Crowley holds off Mansfield to take the upper hand in the District 3-6A playoff race

The Crowley football team took advantage of two, key turnovers by Mansfield to hold off the Tigers 35-23 in a key District 3-6A game on Thursday at Newsom Stadium.

Mansfield (6-1 overall, 2-1 in district), No. 6 in the Star-Telegram Class 6A Rankings, turned the ball over twice inside the Eagles’ six yard line allowing No. 10 Crowley (4-3, 3-0) to keep the Tigers at arms length.

Both teams played extremely well on both sides of the ball, but Crowley was able to keep Mansfield from hitting big plays, something Crowley coach Carlos Lynn felt was the difference.

“He still got two and that’s kind of been their MO, bombing people out, but we were trying to take that away from them,” said Lynn. “We got good pressure with our four up front and we did a good job of moving him off of his spots and that was the key to our success on defense.”

Mansfield took the opening kick of the second half and marched 60 yards in eight plays to cut the lead to 21-14 with 8:38 left in the third quarter. Quarterback Braxton Van Cleave hit Jacobe Hayes with the second of three scoring passes, this one from eight yards out.

But Crowley answered as it had done all night. The Eagles had scoring drives of 11, 14 and 16 plays with the 16-play drive covering 75 yards that was capped with a wild, one-yard touchdown pass from Jonathan Blake to Julius Cogbill to give Crowley a 28-14 lead with 1:38 left in the third.

Blake, a running back, lined up in a Wildcat formation and the Eagles shifted to an unbalanced line to the left to run the ball, but the center snap sailed over his head. Blake got a perfect hop to pick up the ball back around the 15 yard line and scrambled before tossing up a prayer that was answered by Cogbill.

“I was just thinking that if I don’t score then somebody else will,” said Blake. “It was supposed to be a run inside, but the center snapped it over my head and I just to be an athlete at that point. They were talking a lot of trash on social media this week, but we blocked all of that out and just came out to play.”

Mansfield was poised to pull to back to within seven points, but Van Cleave got the ball jarred loose at the Crowley six where Davion Ramirez pounced on it to kill the threat.

Williams put in the dagger with a 25-yard run, weaving his way up the middle of the Tigers defense, to up the lead to 35-14 with 5:51 left in the game.

Mansfield did make a little noise late with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Van Cleave to Hayes to make it 35-21 and the Tigers recovered the ensuing onside kick. Mansfield, however, lost the ball on downs at the Crowley 11 to end any comeback attempt.

The game started off in a flurry with two touchdowns being scored in the first 2:41 of the game and three TDs put on the board after the first three possessions.

It took Crowley just 20 seconds to get the scoring started when Zamarian Burton returned the opening kickoff 65 yards down to the Mansfield 10. On the ensuing play Caleb Williams hit Antayvious Ellis in the left flat and Ellis darted in for the score.

Mansfield answered right back. Kah’Vanti Bell-Phillips returned the ensuing kickoff 37 yards to the Crowley 43.

Five plays later quarterback Braxton Van Cleave threw a perfect strike to Jacobe Hayes in the left corner of the end zone from 27 yards out to tie the game at seven with 9:19 left in the first quarter.

The game had the makings of a track meet went Crowley took its next possession 75 yards in 11 plays. Williams found a wide open Derrick Tasby across the middle for a 28-yard score to put the Eagles up 14-7 with 5:16 left in the opening frame.

Tasby was Williams’ favorite target on the night, connecting six times for 74 yards.

Both defenses stepped up with the teams trading punts, but both offenses got back on track after that. Both had long drives with Mansfield’s ending in disaster and Crowley’s ending in a score.

Mansfield moved from its own 20 to to the Crowley 10 in 13 plays, but on the 14 play Van Cleave ran around left end for eight yards, but then fumbled the ball through the end zone for a touchback.

The Tigers suffered a big blow on the drive when Zion Robinson, one of Mansfield’s leading receivers, was ejected from the game after an altercation on the Mansfield sideline with a Crowley player.

Crowley took over and marched 80 yards in 14 plays capped by a seven-yard scoring run by Jonathan Blake, who darted right up the middle to make it 21-7 with 1:35 left before halftime.

“They came in here big headed and were talking a lot on social media about how much better they were than us, but we knew they weren’t,” said Williams, who finished hitting 13 of 19 passes for 150 yards and picked up 105 yards rushing on 14 carries. “We know what kind of team they are and we know what kind of team we are. We got to see who worked harder over the summer and who wanted it the most.”

This story was originally published October 11, 2024 at 12:52 AM.