Football: Defense helps Panthers dictate the day

BROWNWOOD Mansfield High got to the playoffs in large part because of running back Stepfan Taylor.

The junior came into Saturday’s Class 5A Division I bi-district game against the Permian Panthers having rushed for 1,514 yards and 22 touchdowns on 178 carries.

The Panthers made sure he didn’t come close to his average production at Gordon Wood Stadium, holding Taylor to 76 yards on 12 carries. Most of that came on one play when Taylor burst through the line for a 51-yard gain after Permian built a 46-14 lead.

Taylor also caught two passes for 20 yards and a touchdown, his 27th score of the year.

Mansfield High coach Kirk Thor said Permian’s defensive scheme led the Tigers to go to the air more. Sophomore Daniel Green, in his first varsity start, completed 19 of 33 passes for 204 yards, throwing on seven of Mansfield High’s first nine plays.

“They play seven in the box and they’ve done that all year,” Thor said of the Panthers. “When you see that, you’ve got to throw the football. It’s kind of like running into a wall — you’re not going to run into the wall, you’re going to find an opening. They dare you to throw it and we had to take advantage of that.

“I felt our coaches game-planned it well, probably the best we’ve done all year, and our kids played hard. But they’re a good football team and they compete well. There’s a reason they’re the No. 5 team in the state. It’s tough meet into a 10-0 team in the first round.”

Permian coach Darren Allman said Mansfield High’s strategy was sound, especially with Green starting.

“We weren’t really sure what to expect because they were playing a quarterback who hadn’t played very much,” Allman said. “It made sense for them to do that and try to get him into a rhythm, and to try to loosen us up a little bit and give Stepfan a chance to carry the ball a little bit more.

“I thought they had a good plan, really, for what they did, and they have a good football team. I think it shows the effort that our kids gave. That was not a slouch football team by any means. There was a reason they were 8-2, they’re pretty good.”

The problem as far as the Tigers were concerned was that the Permian secondary played solid man-to-man coverage most of the game.

Mansfield High’s first touchdown came on a 48-yard pass play on which Logan Hodges broke a tackle after running a short route. At the time, Permian led 21-0, thanks in part to Eugene Neboh’s 29-yard interception return in the first quarter.

“We just had to tighten everything down a little bit and make tackles,” Allman said. “We missed a tackle there early in the game that turned into a big play.

“If people want to do that to us, we’re going to make them try to execute and throw and catch. That’s just part of our scheme — we want to try to make people work for what they get. We don’t take a lot of chances with our defense. We like to keep people in front of us. Hopefully they’ll eventually make a mistake, and they did when Eugene picked his off.”

Permian linebacker Alex Lujan said the Panthers simply had to adjust to the circumstances.

“We expected them to come out and run it a lot more,” he said. “They’re a running a team and (Taylor) is a great running back. We started shutting down the run pretty early in the game and they had to go to the pass. I thought we did pretty good on that. They had some good plays, but we reacted pretty good to it.”

Nose guard Cori Branscum said the Tigers’ strategy should say something about the Permian defense.

“We know that other teams notice that we’re a tough team to run on and to pass on,” he said. “They know they can’t run on us and we’re going to give them what we’ve got.”