With a close score of 29-22, the Varsity Football team lost against Midlothian High School in an away game, Sept. 29.

“It was a disappointing outcome last week,” Head Coach James Brown said. “We need to work on not making too many mistakes.”

The team entered the second half with a 22-0 lead against the Panthers.

“First half we came out onto the field playing with energy,” senior Jyron Russell said. “Going into halftime, I was confident with the score.”

During the third and fourth quarters, the team had five turnovers.

“After halftime, we faced a little adversity and didn’t overcome,” Russell said. “We only scored seven points in the second half of the game and that is unacceptable.”

The game went into overtime.

“(That) was not good at all because we knew that (Midlothian) was not better than us at all, and the game shouldn’t have even been close,” senior Danthony Boone said. “(There were) a lot of plays that lead to overtime and if we had not made those plays we would have left with a win.”

Last season, Midlothian did not win against any Mansfield teams.

“They (Midlothian) got a sense that they were in the game and when you give a team some hope, they can rise to the occasion,” Coach Robert M. Johnson said. “On that night, they did just that. They have played us tough for many years early in games, but we have opened them up after the half.  This year things didn’t go our way.”

The team is competing for a playoff spot against three of top 25 preseason ranked 5A football programs in the state.

“I expect us to still win district even though we’re in one of the hardest in Texas,” senior Kolby Williams said. “I have high expectations.”

Several players were unable to play in last week’s win against Red Oak.

“We did have a few injured players like Jalen Kimber, John Blunt and Stacy Sneed, but we practiced hard day in and day out,” Davis said.  “Those guys who had to fill those roles were able to step up and did a great job.”

With last week being a bye week, the team had time to prepare for this week’s game against Legacy on Friday, Oct. 13.

“I expect that the bye week was be good for us,” Johnson said “It’ll let us get healthy and allowed us to forget about a tough loss. The kids did the necessary work to get ready.”

Junior Jordan Davis said he remains hopeful.

“We’ve experienced some tough losses but it’s made us into the team we are now,” he said. “We have to make sure we focus on taking it week by week and just becoming better as we go on.”