Tygers use hot start, big plays to outpace Yellow Jackets

MOUNT VERNON – Coming into Friday night’s game against Mansfield Senior, Mount Vernon head coach Mike Kerr said his team would need to limit the Tygers’ big plays if it wished to be successful.

Easier said than done against a team of Mansfield Senior’s caliber.

The first two times Mansfield Senior touched the ball on Friday resulted in touchdowns. Senior Cyrus Ellerbe returned the opening kickoff 70 yards to the house, sprinting up the Yellow Jacket sideline unbothered as his teammates celebrated behind him.

Then, after a Mount Vernon three-and-out, Michigan State-signee Angelo Grose caught a screen pass and bolted up the right side of the field. He broke loose for a 93-yard touchdown run – and by the time he reached his own 30-yard-line, he had nothing but green turf ahead of him.

“I don’t know if it was focus or what it was, but it was definitely just self-inflicted wounds,” Kerr said of his team’s slow start. “When you spot a team 14 points, it’s really hard to battle back from that.”

Mansfield Senior created a comfortable lead early and never looked back, as the Tygers defeated Mount Vernon, 34-14. The Tygers improved to 8-1 (4-1 Ohio Cardinal Conference), still one game back from Wooster in the conference standings with one week left. If the Tygers beat Madison Comprehensive next week and Wooster loses to Ashland, Mansfield Senior will earn a share of the OCC title alongside Wooster and Ashland.

Mount Vernon dropped to 5-4 (2-3) with the loss. After starting the season 4-0, the Yellow Jackets have dropped four of their last five. Still, a win next week at West Holmes would give Mount Vernon its first winning season since 2013.

After scoring twice on two touches to begin the game, Mansfield Senior took a more methodical approach the rest of the first half. The Tygers capped off a three-minute, 45-yard drive with a 5-yard Amajeon Robertson touchdown run late in the first quarter. Robertson would score again following a four-minute, 65-yard drive late in the second stanza, this time from one yard out. Mansfield Senior stretched the lead to 28-0 with 4:33 left until halftime.

But it was Wyatt Gregory, Mount Vernon’s sparkplug, who kept the fight alive on Senior Night at Yellow Jacket Stadium. He ran the ball six times on a 73-yard drive at the end of the first half, ultimately scoring on a 9-yard touchdown scamper. He would score again in the fourth quarter from 8 yards out, following one of his most impressive runs of the season, a 52-yard sprint where he juked Grose to the turf near the line of scrimmage.

Gregory finished with 240 yards on 41 carries. He needs just 151 more yards to reach the 2,000-yard mark this season.

“We knew he was a great running back. We knew he was going to get his and he got his,” Mansfield Senior linebacker Terrance Flickinger said. “[Our gameplan] was mostly focused on him and how we could stop him, any way we could.”

Mount Vernon trailed 28-7 at the half but had a golden opportunity to mount a comeback early in the third quarter. Grose fumbled a punt return and the Yellow Jackets recovered the ball at the Tyger 32-yard-line. On the next play, however, Gregory coughed the ball up at the line of scrimmage and Mansfield Senior once again regained possession.

It was symbolic of a night where Mount Vernon crossed into Mansfield Senior territory seven times, but only scored twice. Penalties and turnovers plagued the Yellow Jacket offense once it got within striking distance.

“Every time it seemed like we would get something going, something would happen and we would shoot ourselves in the foot,” Kerr said. “I’ve talked about it before, our margin for error is slim. And tonight, that really showed… Again, they played great, but we made a lot of mistakes tonight. We’ve gotta be a lot more focused than that.”

Meanwhile, the Mount Vernon defense had its hands full against one of the area’s premier offensive attacks. The Tygers ran for 146 yards behind a mighty offensive line, and quarterback Cameron Todd threw 8-of-13 for 226 yards and two touchdowns. He completed two beautiful deep balls – both to Grose over the middle, and both for more than 40 yards.

“We don’t match up with their speed, obviously, and that makes it real tough because they can take the top off it at any time,” Kerr said. “We have to be perfect in our fundamentals and understanding where to fit and things like that. And when we’re not perfect, they have the speed to make it go from a 10-yard gain to an 80-yard gain. They put that pressure on you to make you play perfect.”

Grose finished with five catches for 193 yards and a score. Flickinger tallied 101 yards on 17 carries. The Tygers were efficient and disciplined all night long; they committed just five penalties (Mount Vernon had 12) and converted 4-of-7 third-down attempts.

“It’s those big plays,” Kerr reiterated. “You know, third-and-long and we weren’t able to get them off the field. It’s unfortunate that [Grose] was able to make the plays and our kids weren’t. We knew that those things were coming and we thought we had a gameplan for it, but unfortunately they executed and we weren’t able to come up with those big plays.”

After suffering their first loss of the season last week, a one-point heartbreaker at Wooster, Flickinger said Mansfield Senior embraced a must-win mentality this week.

“No more setbacks,” Flickinger said. “Our whole team has to come in like it’s their last year playing, you know. They gotta look at it from our standpoint. We don’t want to go home and not go farther in the playoffs our senior year.”

Scoring early on Friday was huge for Mansfield Senior’s confidence, Flickinger said. The Tygers got in a groove and never looked back.

“I feel like we’re unstoppable once we get going,” Flickinger said.

WHAT’S NEXT: Mount Vernon will hit the road next Friday for its final game of the season, at West Holmes (3-6, 1-4 OCC). Kerr expects his team to rebound from this week’s loss and finish the year strong.

“This is obviously not the way we wanted to send these guys out here,” Kerr said of the team’s 17 seniors. “They deserve to be sent out on a high note. But we’ve got one more opportunity and we’re going to put everything we can into winning that next game.

“We’re going to send these guys out winners, we’re going to do everything we can to send them out winners. I know that that’s going to be their focus and I’m just looking forward to next week, because we’re going to get after it and get it done.”

Mansfield Senior will return home next Friday to face Madison Comprehensive (0-9, 0-5), which has lost 35 out of its last 36 games. The Tygers are currently ranked second in Div. III Region 10, and while they won’t gain ground in the computer rankings by beating Madison, Flickinger said the team still plans on treating it like a playoff game.

“We try to prepare for them and look at them as if they’re Sandusky, Norwalk, West Holmes,” Flickinger said. “Just ‘cause their record’s bad doesn’t mean an upset can’t happen. So we look at them as if we’re preparing for the playoffs or playing any other good team.”