By Pat Culverhouse
Minden watched a five touchdown lead evaporate Friday as the Mansfield Wolverines roared back in the second half to take a 46-38 win over the Crimson Tide in the season opener for both teams.
It was a heartbreaking home opener for the Crimson Tide who stormed to a 35-0 lead late in the second quarter on the strength of a pair of touchdown passes and two fumble recoveries for scores.
A 65-yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Hudson Brown to Lucas Owens Jr. on the game’s second play got the Tide off to an early lead. That was followed less than a minute by another Minden TD when Javen Calloway scooped up a Wolverine fumble and rumbled 30 yards.
Leading 14-0, the Tide set off on a 63-yard scoring drive, capped by Caylien Aubrey’s 18-yard run. The lead jumped to 28-0 with 7:09 left in the second quarter when Kam Harris picked up another Mansfield fumble and sped 70 yards to pay dirt.
Minden added its fifth score of the opening half with just over four minutes remaining when backup QB Jaden Johnson found Harris alone in the end zone with an 18-yard scoring toss and the Tide was comfortably up 35-0.
Less than 30 seconds later, Mansfield struck when star running back Terrell Pegues hauled in a 69-yard scoring toss from quarterback Jaterrious Howard. A failed two-point try left the Wolverines down by 35-6, but it started a streak of four straight scores.
With just 38 seconds remaining in the half, Howard found Tramajah Howard with an 18-yard scoring toss and a two-pointer later the Wolverines were down 35-14.
Mansfield pulled closer with 7:57 left in the third quarter on a Jay Hamilton five-yard run and the lead narrowed to 35-22. That score concluded a 90-yard drive that began when the Wolverines recovered a Crimson Tide fumble to stall a promising drive.
Another Howard scoring pass, this time a 26-yarder to Tramajah Harris, made it 35-30 with 10 minutes remaining.
Minden finally got into the scoring column off the foot of Braxton Glover who nailed a 25-yard field goal to push the Tide up 38-30, but that margin lasted less than 20 seconds. Mansfield’s Hamilton hauled in the Tide kickoff at his one-yard line and galloped 99 yards for the score. Pegues bulled into the end zone for the two-pointer and a tie at 38.
After the Mansfield defense held, Pegues added to his game-leading rushing total with a 32-yard run and a two-point conversion dash to give the Wolverines their final margin.
A promising Crimson Tide drive to attempt to tie the score ended inside the Wolverine 20-yard line as time expired.
Pegues proved to be a thorn in the side of the Tide defense, picking up 187 yards on 32 carries and one score to lead his team. He also added 93 receiving yards and one touchdown.
Minden’s Aubrey led the team in rushing with 76 yards on 12 carries while Owens Jr. had 31 yards on seven tries. Johnson picked up 29 yards on four attempts and Brown had 13 yards in four tries. Brown had 148 passing yards on eight of 11 attempts and had one TD pass. Johnson was one-for-one though the air with a touchdown.
Johnson also had three receptions for 64 yards, Harris caught two for 29 yards and one touchdown, Kaiden Shine had two catches for 14 yards and Owens Jr. had one touchdown on his 65-yard catch.
After an impressive first half Minden found the going rough against the Wolverine defense, managing just three first downs and three points in the second half. The Tide finished the game with 318 total yards, but lost three fumbles.
Next up for the Crimson Tide is a Friday game at Homer.