Mansfield Summit’s defense smothers Everman, keeps playoff berth in sight in 3-5A D2
The roller coaster ride that has been the Mansfield Summit football team’s season continued on Oct. 31. Summit lost its first two games of the season before rebounding to win four straight district games.
Then came consecutive losses to Argyle and Colleyville Heritage in the past two weeks. The Jaguars got headed back up in the right direction with a defensive effort that smothered Everman leading to a 21-0 win over the Bulldogs in a District 3-5A Division 2 game at Newsom Stadium.
“If feels like our defense is starting to pick it up at the right time,” said Summit coach Channon Hall. “We’re in playoff season for us. Every game is a playoff game from here on out.
“Our staple is to always play good defense so getting a goose egg going into a tough game against Seguin next week is key. It was huge that that those guys stepped up, put their hats in there and played physical football.”
With the win, Summit (5-4 overall, 5-2 in district), No. 6 in the Star-Telegram’s Class 5A rankings, gets a leg up on one of the final two playoff berths out of 3-5A D2, but advancing isn’t assured. If Mansfield Timberview (5-4, 4-3) loses to The Colony on Nov. 1, then it doesn’t matter what happens when Summit (4-4, 4-2) faces Arlington Seguin (6-3, 4-3) next week -- the Jaguars are in.
If Timberview defeats The Colony, then Seguin, which has a bye this week, will need to defeat Summit next week by eight points to knock the Jaguars out of the playoffs due to district tiebreakers. If Summit defeats Seguin or loses by seven or less, then the Jags advance, and Seguin will be out.
“All I know is win and get in,” said Hall. “Whoever wins that game is in, and whoever loses that game is probably not in, so that’s what we’re going on.
“We’re going to put in our work and not worry about anyone else. We win, and we’re in, and if we don’t, we’re going home, so that pretty much sums up how we need to attack next week.”
The Summit defense was led by University of Houston commit Travis Buhake, a defensive lineman whose name was called out over the stadium speakers on many running plays. Summit allowed Everman 58 total yards of offense on the night.
“We had to come into the game with a dominating mentality,” said Buhake, who’s comes in at No. 24 on the Star-Telegram’s list of Top 100 players. “That’s all we were thinking about. We lost our last two games and we really needed this one to keep us going towards the playoffs.”
Buhake is a four-star defensive lineman ranked 23rd in the state for all players in the class of 2025. The senior is the 14th-ranked defensive lineman in the nation and the 103rd overall prospect in the country.
“He is a game wrecker,” said Hall of Buhake. “That’s probably why he’s committed to the U of H. He’s our team captain and deserves everything he gets.
“He’s just a baller man, great spirit, great smile. When your best players and your best leaders are a hard workers and great, high-character kids then the others feed off of that.”
Everman (1-8, 1-6) punted seven times, lost the ball on downs three times and turned the ball over three times. The Bulldogs only made into Summit territory twice on the night, with the first time coming after the second of two one-yard scoring runs by Summit running back Adarion Nettles that gave the Jags a 14-0 lead.
Barrington Stricklin returned the kickoff 49 yards to the Jaguars’ 26 yard line, but five plays later Everman fumbled and Jahshon Williams pounced on it at the Summit nine with 2:53 left in the first half.
The second came on the Bulldogs’ ensuing series after an interception by Stricklin gave Everman the ball at its own 41. The Bulldogs ran six plays before losing the ball on downs at the Summit 44.
Summit’s offense didn’t set the world on fire, but the Jaguars did just enough to get the win. In addition to Nettles’ two scores, quarterback Demarus Bird hit Domonique Young down the left hash for a 38-yard score with 9:21 left to put the game out of reach.
Nettles led all rushers with 86 yards on 19 carries. Summit had 271 total yards, with 184 coming on the ground on 40 attempts.
Neiman Page was the workhorse for Everman with 58 tough yards on 16 carries accounting for almost the entirety of the Bulldogs’ offense. Everman didn’t complete a pass until around the nine-minute mark of the fourth quarter and went two of 18 with two interceptions and minus-two yards.
“We’re going to have to play good defense on Thursday (Nov. 7), and our offense needs to pick up the pace and get up to speed with them, and I feel like we’ll do that,” said Hall. “We were a little off tonight, but I feel like there were some good things there that we can build on, and we’ll get it right. We have no choice.”
