LITTLE ROCK – One team made its two-point conversions, and the other didn’t during Saturday afternoon’s Class 3A high school football state championship.
Mansfield defeated Fordyce 40-30 at War Memorial Stadium as the Tigers claimed their first state championship and denied the Redbugs their first in five years.
Conference 3A-1 champion Mansfield (14-0) went 5 for 5 on two-point conversions, while Fordyce finished 0 for 5. That 10-point difference was all that separated the teams at the final whistle.
Fordyce Coach Tim Rodgers said the Redbugs worked on two-point conversions in practice but couldn’t get them to work on Saturday.
“We’re going to try to find a kicker for next year,” Rodgers said. “I got kids in Fordyce, y’all looking around. You think you can kick, you need to come talk to me next Monday at school. We need to find a kicker next year.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Mansfield finished off its undefeated season by rushing for a state championship-record 489 yards. Senior running back Andrew Burton, who already held multiple school records, earned MVP honors by rushing 30 times for 321 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran in a two-point conversion.
Fordyce (13-2), the champion of Conference 3A-8, held Burton and the Tigers in check on their first two possessions. Burton had 36 yards on his first eight carries, but he broke free for a 90-yard touchdown on his ninth rush, which was the first play of Mansfield’s third drive.
Burton’s second touchdown was also on the first play of a drive, this time a 59-yard run in the third quarter right after a Fordyce touchdown.
Fordyce sophomore quarterback Andreal Ellison did everything he could to keep his team in the game. He completed 28 of 43 passes for 475 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions. Junior receiver Jamartez Stroud caught seven passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns. Fellow juniors TJ Harris and Micah Gamble also caught touchdown passes.
Rodgers said Ellison is a good quarterback when he executes what the coaches ask of him in practice.
“He’s getting better each year,” Rodgers said. “Last year as a ninth grader, he led us all the way to the semifinals, and this year, got us all the way to the finals. We can count on him. We’re going to have him two more years. Micah and Jamartez both are going to be back next year.”
But for all the success Fordyce had through the air, Mansfield’s defense stifled the Redbugs on the ground. Fordyce finished with 38 rushing yards on 18 carries as the Redbugs were forced to rely on Ellison’s arm.
Both teams reached the red zone on each of their first two drives before failing to convert fourth downs. Fordyce had first and goal at the 3-yard line on its second drive but got backed up by a false start penalty.
That drive ended with an incomplete pass on fourth down which gave Mansfield the ball at its own 10, setting up Burton’s first touchdown run to give the Tigers an 8-0 lead.
Fordyce had to punt after three plays, and Mansfield doubled its lead when senior receiver Joe Carter ripped the ball away from a Fordyce defender on a downfield pass by quarterback Jubal Parks. Once Carter had the ball, he ran in mostly uncontested to make it 16-0.
Mansfield Coach Will Overton said the Tigers stayed conservative on offense for their first two drives before Burton broke off his big run.
“We wanted to try to feel them out, see what fronts they were going to be in,” Overton said. “We had a good idea of what they were going to be in, but you never know kind of how they fit and stuff like that. We made a couple adjustments there in that second drive, and we kind of hung our hat on it the rest of the game, really.”
The teams traded interceptions afterward, with Zavier Jones cutting Mansfield’s next drive short with a pick at the Fordyce 9-yard line. With 16 seconds left, Fordyce took a knee to send the game to halftime.
The Redbugs cut the deficit to 16-6 with 4:12 to go in the third quarter on an 80-yard pass from Ellison to Stroud, but Burton scored his second touchdown on the next play from scrimmage.
The teams continued to alternate touchdowns until Stroud recovered a Mansfield fumble with 3:56 remaining, which led to Ellison’s fifth touchdown pass. Fordyce scored 18 points in the fourth quarter, but the comeback ran out of time.
Rodgers said Mansfield gets all the credit for winning, and he is proud the Redbugs fought to the end, scoring the game’s final 12 points.
“I don’t like to lose,” Rodgers said. “Never will. Don’t want to, but I was proud of our kids that they kept fighting back. They kept trying all the way to the end. We just kept trying and trying. Sooner or later, you realize you’re not going to win right there at the end, but I was very proud of the effort there, especially on offense and defense.”