Rison Sports News

  Mansfield Rally Brings Rison's Season to a Close, 33-21

  By Stan Sadler
  RISON - With a solid 7-3 record, Mansfield is not your typical fifth seed for the state playoffs, as the Tigers present a big hurdle for Rison to clear to advance beyond the first round.
  However, in a matchup that was bound to happen sooner or later, former Rison defensive coordinator Jason Gill will bring his Tigers here Friday night for an opening round clash with the Wildcats and his old coaching buddy, Clay Totty. Both coaches also grew up at Fordyce, where they played for the Redbugs.
  Kickoff time at Wildcat Field, in what should be an emotional game, is scheduled for 7:30.
  "I'm happy and proud for him," Totty said, talking about Gill, who was Totty's top assistant at Rison from 1998 through 2005, when he left to take the Mansfield head coaching job.
  Seniors and juniors on this year's Rison team were freshmen and eighth graders under Gill as head coach of the Junior Wildcats in 2005.
  Gill has rejuvenated the Mansfield program, which has only three state playoff games in school history and their first post-season berth since 1999. Gill just missed getting his Tigers into last year's playoffs. Totty mentioned that Mansfield's seven wins this year ties a school record for the most victories in a season.
  "I know they're excited," Totty said. "I fully expect he [Gill] will have them ready to come down here to win this game."
  Mansfield finished with a 4-3 record in 1-3A Conference play, good for a third place tie along with Cedarville and Greenland. However, the point system used to break ties for playoff positions placed the Tigers as a fifth seed. Undefeated and highly-ranked Charleston finished on top in the very competitive conference, followed by Lavaca at 5-2, which Mansfield lost to by just 7-0 on the road.
  So it's easy to see that only eight points separates Mansfield from being a number two seed instead of a fifth seed. The Tigers also gave Charleston a good game on the road.
  Totty said he spoke a few weeks ago with Tracy Sutton, head coach at Greenland. Sutton, who was an assistant at Rison several years ago, told Totty that he believes 1-3A is a good conference.
  The R.H.S. mentor said the strength of 1-3A should help Mansfield be prepared to play here Friday night.
  Totty was also quick to point out that Rison's last three playoff losses have come to teams from the northwest part of the state - Charleston in 2005, West Fork in 2006, and Mountainburg a year ago.
  After easily winning three non-conference games to open the season, Mansfield suffered back-to-back 1-3A defeats to Charleston and Greenland. Since then the Tigers have won four out of their last five contests, including three in a row, to build momentum for the playoffs.
  Because both teams mirror each other in so many ways, and due to the fact that Gill spent so much time under Totty, the Wildcat mentor was asked about game preparation for the Tigers.
  "It makes it more difficult," Totty explained. "I think sometimes you can out-coach yourself trying to get ready for the other guy. We've got to concentrate on doing the things that have brought us to this point." The Tigers are expected to go to the air a little more often than Rison.
  Totty stated, "They're strong, we know that," citing Mansfield's second place finish at last spring's Class 3A state weightlifting meet. "And we know they had a 400 relay team in the state track meet, so they'll have a good combination of speed and strength." Totty added that the Tigers are very disciplined and don't make mistakes that beat themselves.
  Totty said the Tigers have two good running backs, led by senior Justin Castleberry, who had 23 carries for 146 yards and two TD's in Friday night's win over Cedarville. Castleberry, who has rushed for over 1,000 yards this season, was a "bell cow" for the Tigers' 27-14 win over Mountainburg, toting the ball 35 times for 213 yards. He is also solid on defense.
  "If he's having a good night, we're having a good night," Gill said, commenting about his top rusher.
  Castleberry's love and desire for the game was shown when he returned this season after sustaining a serious injury against Charleston in 2007. A helmet to the spine sent Castleberry to the hospital and put him out for the remainder of the season after the frightening play that left him numb from the middle of his back down. But he made a full recovery and received clearance to play again.
  The Wildcats, 9-1 overall, must rebound from a gut-wrenching conference championship loss at Prescott last Friday.
  "We've got to get rid of it so we can go on," were Totty's words concerning the setback to the top-ranked Curley Wolves. "Our kids have to know they were real close to beating a very good team. I hope that's something we can build on."
  Totty continued, "I know we wanted to win a district championship, to have something we can hang our hat on. But now we have a chance to win 10 games. I think that's a measuring stick for good teams. There's a lot of good teams that don't win 10 games, and that's what I want our kids to focus on."
  The Rison coaching staff will be hoping for the same defensive intensity that helped the Wildcats hold high-powered Prescott to their lowest point production of the season. Plus the ground game which controlled the ball for over 31 minutes against the Curley Wolves.
  Totty laughed, "It should be a quick game," talking about the liking for the ground attack by both Rison and Mansfield.
  If the Wildcats can get past Mansfield, they will get another home game next week against the Atkins-Arkansas Baptist winner.

 Totty: 'This Hurts Most of All'

  By Stan Sadler
  RISON - Up until last Friday night, no other playoff defeat had disturbed Rison coach Clay Totty more than the 41-8 blowout loss to Mt. Ida in the 2002 Class AA quarterfinals, ending the Wildcats' season at 12-1.
  That has all changed now following Rison's opening round 33-21 upset loss to Mansfield last Friday night at Wildcat Field. The setback brought an abrupt ending to Rison's season, as the 'Cats closed at 9-2 after entering the playoffs as a second seed. Mansfield improved to 8-3 as a fifth seed, although tieing for third place in the 1-3A Conference.
  "This hurts most of all," Totty said Monday morning, reflecting on the defeat at the hands of the Tigers. "At least we won a district championship in '02 and a couple of playoff games. This time we don't have a playoff win, nothing. Nothing to hang our hat on."
  The Wildcats were coming off a heart-breaking 22-15 conference championship loss at Prescott just a week earlier and were projected to make a deep playoff run with at least two games at home. If they defeated Mansfield.
  "I just don't see how you play that hard against Prescott and not get up for this [Mansfield] game," Totty remarked. "All night, even when we got the lead and had some things to be excited about early, I just thought we were a step behind, a step slow, and we didn't show the emotion we had [at Prescott]."
  Mansfield was led by Coach Jason Gill, who is in his third year at the helm of the Tigers after serving as Totty's defensive coordinator at Rison for eight seasons. Eric Daniel, who also served as an assistant under Totty at Rison, is now the offensive coordinator at Mansfield.
  Asked if he felt that the Tigers had some type of advantage with Gill, Totty said, "I think they felt confident. You've got to give them credit. It was like the Super Bowl to them. They do what they do and do it well." It was just the fourth playoff game in Mansfield history, and the first-ever post-season victory for the Tigers, who brought a large following of fans.
  It marked the final game for 13 Rison seniors.
  Commenting about the seniors, Totty said, "I'm proud of them, but disappointed, too. It was a tough three years for some of them. We felt like there was more to be accomplished."
  Totty said that nothing about Mansfield surprised him.
  "They had some good players, especially their defensive end [Josiah Sutton] and middle linebacker [Casey Polk]," the R.H.S. mentor noted. "When we were ahead in the last quarter and had fourth and two, he [Polk] split a double team and stuffed it for a two-yard loss." Rison turned the ball over on downs at the Mansfield 46 and moments later the Tigers went ahead.
  "Looking back, we probably should have punted the ball in that situation," Totty said.
  Totty had nothing but praise for Justin Castleberry, the Tigers' "bell cow" running back who gained 252 yards on 33 carries and scored three second half touchdowns to spark Mansfield's rally from a 21-6 deficit near the end of the first half.
  "Their running back is good," Totty said, talking about Castleberry. "And we didn't tackle well."
  Through 10 games in the regular season, Rison's run defense had yielded an average of just 65 yards a game. However, behind Castleberry, the Tigers chewed up 297 of their 367 total yards on the ground. Rison had yielded just 243 total yards to top-ranked Prescott, and only 105 yards on the ground by the Curley Wolves.
  Totty pointed out that the loss of senior outside linebacker Timothy Wells to an injury early in the game didn't help matters for Rison's defense.
  "He [Wells] is a good player and a three-year starter," Totty remarked. "We had to start shifting people around, so it hurt us. They [Mansfield] found it and exploited it."
  Offensively for Rison, Totty commented, "We didn't block very well, and they had good overall team speed and they tackled well in the open field. We couldn't just pound them."
  When Rison went ahead, 21-6, with a minute left in the first half, the Wildcats had gained 165 yards to just 80 for Mansfield. Starting with their scoring drive just before the end of the half, and for the remainder of the game, the Tigers had 287 yards to just 90 yards and four first downs for Rison. It was the first time this season for the 'Cats not to score at least one touchdown in the final half.
  While saying that the TD by Mansfield on the final play of the half was pivotal, Totty said he wishes now that he had not called a timeout before Mansfield's second and 11 play at the Tigers' 17 at the start of the crucial scoring march, just after Rison had gone ahead, 21-6.
  "We wanted to make them punt and try and get another block," Totty explained, referring to Rison's second touchdown via a blocked kick earlier in the second period. "Coach Gill told me after the game that he was in a panic mode, and that he would have rather thrown an interception than get another punt blocked."
  Following Rison's timeout, though, Castleberry ripped off a 20-yard gainer, and then the Tigers took to the air for the final 63 yards to hit paydirt and fuel the huge momentum shift.
  "At 21-6, I didn't feel good," Totty stated. "That timeout backfired. Our intent was to set up another blocked punt. It was a bad choice on my part and they made us pay for it."
  After closing the gap to 21-20 early in the third period, the Tigers held Rison and the game was on.
  Totty remarked, "The most important drive of a game is the opening drive of the second half. We told our kids that. Coach Gill knows that, and they [Mansfield] took the kick and scored and then they stuffed us."
  When Mansfield finally took the lead, 26-21, with 4:44 left in the game, Rison drove to the Tigers' 37 to face third and four. Here, Rison had two pass incompletions which pretty much ended the game with just two and a half minutes left to play.
  "I don't regret throwing the ball," Totty said. "We had third and two at the Prescott seven and couldn't convert with the run. We had fourth and inches to keep a drive going at Prescott and we couldn't make it. And we had fourth and two in this game and couldn't make it. I just wish we had used play action instead of drop back."
  Totty added, "They were well-coached and made adjustments, especially for the second half."
  Reflecting on a positive highlight from the game, a blocked punt by the Wildcats for a touchdown, Totty said, "He [Jabie Post] did a good job. It was a good job by our kids, because if he didn't get it, someone else was going to block it. We had sold it to them that we could do it."
  Rison was penalized seven times for 72 yards in the game, with some of the infractions coming at key moments - a pair of holding penalties that stopped drives near midfield; a pass interference call that put Mansfield at the 13 in the closing seconds of the first half; and 12 men on the field to move the Tigers to the Wildcats' 36 on Mansfield's go-ahead drive.
  "They [penalties] hurt us all year," Totty said. "Some of them [holding calls] I just didn't understand, though. You don't see some of them on film."
  The loss to Mansfield marked the third straight year for Rison to be eliminated by a team from the 1-3A Conference. Dating back to the quarterfinals of the 2005 playoffs, the Wildcats have now lost four out of their last five post-season games.
  "I know that they [teams from the north] have caught up with us in speed, and it looks like they've even passed us," Totty said. "We've seen that the last three years."
  Totty concluded, "I hope this is not becoming a trend," referring to early exits from the playoffs by the Wildcats.