MANSFIELD — Amarr Davis inched closer to Mansfield Senior’s receiving triple crown Friday night at Arlin Field.
Already Senior High’s career leader in receptions and receiving yards, Davis caught two touchdown passes Friday as the Tygers cruised to a 35-14 win over New Philadelphia.
Davis now has 19 career TD receptions, one shy of the career mark held by former Senior High great Jornell Manns.
“I never expected to break any of the career records here. I just wanted to do what I could to help my team,” said Davis, who caught five passes for 90 yards Friday. “I’ve been blessed with great teammates who have helped make this possible.”
A 6-foot, 175-pound senior, Davis spotted Mansfield Senior (3-2, 2-0 Ohio Cardinal Conference) to a quick 7-0 lead when he hauled in a 16-yard touchdown pass from Duke Reese with 8:19 remaining in the first quarter. The Tygers moved in front 14-0 when Reese hooked up with Nate Dismuke on a 38-yard scoring strike with 1:34 remaining in the first period.
New Philadelphia (3-2, 2-1) cut Senior High’s advantage to 14-6 on quarterback Keaton Fausel’s 22-yard keeper with 6:59 to play in the second quarter. Less than two minutes later, Reese found Davis across the middle for a 35-yard touchdown on fourth-and-six to make it 21-6.
“We want to be able to run our offense at a high tempo. That is something we envisioned the offense being,” Senior High coach Chioke Bradley said. “We’ve been working on going fast from day one.
“It has taken us some time and we are still a work in progress, but ultimately our goal is to play fast whenever we want to.”
The Tygers turned to the ground game to take control in the second half.
Running backs Zyion Brown and Jamir Petty each rushed for a second-half touchdown. Petty rumbled for 71 yards on 18 carries, while Brown added 49 yards and 10 attempts. Reese rushed for 61 yards on eight carries while completing 9-of-20 passes for 175 yards and three TDs.
Meanwhile, Senior High’s defense limited the Quakers to 249 yards of total offense and forced three turnovers. Linebacker Maurice Bradley II had two sacks among his team-high 11 tackles, intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble.
“We gave up a few plays here and there,” Chioke Bradley said. “We bent but we didn’t break and we made plays when we needed to. We kept fighting.”
Senior High is at Lexington (3-2, 2-0) next week. The winner will be alone atop the OCC standings.
“We played three tough non-conference games,” Bradley said. “To be 3-2 at the midway point of the season, we feel pretty good about where we’re at.”