ASHLAND – On a night senior Killian O’Brien became Ashland’s career receiving touchdown leader and powered the Arrows to their first Ohio Cardinal Conference win of the season in a 30-7 final over rival Mansfield Senior, he was quick to not put it No. 1 on his career performance rankings.
“My favorite (was) sophomore year against Marion Harding,” O’Brien said; he had four catches for 161 yards and three touchdowns that night. “And a pick-six that got called back. But this is up there, it’s a special night.”
Friday night against the Tygers he finished with three receptions for 123 yards and two touchdowns along with a 51-yard interception returned for a touchdown. O’Brien’s first score was on defense so he had to wait a bit for the school record, but it was well worth it as he took a screen pass and ripped off a 78-yard score for career receiving touchdown number 26, breaking Chris Thomas’ 16-year record. And he added another for good measure, hauling in another screen but this time breaking five tackles along the sideline before getting shoved into the pylon for the 34-yard touchdown.
“I knew I had to make the most of my opportunities with young quarterbacks, (but) I have no doubt that Carson (Graber) can make the deep ball throw and put it on me,” O’Brien said. “Last year I was more of a deep threat and Nathan (Bernhard) would just sling the ball. But this year, knowing I want to play at the collegiate level, I gotta be able to catch the short routes, break tackles, and score touchdowns.
“(When I get the ball) I just know I want to score. In my head, once I see that play call for me, I’m thinking I’m getting in the end zone and I’m doing whatever it takes to get in.”
It was the type of performance the Arrows needed out of a senior leader coming into the Week 7 clash winless in OCC play with losses to New Philadelphia (35-10), Dover (39-21), and Madison (21-7).
“Kids and coaching, we get frustrated a little bit with not executing and losing opportunities — we’ve had opportunities — we just haven’t come through,” Ashland coach Scott Valentine said. “So to be able to get those through, hopefully that now gives us confidence moving forward.
“We were making too many mistakes … even the guys that have been in their positions (for a while). We’ve had some injuries, but it’s just mistakes … I thought we executed a lot better.”
Slowly getting healthy again with the return of Bodie Smith at linebacker and Grayson Baith now getting into a groove marking his second game back in the mix, Ashland was able to string together quality drives on offense while simultaneously causing havoc on defense forcing three turnovers, three punts, and even recorded a safety midway through the fourth as Greyson Blough burst through the line and tackled the frenzied Mansfield Senior offense trying to scoop a loose ball in the end zone.
“That next guy has to understand the level of play on Friday night, there’s a higher level of play than in practice,” Valentine said. “That’s something those guys got the experience and then they executed tonight.
“Coach (Chris) Schmidt talked in the locker room … we haven’t had turnovers recently, so we got some and then him making the plays. We had some good blocking out there on the screens and he made some cuts, broke a couple tackles … those big chunk plays are huge. Usually the team that gets those wins.”
The Tygers had a few chunk plays of their own, unfortunately almost all of them were wiped out due to flags.
“The penalties just killed us, and they’ve been doing that to us all year,” Mansfield Senior coach David Phillips said. “And a lot of those penalties I didn’t see, but I’m not going to blame the refs.
“Ashland has a good team, (O’Brien) is one hell of a player, Valentine is one of the best this conference has ever seen. Good luck to them.”
The Tygers actually struck first intercepting Graber on the third play of the opening drive then pounded the ball with a combination of David Phillips III and Jeffrey Lee before Phillips III lobbed a ball 21 yards into the end zone to Juewell Butler on 4th down for the touchdown.
But after that their drives ended in a punt, interception, pick six, punt, fumble, punt, turnover on downs, safety.
“We gotta learn how to play four quarters … all year we’ve played well in the first half then (crap) the bed in the second half, or we play well in the second half and (crap) the bed in the first half.”
Phillips III finished 3-of-13 for 38 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, Butler had the 21-yard touchdown reception and nabbed an interception on defense before exiting the game with an injury — both are freshmen. Senior Braylon Fletcher took over running back duties in the second half and finished the night with 14 carries for 75 yards.
“I’m proud of those guys, and most of them are freshmen,” coach Phillips said. “We’re starting eight freshmen, those guys went in and fought. Ashland is just a great team and they felt that, this is good for them.”
Graber was 10-of-15 for 180 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, Baith rushed eight times for 59 yards and caught two passes for 28 yards, Jeff Hickey had five catches for 29 yards, Julian Cabrera logged 10 rushes for 54 yards down the stretch.
“All week we had great intensity because those three losses really hurt us as a team and us seniors realized this isn’t a joke, our playoff spot is on the line and we really gotta get after it,” O’Brien said. “We don’t want our season to end after 10 games, we want that extra game, so we just gotta keep getting after it.”
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ashland’s O’Brien breaks career receiving TD record in win over Senior
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