we were following them.”
Mansfield Senior dug into its bag of tricks on the first play of the ensuing drive. Slot receiver Asante’ Wilder went in motion from left to right and took a lateral from Reese. Wilder looked like he would run, but instead pulled up and lofted a strike to Mario Davison, who was all alone behind the Clear Fork secondary for a 70 yard touchdown.
The Tygers pushed their lead to 21-0 early in the second quarter when Reese found Chek Washington for an 8 yard TD pass. Senior High added a safety with 2:11 to play in the first half and took a 23-0 advantage to halftime.
That is when the storms that powered through Richland County reached Arlin Field.
When second half action finally resumed after a lengthy lightning delay, the Tygers turned to Vickers and the ground game. On Senior High’s second series of the second half, Vickers ran virtually untouched around the right end for a 68 yard score and a 30-0 Mansfield Senior lead. About 3 1/2 minutes later, he raced 67 yards for a score on the exact same play.
“You’ve got to give the offensive line a lot of credit,” Bradley said. “They did a great job of opening up some holes for him. We threw for 264 yards and also rushed for 284 yards. It all starts up front.”
Clear Fork marched deep into Senior High territory late in the fourth quarter but the Tygers turned the Colts away four time from inside their own 5 yard line to preserve the shutout.
“When I played at Clear Fork, we never played against anything like that,” Carroll said. “We would have probably all went home and cried to our mothers if they would have told us we had to play these type of schools with these type of athletes.
“The good news is that team was picked to be the best team in the league. We’ve got that one out of the way.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
