After both teams fell in their district openers last week, the Jonesboro-Hodge Tigers and Mansfield Wolverines came into the Friday the 13th showdown looking for a win. Sadly, for the Tigers, the Wolverines would pull away late for a 39-18 win.

It was an emotionally charged contest that was dedicated to a fallen former Tiger and breast cancer survivors. The game also marked the first time in 113 outings that JHHS head coach, Terrance Blankenship, wasn’t on the sidelines. 

The contest began with the Tigers running onto the field carrying jersey #70 in honor of 2015 JHHS graduate Breunte Hicks, the step son of Blankenship, who was tragically killed last weekend. The jersey was then placed on the Tiger bench during the game. At halftime, the class of 2015 held a balloon release at midfield in his honor.

In an additional act of remembrance and in recognition of National Breast Cancer Survivors month, local breast cancer survivors were honored at halftime. Shannon Brown, who was acting head coach and the Tiger coaching staff did their part by wearing pink shirts. 

Mansfield kicked off to J-Hodge to start the contest, and quickly forced the Tigers into a three-and-out. Then in similar fashion to last week, the Tiger defense stepped up with a big forced turnover to get the ball back.

J-Hodge once again went three-and-out, but this time Mansfield put their strong ground game into full effect. The Wolverines conducted a 11 play, 70-yard touchdown drive over 7 minutes and 55 seconds, with their bruising running back Terrence Pegues capping off the drive for a touchdown that took the contest midway into the 2nd quarter.

Symeon Malone got the Tigers offense showing some life by connecting with Da’Marious Burns over the middle for a 22-yard catch. J-H’s drive stalled out around the Mansfield 40-yard line, a place that four separate Tiger drives would come to an end on the night.

The visiting Wolverines took over with 2:09 left in the half on their own 46-yard line leading 7-0. Their quarterback took the snap, handed it to the running back, who then pitched it to the wing back coming in reverse, and went 54 yards to the house untouched. That put Mansfield up 13-0, which would end up being the halftime score.

Mansfield got the ball to start the second half, and the Tigers yet again forced a huge turnover. This time it was Karmikizick Barber punching the ball loose, and Kyron Atkins falling on it.

The two teams exchanged punts on the next two drives, and then the game got chaotic.

It was a 13-0 contest with 2:29 left in the 3rd quarter, and J-Hodge facing a 4th and long. That’s when Za’Mauryian Palmer got behind the Mansfield secondary, and Malone dropped a perfect pass right into the breadbasket for a 33-yard touchdown pass, cutting the Wolverine lead to 13-6.

Mansfield responded quickly by completing a 3rd down pass to a wide-open receiver for a 60-yard touchdown. The Wolverines would only throw the ball four times on the night for three completions, two of which went for scores.

J-Hodge wouldn’t let the Wolverines be ahead by two possessions for long, as Burns received the high arching kickoff at his own 30-yard line and ran it all the way into the end zone for a 70-yard kickoff return touchdown, breaking numerous tackles along the way.

The back-and-forth continued, with Mansfield breaking a big run to end a 4 play, 60-yard touchdown drive, putting the Wolverines up 27-12 with 11:50 left to play. That play ended a wild 2 minutes and 39 seconds of game time, which saw four touchdowns scored.

The rest of the 4th quarter saw Mansfield score on two more big plays, and Jonesboro-Hodge connect on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Malone to Chance Leonard, who returned to action for the Tigers after only missing two games with what was feared to be a season-ending knee injury.

Jonesboro-Hodge fell to 2-5 on the season, and 0-2 in district play while Mansfield improved to 2-5, 1-1. The Tigers will be at home for the final time this regular season, with a Thursday night battle against the defending Division III Non-Select State Champion Many Tigers on October 19th at Caldwell-Peacock Stadium. Game time is set for 7:00 pm.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	FINAL
JHHS (2-5, 0-2)	0	0	12	6	18
Mansfield (2-5, 1-1)	0	13	6	20	39

YARDSTICK

	JHHS	MHS
First Downs	9	17
Rushing Yards	40	291
Passing Yards	125	118
Total Yards	165	409
Turnovers	0	2
3rd Down Conversions	4/15	5/9
4th Down Conversions	2/5	1/1
Penalties	5/45	7/41

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