Hornets thwart KP’s shot at win

MANSFIELD — In a game filled with heavy momentum swings, it all came down to one play.

King Philip came severely close to completing a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback last night against Mansfield after the Warriors cut a 14-point deficit down to a single point on an 18-yard touchdown pass from Robbie Jarest to Timmy Nault with 39 seconds to play.

But instead of forcing a likely overtime with an extra point attempt, King Philip went for the twopoint conversion, and Mansfield came up big when Jarest’s pass fell incomplete to seal a 28-27 Hockomock League victory for the Hornets at Alumni Field.

“They made so many plays in the last five minutes, and I’m glad we survived the last one and got a win out of it,” said Mansfield coach Mike Redding. “This was a great game with two great teams battling literally to the last play. This was as good as it gets in high school.”

KP coach Brian Lee said being on the road factored into his decision to go for two and the win.

“I would have liked to have a timeout, get the right play call that we wanted there but in the end we wanted to go for it,” he said. “I’m just not sure we had what we wanted.”

Trailing 14-7 midway through the fourth quarter, Mansfield (3-1) turned KP (2-2) over on downs before riding a tidal wave of momentum. In a span of 2:17, the Hornets scored three touchdowns on four offensive plays bridging the third and fourth quarters.

A 7-yard TD run by Cincere Gill tied the score before a Vinnie Holmes interception set up a 31-yard touchdown scamper by Nick Marciano to take the lead. King Philip fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Mansfield capitalized with Aidan Sacco keeping it for a 23-yard touchdown and a 28-14 lead with 10:41 left.

Unlike Mansfield, which didn’t complete a pass in the game, KP went to the air to mount a comeback.

Jarest hit Nault on a fourthdown pass from 11 yards out to get within a score with 4:08 left. After forcing a three-and-out on Mansfield, King Philip leaned on the right arm of Jarest as he threw another scoring strike to Nault to get it to 28-27.

But the Warriors couldn’t complete the comeback.