Schools
Hornets Beat Christian Brothers Academy 31-26 at High School Football Kick Off Classic
Mansfield starts the season with a 31-26 win at the Carrier Dome.
The Mansfield High School Varsity Football team beat the Christian Brothers Academy Friday night 31-26 in a very close and intense game.
"As far as I can remember, this is one of the the best high school games I've ever seen or coached or watched," Mansfield Head Coach Michael Redding said.
Mansfield started off the scoring in the first quarter when Greg Donahue scored with 43 seconds left in the quarter. Christian Brothers Academy blocked the extra point and shortly later recovered a fumble in the endzone to score. With the extra point the score was now 7-6 Christian Brothers.
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Sean Murphy scored for the Christian Brothers and they got the extra point to bring the score to 14-6 with 3:06 remaining in the half.
MHS recovered Christian Brothers' fumble at their 35 yard line with two seconds left. George Busharis hit Christian Debeauport in the corner of the end zone. Mansfield's two point conversion attempt failed and they took an 18-14 lead into the half.
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"It was like watching a few heavyweights going back and forth," Redding said.
The third quarter brought about another touchdown from MHS. With 4th and 7 at the 30 yard line, George Busharis threw a pass to Greg Donahue for the first down at the six yardline. Dylan Finnerty ran in the remaining six yards for the touchdown wth 36 seconds left in the quarter. The was now 25-14.
CBA came back in the 4th with a 60 yard run to bring the score to 25-20, and then promptly recovered a squib kick and brought the ball to the MHS endzone with a 22 yard pass to bring the score to 26-25.
"As good as it looked for us (during the game), they rallied to come back to take the lead," Redding said. "Then, as bad as it looked for us, we rallied to come back. They were just two great teams; no loser tonight."
Christian Brothers Academy turned the ball over on downs on their own 15 yard line with 3:59 left in the game. Mansfield sealed the game after Busharis threw a 25 yard touchdown pass to Blayne Taylor with 2:31 left int he game.
"I think both of us will be better for the experience but again, our kids showed our "never surrender" [spirit]" Redding said. "As long as there is time on the clock we're gonna play. We've got quite a good team. "