Hutch Blackstone started the game in head coach Chioke Bradley’s doghouse.
When time expired Friday at Arlin Field, Mansfield Senior’s kicker was in the penthouse.
Blackstone booted field goals of 24, 34 and 25 yards as the Tygers remained unbeaten with a 23-17 Ohio Cardinal Conference win over West Holmes.
An athletic 6-foot-3 senior and a member of Senior High’s soccer team, Blackstone usually practices only two or three times a week with the football team. Soccer obligations kept him away from football practice all last week.
“It was kind of an off week. I only practiced once and it was by myself,” said Blackstone, who is 8 for 10 on field goal attempts, 32 for 34 on PATs and has scored 56 points. “I didn’t even kick with the football team. Chioke was all over me for that.”
It didn’t help matters when Blackstone’s first kickoff landed in the arms of West Holmes’ Brady Arnold. The shifty return man brought the ball out to his own 40 yard line.
Blackstone had been instructed to kick the ball away from Arnold.
“That first kickoff wasn’t the greatest and (Bradley) said, ‘That’s what you get for not coming to practice all week,’ ” Blackstone said. “I kicked it right to him.
“But I guess I made up for it in other ways.”
Mansfield Senior (7-0, 4-0) grabbed a quick 7-0 lead when quarterback Jalen Reese ran untouched for a 27 yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage. Reese, who celebrated his 18th birthday Friday, rushed for 41 yards on the night.
“I don’t carry the ball a lot, but on all of our run plays I have the option to keep it,” Reese said. “If the defensive end crashes, I pull the ball. The end crashed a lot tonight so I got my share of yards.”
When he wasn’t slicing through the West Holmes defense, Reese was spreading the ball to his stable of talented receivers. He completed 16 of 27 passes to five receivers for 201 yards and has now thrown for a school record 4,801 career yards.
“I’ve never seen a quarterback at this level have that much command and poise as he does,” West Holmes coach Kevin Maltarich said.
The Knights (5-2, 2-2), who benefitted from Arnold’s big return after the Reese TD, responded on their opening drive when Luke Ogi scored on a 28 yard run. Ogi added an 87 yard scoring run in the second quarter to tie the score at 14-14.
“The kid can run,” Maltarich said. “When he gets out in the open field, there are very few kids who are going to catch that kid.”
Blackstone booted a 24 yard field goal with 2:58 remaining in the first half to give the Tygers a 17-14 advantage and added a 34 yarder just four seconds before halftime for a 20-14 lead.
“At the time when I was kicking, we had the lead so there wasn’t that much pressure,” Blackstone said. “But when you look back on it, (the kicks) were a lot bigger than I thought they were.”
Blackstone’s 25 yard field goal late in the third quarter gave the Tygers a 23-14 lead, but West Holmes made it a one score game midway through the fourth quarter when Logan Gallion booted a 25 yard field goal to make it 23-17 with 5:20 to play.
Senior High managed one first down on its ensuing possession, but was forced to punt the ball away with 1:47 remaining. Blackstone, who took over the punting responsibilities when Robert Jones was lost for the season to a hand injury, pinned the Knights at their own 5 yard line
“He did a lot of work in the offseason, going to different camps and getting better,” Bradley said. “We told him all summer long that at some point we were going to lean on him and to be ready to go whenever that moment came. Tonight was that night and he did a great job.
“He’s one of the top kickers in the state.”
The Knights, who rely heavily on their ground game, couldn’t get out from the shadow of their own goal line before turning the ball over on downs on their final possession. The Tygers killed the clock to improve to 7-0 for what is believed to be the first time since 1923.
“It’s a great feeling for the city of Mansfield and it’s a great feeling for the Tyger football program,” Bradley said. “I love these kids and I love Senior High. I’m just excited. I don’t know what else to say.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
