Opportunity awaits Mansfield in showdown with Charleston

There are some teams you’re not surprised to be undefeated midway through the regular season, teams such as North Little Rock, Warren and Booneville. But Mansfield? I was struck by how positive Mansfield coach Craig Bentley spoke about his team during our discussion weeks before the season began. His outlook to me appeared overly optimistic, especially for a program that had won only two games each the previous two years and hadn’t finished above .500 in at least seven years. But here the Tigers are, standing 5-0 heading into tonight’s home game with Charleston, a traditional power in Class 3A. It’s a major test for Mansfield, which lost 35-6 to Charleston a year ago. Tonight’s game will feature two of the best quarterbacks in Class 3A, junior Ethan Stovall for Mansfield and senior Brayden Caudle for Charleston. Stovall threw for 331 yards and five touchdowns like week against Greenland, the same team that had beaten Charleston the week before. But be careful about comparing scores, especially with Charleston, which has won six of the last seven championships in the 3A-1 Conference. Charleston is still dangerous and the Tigers were on the road to recovery last week in a 21-6 victory over Cedar-ville. A big crowd is expected tonight to see if Mansfield can remain among the undefeated or if Charleston will restore order in conference play with a victory. Mansfield is off to an impressive start, for sure, and the Red Tigers should make the playoffs this season. But the top Tigers in this league still wear black and gold. RICK’S PICK Charleston Other games involving teams from Northwest Arkansas (selections are capitalized).

CLASS 7A

Rogers at BENTONVILLE WEST Van Buren at FAYETTEVILLE BENTONVILLE at Rogers Heritage Springdale Har-Ber at SPRINGDALE HIGH Little Rock Catholic at FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE Fort Smith Southside at NORTH LITTLE ROCK

CLASS 6A

GREENWOOD at Siloam Springs

CLASS 5A

HUNTSVILLE at Clarksville Greenbrier at FARMING-TON Vilonia at HARRISON ALMA at Morrilton

CLASS 4A

Green Forest at GENTRY PEA RIDGE at Gravette Berryville at LINCOLN PRAIRIE GROVE at Shiloh Christian Subiaco Academy at EL-KINS DOVER at Mena DARDANELLE at Ozark POTTSVILLE at Waldron

CLASS 3A

Greenland at BOONEVILLE Cedarville at PARIS LAMAR at West Fork MOUNTAINBURG at Johnson County Westside HECTOR at Magazine LAVACA at Western Yell County LAST WEEK 21-3 (87 percent) OVERALL 99-28 (76 percent)

Rick Fires can be reached at rfires@nwadg.com or on Twitter@NWARick.

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