Mansour thought he’d given the LaGrange High football team a 17-14 lead over Troup when he booted a 50-yard with less than six minutes left in Friday’s showdown at Callaway Stadium.
A penalty on the Grangers negated that play, though, keeping the game deadlocked.
The Grangers were backed up five yards, and LaGrange head coach Steve Pardue opted to give his junior kicker another chance, this time from 55 yards out.
“I made that first one, and I just had to kick it again,” Mansour said.
Mansour did kick it again, and the ball sailed through the uprights with room to spare.
Those three points proved to be the difference as the Grangers held on for a 17-14 victory in another classic game between the two rivals.
“I just wanted to stay undefeated against Troup,” said LaGrange senior quarterback Rodney Tolbert, who was the holder on Mansour’s field goal. “This meant a lot.”
While the Grangers (8-2) celebrated a fifth straight win in the series, the Tigers were left wondering how they could lose another close game.
The Tigers dropped to 4-6, but they’re close – agonizingly close – to perhaps being 9-1.
Throw out a blowout loss to Carver, and Troup’s other five losses are by a combined 16 points.
Friday’s game marked the third time Troup has lost a game on a fourth-quarter field goal.
“They played hard. They’ve always played hard,” Troup head coach Bubba Jeter said after the game.
The Tigers just haven’t been able to win a close game, outside of a season-opening 15-7 win over Callaway.
Friday’s game was there for the taking for either team.
In the end, having a guy capable of booming field goals from a different zip code proved to the difference
There are not many teams that would have had the luxury of doing anything other than punting or going for it in that situation.
But Mansour isn’t just another kicker.
He’d kicked a 46-yarder earlier this season, and last year he made four kicks of 46 yards or longer, including one from 53 yards.
He’s got the leg to make one from 55 yards and beyond, so Pardue didn’t think the decision to try the field goal was a hard one.
The only thing he told Mansour was to make sure he didn’t get his kick blocked.
If the field goal had failed, Troup would have gotten the ball at the 20-yard line.
“I’ve always told him, I’ll try any field goal with him, but don’t take long and get it blocked,” Pardue said.
Mansour’s heroics weren’t limited to that 55-yard bomb, by the way.
Mansour also averaged nearly 50 yards on his six punts, and his shortest punt pinned Troup inside its own 1-yard line.
“I thought our kicking game probably won the game for us,” Pardue said.
Mansour’s field goal gave the Grangers their only points in the second half as Troup’s defense took over.
On the possession that led to Mansour’s kick, the Grangers actually went backward a yard after taking over at the Troup 37.
LaGrange moved the ball much better in the first half, with quarterback Rodney Tolbert throwing touchdown passes of 14 yards to Matt Pauley and 13 yards to David Earl.
Tolbert connected on 5-of-6 passes for 65 yards in the first half, while Ocie Salter ran for 52 yards in the opening half.
The Grangers didn’t net a first down in the final two quarters, though.
Troup’s front four of Tay Irvin, Denzel Turner, J.C. Copeland and LeAndre Crawford controlled the pace of play in the second half.
“There may be some better defenses, but I hope we don’t see one for awhile,” Pardue said. “Those front four are really good.”
LaGrange’s defense was up to the task as well.
Troup managed a little more than 100 yards of offense, and 32 of the Tigers’ 67 second-half yards came on the touchdown drive.
“I think Troup was real physical, but we were physical, too,” LaGrange senior linebacker Demetri Merritt said. “Our defense played really good.
Troup had the early lead, with Jacorius Cotton scoring on a 5-yard run with 3:16 left in the first quarter.
The Grangers had a 14-7 halftime lead on the heels of their two second-quarter touchdowns, but Troup came back and tied the game early in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard scoring run by Brandon Worle and an extra point by Russell Dougherty.
The Grangers went three-and-out on their next possession, but a 55-yard punt by Mansour put the ball on the Troup 15-yard line.
After the Tigers lost yardage on their next three plays, a short punt gave LaGrange the ball at the Troup 37.
The rest is history.
The Grangers were far from perfect Friday night, but they were good enough to win, and nothing else matters.
“We’re really proud,” Salter said. “Our offensive line really stepped up. Our quarterback stepped up. Everybody just played a good game. Everybody did their assignments.”
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