With a chance to lock up an outright OCC title and likely secure a home playoff game Friday night at Madison, Mansfield Senior laid an egg, litterally, as the rival Rams shutout the Tygers 34-0 to gain a share of the league. The Tygers racked up just 13 yards of total offense while allowing the Rams to stampede to the tune of 508. The loss ended Mansfield Senior's seven game winning streak, dropping them to 8-2 and out of the top four in Division II Region 6, all the way down to eighth.

The good news for the Tygers is that the top eight school's in each region make the postseason and the team is very excited for an opportunity to find some redemption in week 11.

"To get an opportunity to play in the state playoffs is phenominal, so one bad loss is not going to take that away from us." Tygers head coach Chioke Bradley says. "Nothing can take back all the great accomplishments we've achieved this year."

And Mansfield Senior accomplished a lot. The 2012 Tygers became the first team in school history to win an OCC title and the first since 2002 to qualify for the OHSAA playoffs. Their seven game win streak is the teams longest in over a decade and it all began after the Tygers only home failure of the season, a 33-22 loss to undefeated Tiffin Columbian.

The 10-0 Tornados are the top-seeded squad in Mansfield Senior's region and will be the Tygers next opponent when the playoffs begin on Friday night. Presenting a huge opportunity for Mansfield Senior to not only redeem themselves after last weeks performance, but settle a score with Tiffin as well.

"It makes it even better for us this way." Bradley says. "We get an opportunity to go to their place and play them again and our kids is up, they feel good."

But after the Tygers disasterous performance at Ram Field Friday night, how can they possibly feel good about a date with an unbeaten team that's already exhausted them?

"A great week of practice." Says Tygers junior quarterback Jalen Reese. "We played these guys before and we come in with extreme confidence."

The fact that Reese is confident in himself is a great sign for Mansfield Senior, after the signal caller completed just two passes on Friday night, both of them to Madison defenders. Reese finished the season with 1,693 yards through the air, 17 TD's and just 6 Int's. He also broke his own school record for most passing yards in a game with 425, a feat he accomplished in the first half alone against Marion Harding in week 3. But it's far from early season action now for the Tygers and Reece knows it, as he and the squad prepare for the Tornados with a sense of urgency.

Reese says, "Every day's got to be like our last day because it very well could be our last day if we don't play like we need to play."

The Tygers will most certainly need to play better than they did against Madison if they want any shot at advancing past Tiffin Columbian into week 12. The Tornados will host Mansfield Senior Friday night at 7:30 p.m. The game can be seen on WMFD TV Friday at midnight and again Saturday at 8 a.m.