Mansfield takes care of business against Weatherford to earn playoff berth in 3-6A

Despite coming in with a 7-2 overall record and a 3-2 mark in District 3-6A, the Mansfield football team had to fight for its playoff life on Nov. 8 at Newsom Stadium against Weatherford.

If Weatherford was to defeat the Tigers by four points, despite the Kangaroos losing to Mansfield Legacy 55-14 earlier in the season, Weatherford would have been moving on and Mansfield would be staying home.

The Tigers and Roos played neck and neck early, but Mansfield wound up slowly pulling away and then held on to take a 49-34 win and secure the second seed in the Class 6A Division 1 playoffs. Mansfield (8-2 overall, 4-2 district), No. 7 in the Star-Telegram Class 6A Rankings will face No. 3 Euless Trinity (9-1) at 7 p.m. on Nov. 15 at Pennington Field in the bi-district round.

Even though Weatherford (2-8, 2-4) was blown out by Mansfield Legacy the district uses positive points in a three-way tie so it didn’t matter how much the Kangaroos lost by, they came into the game sitting at zero points with Legacy at the max of 18 points. Mansfield’s 24-21 win over Legacy had Tigers with three points, so a four-point win by Weatherford would have kept Mansfield out of the playoffs entirely.

“We told our kids the situation and that’s the thing when you don’t use negative points,” said Mansfield coach Greg George. “Our kids knew coming in that they had won their last two games and I was very concerned about playing them because they’re smart and have some good coaches over there.

“They do some really good things on offense and so we were concerned, yes.”

Mansfield scored touchdowns on each of its six offensive possessions in the game and neither team punted the entire night. Weatherford kept pace with the Tigers until midway through the second quarter when Mansfield scored twice in the final 7:24 of the second quarter to take a 28-14 lead into halftime.

Xavier Craven had first-half scoring runs of 26 and two yards for the Kangaroos, the latter coming with 8:47 left in the second quarter that tied the game at 14-all. Craven finished with 125 rushing yards on 23 carries.

Teddy Clark opened the scoring for Mansfield, tight roping his way down the left sideline for a 70-yard score. Clark added an 11-yard TD run with 1:22 left before the intermission and led Mansfield with 123 yards rushing on the night on just seven carries.

Weatherford moved the ball well much of the night and was marching down to answer Clark’s opening score when Mansfield defensive back Zavyn Jenkins stepped in front of a swing pass to the left and raced 57 yards with a Pick 6 to make it 14-7 Mansfield with 3:17 left in the first quarter.

“It felt great,” said Jenkins of the interception. “I saw the number one receiver doing a hot route and saw the QB let go of the ball. All I could do was chase the ball.

“We did feel a little pressure knowing that they only had to beat us by four, but I took it as a disrespect and we really, really wanted to win this game.”

The Kangaroos actually out gained Mansfield 495 to 442 in total yards, but while Mansfield scored on each of its possessions, Weatherford lost the ball on downs twice, had the Pick 6 and had a drive end at the Tigers 22 yard line to end the first half.

Mansfield built the lead to 49-21 with 4:20 left in the game on when quarterback Braxton Van Cleave hit Cole Williams with a 17-yard scoring pass.

“It feels really good to be going to the playoffs,” said Van Cleave, who was an efficient 15 of 17 passing for 170 yards and three scores. “All the work that we put in in the off season and up to now is just paying off.

“Initially there was some pressure knowing that they only needed to beat us by four points, but we had a good game plan and executed it really well and just had fun with them tonight.”

Van Cleave and Williams connected in the first half for a 24-yard score and Zion Robinson, No. 12 in the Star-Telegram Top 100 players, caught a two-yard TD pass from Van Cleave late in the third quarter. Van Cleave added 68 yards rushing on seven carries and had a 26-yard scoring run to open the third quarter.

Williams had four catches for 72 yards and Robinson caught six passes for 56 yards for Mansfield.

Weatherford made some noise late scoring twice in the final 1:03 to close the gap. Roos defensive lineman Kaden Fleming ran it in from six yards out to make it 49-28.

After a successful onside kick, Weatherford quarterback Luke Gray hit Rule Doss with a four-yard scoring pass with 32 ticks remaining. Mansfield, however, recovered the ensuing onside kick and was able to run out the clock.

Luke Gray finished 23 of 27 passing for 286 yards and two touchdowns. Jaime Gray had eight catches for the Roos for 149 yards with Brennen Boehl hauling in a scoring pass from Luke Gray from 12 yards out.

“We have really good kids and really good coaches,” said George. “Our coaches put together a really good game plan and we had good practices all week and they stepped up and did their jobs.

“We know that if we’re clicking on both sides of the ball that we’re hard to beat. Trinity will be a task for us, but we’re up to it.”