BRUNSWICK — It was a tale of two halves — and one fateful penalty.
Playing without Kent State recruit Keontez Bradley in the second half, fifth-seeded Mansfield Senior came off the rails in a 17-16 loss to top-seeded Parma Heights Holy Name in a Division III, Region 10 semifinal game at Brunswick Auto Mart Stadium.
Holy Name will play 10th-seeded Parma Padua for the Region 10 championship at 7 p.m. Nov. 18 at a site to be determined. Padua pounded No. 6 Norton 35-7 in Friday’s other Region 10 semifinal.
Senior High (10-3) dominated early, building a 16-3 halftime lead. Duke Reese tossed a pair of touchdown passes in adverse weather conditions as the remnants of Hurricane Nicole churned through northern Ohio.
The first was an 86-yarder to Bradley, who went in motion across the formation and took a shovel pass from Reese before turning the corner and out-running the Holy Name secondary. Sean Putt’s PAT gave the Tygers a 10-3 lead with 1:32 remaining in the first quarter.
Reese’s second TD pass came after the Tygers forced a turnover on down at midfield with 5:25 remaining in the second quarter. Three plays later, Reese lofted a pass for Amarr Davis, who out-jumped a Holy Name defensive back and toppled into the end zone for a 39-yard TD. Putt’s extra-point sailed wide in the swirling winds and the Tygers led 16-3 with 4:18 to play in the first half.
The game changed on Holy Name’s final possession of the first half. With less than a minute remaining and the Green Wave facing a third-and-10 from their own 40, shifty quarterback Jayvon Williams scrambled out of trouble and turned the corner for a big gain into Tyger territory, but the play was nullified after Holy Name was flagged for a blindside block on Bradley. The senior left the field under his own power, but didn’t pass concussion protocol during halftime.
“One of the biggest plays that happened tonight was late in the second quarter. One of their players got a blindside 15-yard hit on Keontez,” Senior High coach Chioke Bradley said. “He wasn’t able to come back to the game due to concussion protocol and that really hurt us.
“We had to move some guys around and we had to play the biggest game of the season with some guys who normally wouldn’t be playing. That took a little bit out of us defensively.”
The Tygers got the ball to start the second half and marched into Holy Name territory, but turned the ball over on down at the Green Wave 44 when Ricky Mills was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-two.
“We felt like we could get some movement up front. We had been running the ball pretty well,” Chioke Bradley said of the decision to go for it. “We had a guy miss a block. We had everybody else blocked except for one guy. He slipped through and got Ricky and it was a turnover on downs.
“It snowballed after that.”
Seizing on the momentum, Holy Name put together a 10-play, 56-yard drive and cut Senior High’s lead to 16-10 on Austin Wondolowski’s 3-yard run with 5:22 remaining in the third quarter.
Moments later, Holy Name recovered an onside kick at the Mansfield Senior 45 yard line. A 5-yard penalty pushed the ball back to midfield, before Williams hooked up with Andrew Cole on a 24-yard gain. On the very next play, Williams broke free for a 26-yard touchdown and the extra-point gave the Green Wave a 17-16 lead.
“They popped (the onside kick) in the air and our guy didn’t know what to do,” Chioke Bradley said. “They got a possession there and scored.”
Mansfield Senior’s best scoring opportunity in the second half came with less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Tygers turned the ball over on downs with 2:26 remaining, however, and Holy Name was able to run out the clock to preserve the win.
For Holy Name, Williams rushed for 161 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries and completed 9-of-18 passes for 107 yards. Andrew Cole had six catches for 83 yards.
Isaiah Darson led Senior High with 53 rushing yards. Reese had four carries for 29 yards and tossed two TD passes, his only two completion of the night on nine attempts.
“The second half was a lot of miscues,” Chioke Bradley said. “That was disheartening for me and disheartening for our seniors.”
