MITCHELL- The Mitchell Tigers played stellar defense and Michael Plasencio rushed for two touchdowns as Mitchell defeated Amherst, 22-13, on senior night.
After no scores in the first quarter, the Mitchell Tigers got on the board first with a 5-yard rushing touchdown for quarterback AJ Garza. Then, after a Mitchell drive stalled later in the second quarter, Amherst could not cleanly field a James Billingsley punt and the Tigers pounced on top to take back over on the Bronco 18-yard line. Plasencio would get his first touchdown on the night on a 11-yard touchdown run to cap the drive, 12-0 Mitchell.
An Amherst 44-yard field goal fell short and to the left of the uprights as the Tigers took the lead into the half.
Then the Broncos came out and got on the board at the 10:48 mark in the third quarter on a 34-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kyler Jones to Brynndon Bradley to get on the board, 12-7.
Mitchell answered back and pieced together a drive and knocked on the door of the Amherst endzone but fumbled it away on the half-yard line, with the Broncos recovering.
Amherst’s possession wouldn’t last long as Mitchell immediately stopped a Bronco trying to stretch a play out of the endzone, tackling him in the endzone for the safety to make it 14-7. Mitchell pieced together a drive after the safety punt and punched it in from 13-yards out with Plasencio once again to make it 22-13 after a two-point conversion.
The final score of the contest came on a 3-yard rushing touchdown from Amherst’s Jones to finalize scoring at 22-13 after the two-point try was no good, but Mitchell did commit a personal foul on the play, meaning the Broncos would kickoff from the Mitchell 45-yard line. Amherst tried for the onside kick, but Garza recovered it cleanly, ending the Amherst rally.
Mitchell limited the Amherst offense to 81 yards on the ground, with Graydn Fisher getting 81 yards on eight carries, with Braedyn Bergsten adding nine yards on four touches and Jones lost nine yards on three carries. Jones also had 187 yards through the air with a touchdown pass as well. Brynndon Bradley had two catches for 78 yards and a touchdown, Bergsted had three catches for 55 yards and Malleck had two catches for 38 yards.
For Mitchell, Garza had 159 yards on the ground with a touchdown for the Tigers and added 48 yards through the air on two completions. Plasencio had 55 yards on five carries and two touchdowns and Uzziah Voss had 12 carries for 60 yards. Plasencio and Norman Coley had the catches for Mitchell of 22 and 26 yards respectively.
Mitchell (4-4) heads to Hershey to end the regular season next Friday. While Amherst (4-4) hosts Gordon-Rushville for their finale.
