It was a night of milestones and records for No. 4 Mansfield Senior, with Amarr Davis setting the school receiving touchdown record, and Duke Reese throwing his 4,000th yard in a 55-21 regional quarterfinal win over No. 5 Rocky River (10-2, 5-0) on Nov. 3.
The Tygers jumped out to a 6-0 lead with 10:13 on the clock with Duke Reese running it in from a yard out. The Pirates responded with an 80-yard pass from Julian Patti to Ryan Ricketti, with Tony Liva hitting the extra point to take a 7-6 lead with 9:19 left in the first quarter. Just seconds later, Reese took it to the house for a 72-yard rushing touchdown to make it 13-7 with nine minutes left in the first. Amarr Davis picked off a Patti pass and set up a 39-yard touchdown pass from Reese to Nate Dismuke, and with the extra point by Quinten Debolt it was a 20-7 lead for the Tygers.
Jamier Petty got in on the scoring action with a 42-yard touchdown run with 10:57 left in the half, and Debolt nailed the extra point to go up 27-7. The Pirates responded 57 seconds later on a 70-yard touchdown pass from Patti to Ricketti, and Liva’s extra point made it a 27-14 game. With 6:02 left in the half, Zyion Brown scampered to the end zone on a six-yard touchdown run, and Debolt’s kick put the Tygers up 34-14.
At the end of the half, Reese connected with Davis on the historic touchdown play, making him all-time touchdown reception leader at Mansfield Senior. The 26-yard touchdown was the 21st of Davis’s career, beating out a record held by Jornell Manns.
With 7:50 left in the third quarter, Reese tossed another touchdown pass, this time for one-yard to Jermaine Bradley. Debolt was good again for the extra point and put the Tygers up 48-14. With a running clock going, Mansfield Senior’s offense continued with a Ryan Au touchdown run of three yards with 9:50 remaining in the game. Rocky River's Nick DiSalvo had a big 70-yard touchdown run with 6:48 left to put the score at 55-21, but that would be all for the Pirates.
Reese had 157 yards passing and 121 yards rushing, with three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns to lead the charge. The Tygers had 360 yards on the ground and also got two other players to hit the century mark with Brown leading the charge with 124 yards and Petty with 103 yards.
Mansfield Senior has now won nine straight games and have outscored opponents 374-189 this year.
The game was moved to Rocky River due to two threats made to “shoot up” the school and the football game at Arlin Field. Mansfield Police responded to the threats, took a student into custody, but could not verify a second set of threats, according to a released statement displayed on the Tyger football X page. There was heavy security at Rocky River for the game with no incidents reported.
Next up for the Tygers is No. 1 Central Catholic in the regional semifinals of the OHSAA Division III, Region 10 football tournament, with kickoff at 7 p.m. on Nov. 10. Central Catholic is coming off a 41-26 win over No. 9 Defiance and also beat No. 16 Bowling Green 42-7.
