Tigers Defeat Mansfield 27-0 In Rough Football Game
21,000 Spectators See Massillon Team Score In All But One Period
By LUTHER EMERY
The Washington high Tigers whipped Mansfield 27-0 here Friday evening in a bruising battle that left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people.
The Tigers scored in three of the four periods and the game ended with the 21,000 fans, largest crowd of the season, squaring off in a booing contest that sounded like a Florida hurricane. Here Massillon again won but only because it had more fans in the stands.
While the ethics are not of the best, booing is an outlet for a fan to show his displeasure at incidents in a game, and last night’s chorus of raspberries developed when the heated tempo of the game reached into the stands and afflicted the fans with a fever comparable to that displayed on the field where punching was going on in the pileup and rough treatment in general was meted out.
Mansfield started it after the Tigers had scored their third touchdown. The price was heavy for both sides. Massillon lost its fleet halfback, Al Brown, who was removed with a sprained ankle that may put him on the shelf for several weeks, while two 15-yard penalties in a row, one following Brown’s injury, put the ball on the one-yard line in position for the Tigers’ fourth touchdown.
The local team was not without sin and drew an unnecessary roughness penalty of 15 yards for playing tit for tat. When the game was finally over, one Mansfield player, Quarterback Harry Osbun had to be carried from the field, and Fullback Charles Jenkins was helped off by his teammates.
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THE OFFICIALS, seeking to keep the game under control, tossed out a player of each team while inflicting the penalties.
“I was sorry it ended that way,” Mansfield Coach “Augie” Morningstar, a former Tiger gridder and coach of the 1945 Massillon team, said after the game. “I started yanking players, trying to hold them down, but didn’t get them out soon enough.”
Washington high Coach “Bud” Houghton who had Morningstar as his line coach in 1941, was bitter after the game as he left to take Brown to the Massillon city hospital for X-ray pictures of the injured ankle. “I still believe as I did last year; that we should scratch Mansfield off the schedule,” he said. “We run into this every year.”
As events turned out, Houghton would have been wise to have pulled his star performers after the 20-point lead and saved them for games to come. Fortunately Brown was the only local gridder seriously injured. His loss would be a serious blow to the Tigers in weeks to follow.
The victory was Massillon’s fifth of the season and the third in a row over a former member of the Massillon coaching staff. Steubenville and Alliance, coached by Howard Brinker and Mel Knowlton, respectively, both former coaches in the local system were defeated during the previous two weeks. The defeat was Mansfield’s second in six games, the team having lost to Springfield last week after beating Fort Wayne North, Cleveland East, Sandusky and Portsmouth in a row.
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THE TIGERS continued to show improvement last night which is the most heartening part of their performance this season. While their defense was fooled a couple of times by Mansfield, they never permitted the visitors to get nearer than the 20-yard line, and they limited their ground work to 150 yards gained. Thirty-nine were gained passing.
The locals’ offense on the other hand rolled up 298 yards on the ground, 73 in the air and with better judgment would have produced five touchdowns instead of four. They lost one in the second period when with inches to go on fourth down and the ball two yards short of the goal; they tried a lateral on an end sweep that boomeranged and gave Mansfield the ball.
The Tigers however were by far the superior team and made fewer errors than in past weeks.
Had their passes worked earlier in the game they might have made a rout of it for Mansfield appeared vulnerable to forwards, and Massillon failures were largely the result of inability of the passer to get the ball to the receivers who had no difficulty freeing themselves in the open.
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MANSFIELD used many defensive variations in attempts to stop the Massillon running attack, but Brown, Dick Jacobs and Clarence Johnson moved more consistently than at any time this season and were forced to punt only once during the evening.
Brown got off the longest run, a 59-yard jaunt that was shortened in the official count because of a 15-yard clipping penalty.
Mansfield presented a hard runner in Tommy Tucker, a scat back who almost got away twice before he was trapped along the sidelines.
The game started off as though the objective was a test in generosity, when the teams began fumbling into each other’s hands, but it certainly did not end that way.
A poor punt, partially ticked by a Massillon player after the kickoff gave the Tigers the ball on the Mansfield 44, but Clarence Johnson fumbled on the 22 and Mansfield covered.
After an exchange of downs Mansfield fumbled and Jack McVay pounced on the leather to get Massillon the ball on the visitors’ 23. That act sparked the Tigers into action and they surged forward with Brown and Clarence Johnson lugging the leather most of the time in a march that ended with the latter going over from the one-yard line. Gene Schludecker kicked the extra point and the Tigers led 7-0.
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NEITHER TEAM scored in the second period though the Tigers passed up two golden opportunities. They marched the ball from their own 34 to the visitors’ two-yard line where with inches needed for a first down they lost the ball as Clarence Johnson was thrown trying a sweep off a lateral on fourth down. They moved again to the 18 where they lost the leather on an intercepted pass with some 15 seconds of the half remaining to be played.
They came out in the third quarter in a business like manner, took the ball on the kickoff on their 37. They marched 63 yards with John Badarnza sneaking it over. A 31-yarder by Brown and a 19-yard dash by Jacobs were the longest runs in this series of advances. Jack Hill tried to run with the ball for the extra point when he received a high pass from center, but was thrown before he could cross the goal line, leaving the Tigers in front 13-0.
Taking the ball away from Mansfield, when the latter tried for yards after the kickoff only to lose the ball on downs, the Tigers marched from their 49 to the 24 where Jack Hill pegged a touchdown pass to Ben Roderick who caught the ball on the five-yard line and managed to keep inside the side stripe until he got over the goal. Schludecker booted the 20th point and the decks were cleared for action. Each team gave the other the ball on a fumble and that did not help matters any. Neither was it soothing when the Tigers lost 12 yards on one hitch and the ball on another while trying to pass.
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MANSFIELD did not like it when the ball was called back after left Halfback Osbun had made a beautiful run to the Tiger 17 but the officials said both sides were off-sides and their word stood. Then Osbun was tackled so hard on the next series that he fumbled and the Tigers recovered. Brown immediately ran from his 32 to the nine-yard line, but a clipping penalty moved the ball back to the 40. Brown went to the 25-yard line on the next play and was knocked out in the pileup. He was removed from the game. A 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness put the ball on the 11-yard line. Badarnza tried to pass to Jacobs but the ball was beyond his reach. In the melee that followed a Mansfield player was put out of the game and the visitors were penalized to the one-yard line.
The chorus of boos, which began when Brown was knocked out rose in a huge crescendo as the referee stepped off the penalty yard by yard.
Badarnza bucked the ball over for the touchdown and Schludecker again kicked the extra point to bring the score to 27-0.
The scoring was over, but not the booing nor the roughing, for on the following kickoff the Tigers were charged with unnecessary roughness and drew a 15-yard penalty. That gave Mansfield a chance to join in the booing. The game ended with Joe Miller passing to Jenkins who was tackled so hard on the 20 by Sophomore Fred Grier, that he did a complete somersault in the air and came down with a thud that knocked him out momentarily. Osbun was kayoed on the same play and had to be carried from the field while Jenkins was helped off on the shoulders of teammates. There was no cheering from either side, just a general booing between rival fans. None of the Mansfield players was believed seriously injured, however though Morningstar, after the game, said his team was “touched up quite a bit.”
Fifth Victory
MASSILLON POS. MANSFIELD
Johnson LE Demyan
Jones LT Paetch
Morrow LG Jim Miller
Olenick C Russell
Houston RG Keiser
Wittmann RT Logan
Roderick RE V. Weaver
Badarnza QB Joe Miller
Jacobs LH Osbun
Brown RH Gregorio
Johnson FB Jenkins
Score by periods:
Massillon 7 0 13 7 27
Substitutions: Massillon – Williams, gl; Jones, lt; McVay, c; Schludecker, re; Takacs, fb; Resh, lh; Grier, rh; Hill, qb. Mansfield – Tucker, rh; Cline, lh; Ferguson, qb; Letizia, lh; T. Weaver, le; Chamerblin; Daley; Gruber; Carver.
Touchdowns:
Massillon – C. Johnson; Badarnza 2; Roderick.
Points after touchdown:
Massillon – Schludecker (placement).
Referee – C.W. Rupp.
Umpire – E.C. Kreiger.
Head Linesman – H.C. Pearce.
Field Judge – Ralph Shafer.
Statistics
Massillon Mansfield
First downs 16 9
Yards gained rushing 298 150
Passes attempted 8 6
Passes completed 3 3
Passes had intercepted 1 1
Yards gained passing 73 39
Total yards gained 371 189
Yards lost 36 18
Total net yardage 335 171
Times kicked 5 1
Average kicks (yards) 48 42
Times punted 1 3
Average punts (yards) 19 26
Average return of kicks 19 11
Average return of punts 5 0
Fumbles 3 3
Fumbles recovered 0 1
Fumbles lost 3 2
Times penalized 8 5
Yards penalized 80 50
