Kylan Galbreath ran for 138 yards and caught a touchdown pass as Mayfield held off Caldwell County 21-20 in Class 2A 1st District action on Friday.
The Tigers (2-2 overall, 1-1 district) fell behind 14-0 early before trying to claw their way back into it at Mayfield’s War Memorial Stadium.
Caldwell got within 14-7 early in the second quarter and trailed 21-13 at halftime.
Mayfield was blanked in the second half, but Caldwell’s comeback bid fell a point short.
Russ Beshear hit Tripp Branch with a 14-yard touchdown with 4:56 left in the quarter.
Down two, but with still almost 17 minutes to play, Caldwell elected to kick the extra point instead of going for two. Blake Vivrette split the uprights to cut Mayfield’s lead to 21-20.
The Caldwell defense came up with stop after stop in the fourth quarter, but the Tiger offense found itself backed up in its own end and unable to get much going.
On its final possession of the night, Caldwell reached the Mayfield 30. But a 4th-and-14 left the Tigers with another question — try a long field goal or go for it. Caldwell went for it, and a pass over the middle was complete to Tate VanHooser, but VanHooser was stopped just short of a first down as Mayfield held on.
Zane Cartwright passed for 172 yards for the Cardinals with two touchdowns — first quarter strikes to Daniel Coles (24 yards) and Ben Gloyd (17 yards), along with a 13-yard scoring toss to Galbreath in the second quarter.
Russ Beshear threw for 153 yards for the Tigers with two touchdowns — both to Branch. The pair connected on two TD passes — a 14-yarder with 8 seconds left in the first half and a 10-yarder late in the third quarter.
Travion Samuel added a 1-yard TD carry for Caldwell in the second quarter.
Mayfield (3-1, 1-0) had 305 yards of offense in the contest while the Tigers totaled 256.
Caldwell was just 2 for 11 on third-down conversions.
Drew Davis led the Tiger defense with 11 tackles and two sacks. Jack Stevens had 10 stops while Elijah Shaheen and Landon Davis each made eight tackles. Shaheen also had a sack.
Caldwell is scheduled to play at Glasgow next week.
