11/12/94

Hornets hold on vs Falmouth

Fred Vallett saves the day !

Mansfield took on Division One power Falmouth, who would go on to play Xaverian in the Division One Super Bowl that year. It was a contest worthy of two Super Bowl bound teams.

There were over 700 yards of offense and seven drives of over 55 yards for touchdowns.

In the final minutes of the game Falmouth scored ( 3:24 remaining) to pull within four. At that point senior fullback Rob Smith picked up an important first down with a 10 yard run up the middle. Than facing a third and ten on the Falmouth 39 yard line Vallett hit Kerry Taylor over the middle for 15 yards. The Clippers held on the next series and forced a fourth and one with 1:38 remaining in the game. Vallett ran for the first down ( nine yards) and clinched the win.

Perhaps the biggest play of the game came at the end of the first half.. With nine seconds left Coach Redding called for a "Hail Mary" pass into the end-zone, but Vallett was pressured out of the pocket and took off up the sideline running the ball in for the score as time ran out.

"The play was huge because it gave use more than a one touchdown lead. You knew one touchdown wasn't enough" said Coach Redding. We were yelling for Fred to get out of bounds, but he saw a lane and took off."

In the second half Falmouth marched 92 yards in just six plays with Ford scoring on a 15-yard pitch to get the score to 24-20. Vallett than directed a seven play, 64-yard scoring drive, hitting Warren Bacon for 21 yards on a third and seven and then Taylor for a 36 yard TD reception making it 32-20.

Falmouth than scored on a three play, 35 yard drive to pull to within four points (32-28). That ended the scoring.

Stats

MansfieldFalmouth
First downs1815
Total yards406300
Rushing yards183243
Passing yards23557
Sacks-yards1-120-0
Att.-comp.-int.19-13-15-2-0
Punts-avg.1-0.02-23.0
Fumbles1-11-1
Penalties-yards2-204-17

Scoring

1st2nd3rd4thFinal
Mansfield12128032
Falmouth686828

First quarter

Mans-Warren Bacon 37 yard pass from Fred Vallett (pass failed), 4:24.
Falm- Mike Andrews 26 yard run (kick failed), 6:05.
Mans-Vin Hollins 2 yard run ( rush failed), 9:59.

Second quarter

Falm- Eric Ayers 8 yard run (Andrews rush), 3:58.
Mans-Bacon 8 yard pass from Vallett (pass failed), 8:20.
Mans-Vallett 43 yard run (pass failed), 10:00

Third quarter

Falm- Willie Ford 15 yard run (rush failed), 3:27
Mans- Kerry Taylor 36 yard pass from Vallett ( Andy Selchan pass from Vallett), 7:09

Fourth quarter

Falm- Andrews 1 yard run (Ayers rush), 6:36

Individual Mansfield stats

Rushing: Vallett 10-91, Smith 13-60, Hollins 14-32.
Passing: Vallett 19-13-1--235.
Receiving: Bacon 6-126, Taylor 4-68, Selchan 2-36, Lundell 1-5.

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