MANSFIELD — Ricky Mills and his Mansfield Senior teammates threw a sack party Friday night.
Mills had 3.5 of Senior High’s six quarterback sacks and the fifth-seeded Tygers blanked No. 13 Defiance 16-0 in a Division III regional quarterfinal game at Arlin Field.
Mansfield Senior (10-2) will play top-seeded Parma Heights Holy Name (9-2) in the regional semifinals at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 at a site to be determined. Holy Name beat No. 8 Lutheran West 20-10.
How overwhelming was Senior High’s defense on an unseasonably warm and breezy early-November night?
The Tygers allowed just 23 rushing yards on 33 Defiance attempts. The Bulldogs (7-5) averaged less than a yard a carry.
Defiance quarterback Brez Zipfel was thrown for 51 yards in losses. Only two of his nine rushing attempts went for positive yardage.
Zipfel did complete 7-of-12 passes for 151 yards, but 126 of those yards came on two completions. He had a 50-yard pass to Brogan Castillo and completed a 76-yarder to Anthony Wilder, who was chased down by Senior High’s Keontez Bradley at the Tygers 2-yard line late in the third quarter.
On first and goal from the 2, Defiance running back Anthony Wilder was tackled for a 3-yard loss by Bradley. As the fourth quarter got underway, Zipfer was thrown for a 5-yard loss by Symirr Phillips. A Defiance penalty pushed the ball back to the Senior High 15 before Mills brought down Zipfel for an 8-yard loss. On fourth-and-goal from the Tygers’ 23-yard line, Zipfel was sacked by Mekhi Bradley to force a turnover on downs at the Mansfield Senior 30.
“What a thing of beauty. I don’t know how many sacks Ricky Mills had tonight but he was a sack machine,” said Senior High coach Chioke Bradley, who starred on defense for the Tygers in the early-1990s before starting for four years in the secondary at Bowling Green. “And what about Keontez? Tracking that kid down and tackling him at the 2-yard line and giving our defense a chance to fight for another day.
“We ended up forcing a turnover on at the 30-yard line. That just exemplifies what Tyger football is. … You may get a play here or there but we’re going to fight to the end.”
The 5-foot-11, 220-pound Mills, who plays defensive tackle, had two sacks on Defiance’s next drive. The possession ended when Amarr Davis stepped in front of a Zipfel pass for his second interception of the night.
“We had a great game plan going into it,” said Mills, who had eight tackles. “They sent me open to make a lot of plays.
“It’s a great feeling.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Senior High got on the board midway through the second when quarterback Duke Reese connected with Davis on a 12-yard scoring strike and a 7-0 lead.
On Defiance’s ensuing possession, Zipfel found Castillo for a 50-yard reception to the Tygers’ 20. The Bulldogs eventually reached the 10-yard line where Zipfel competed a 9-yard pass to Wilder on third-and-goal. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Castillo was stopped for no gain by Mills and Senior High took possession.
Building off the momentum created by the turnover on downs, Mansfield Senior put together its greatest drive of the season. The Tygers marched 99 yards on 14 plays, culminating with Reese’s 5-yard touchdown pass to LaLa Owens. Sean Putt’s second PAT made it 14-0 with just 17 seconds remaining in the first half.
“We went 99 yards with no penalties,” Chioke Bradley said. “That 99-yard drive set the tone for the rest of the evening and it might have taken the life out of (Defiance).”
Mansfield Senior’s only points in the second half came when Zipfel coughed up the ball near his own goal line on a Mills sack. The ball was eventually knocked out of the back of the end zone for a safety with 3:32 remaining in the third quarter.
Reese completed 10-of-19 passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns. Isaiah Darson rushed for 95 yards on 13 carries. In addition to his two interceptions on defense, Davis caught five passes for 47 yards and rushed for 35 yards on four carries.
In two playoff games, Davis has four interceptions. He has nine picks on the season.
“We knew they run a lot of play-action,” Davis said. “At first they got us but after halftime we (made an adjustment).”
For Defiance, Castillo rushed for 47 yards on 14 carries and caught two passes for 48 yards.
Wilder rushed for 14 yards on four carries and had two catches for 85 yards.
“They are a heavy-run team and a very good football team,” Bradley said of the Bulldogs. “They do some things well, it’s just once they get behind they have to do some things they don’t really want to do.”
