Warren Blasts Tigers From Ranks Of Undefeated
Massillon Gridders Beaten 20-13 By Fast Charging Harding Line
By LUTHER EMERY
A fast charging Warren line blasted Massillon Washington high school from its Ohio scholastic throne Friday evening by a score of 20-13.
A capacity crowd that filled every inch of the Warren Harding high stadium saw the Tigers fall with a resounding thump into the heap of teams that have already been knocked off the lofty perch this season.
Scoring all three touchdowns in the opening quarter, two of them in the first six minutes of play, the Presidents got the jump on the Tigers and were in command of the game throughout.
Massillon scored 13 points in the last half, actually didn’t deserve that many, and came within two yards of scoring the tying touchdown in the fourth quarter. Warren earned all of its touchdowns, lost another when the half ended with a first down on the Tiger one yard line, and passed up another opportunity by losing the ball on a fumble on the Tiger
three-yard line, which is to say the Tigers were fortunate they were not defeated by a larger score.
The Harding President gained a net total of 322 yards to Massillon’s 163 and made 15 first downs to the Tigers’ six.
Give the game to the Warren linemen. They were terrors last night, surprising even the most optimistic of their fans as they ripped the Massillon line to shreds on both offense and defense to hand the Tigers their first loss of the season. Warren likewise has suffered but one defeat, that a 35-7 whipping by Canton McKinley.
The President linemen out charged the Tiger forward wall from start to finish and blasted large holes for their fast running backs, Walt Corbon, Herb Edington and Leroy Schier. Once in the open, the ball carriers drove hard for many yards to out gain the Tigers on the ground 305 yards to 84 yards.
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NOT UNTIL the last period did the local team begin to look like it had in recent games. Then it began carrying the game to Warren and battled the Presidents on somewhat even terms.
The scrappy spirit of the Massillon team in the face of defeat and its general clean play when taking a beating were about all the local fans had to cheer about. The local gridders tried to pull themselves out of the hole they had gotten into, as they had one in the Canton Lincoln and Steubenville games, and almost did.
That the Tigers were low for the game there seems to be no doubt. They got off to a bad start by fumbling the first three times they got the ball, twice losing the pigskin to Warren which converted one of the bobbles into its first touchdown.
With Al Brown sidelined with injuries save for two plays of the game and Clarence Johnson participating in only a couple of series of plays because of chest pains, the Tigers; offense could not be expected to hit par. Joe Jones sustained a painful shoulder injury which cut down his capabilities and three of the four guards carried injuries prior to the contest.
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INJURIES probably had much to do with taking the spark out of the Massillon machine, while Warren was clicking smoother than any team we have seen this season and shoved the Tiger into reverse gear most of the evening.
The locals tried to pass their way out of difficulty but it was not until the second half that the passers could hit their receivers. The latter had little difficulty freeing themselves but the passers were so rushed by the hard charging linemen that they frequently could not get the ball away.
The game wasn’t three minutes old until Warren had its first touchdown. Things happened fast after the opening kickoff which Ray Resh brought back to his 18-yard line. The Tigers fumbled on the first play from scrimmage and Warren covered on the 16. Then Bill Bevan fumbled on Warren’s first play and Jack McVay covered for Massillon on the 15. And on the very next play the Tigers fumbled again and Robinson covered for Warren on the Massillon 19. That last one set Warren in motion and it moved to the five-yard line where the Tigers held for three downs but on fourth down Edington crossed up the locals’ attack and raced around his right end for the first Warren score. He also placekicked the extra point.
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THE TIGERS were pinned back in their own territory after the following kickoff and punted to midfield. Corbin and Bevan negotiated a first down on the 34 and the Presidents then turned Edington loose for a neat bit of open field running in which Massillon tacklers slid off him as though he had greased pants. He went the route and placekicked the extra point to put Warren ahead 14-0 with only six minutes of the first period played.
Thompson intercepted John Badarnza’s pass on the second play after the kickoff to set Warren in motion again. Starting from their own 39, they used four first downs to take the ball to the seven and on fourth down Robison flipped a pass to Schier in the end zone for the third score. Paul Olenick broke through to block Edington’s attempted placekick.
The Tigers, who failed to show any net gain for their offensive efforts in the first period, threatened twice in the second quarter but didn’t have the punch to get the ball over. Their first effort began when Jacobs recovered a Warren fumble on his own 44. The locals worked the ball as close as the 13-yard line but lost it when Corbin intercepted a pass on his own two.
Warren punted out safely to the 28 and the locals managed to get through for one first down before losing the ball on downs on the 14-yard line. Warren took over from there, rushed the Tigers off their feet and had the ball on first down on the one-yard line as the half ended.
What hopes the locals had of stopping the President’s running attack the last two periods faded right after the kickoff when they took Schludecker’s boot and sallied back to a first down on the 10-yard line. Olenick saved the day by intercepting Robinson’s pass and running the ball back to his 39-yard line.
Jacobs cut loose with a beautiful punt after the next series of plays that rolled out on the four-yard line and set up the Tigers first touchdown. Robinson fumbled on the first play and Mike Takacs pounced on the ball on the four. It took three plays to get the pigskin over; Clarence Johnson lugging it across for the last yards. Schludecker kicked the extra point.
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THE TOUCHDOWN only served to fire Warren up all the more, for it took the following kickoff and came running back to the 11-yard line before Jack McVay covered Corbin’s fumble on the three. Dick Jacobs nearly got away on the first play of the fourth quarter as he raced out to his 36-yard line before being dropped by the Warren safety man. Hill lost 10 yards trying to pass, but he dropped back and fired another, a long one that Jacobs caught past midfield and raced for a touchdown, a gain of 72 yards. Schludecker missed the attempt for the extra point but Massillon fans trumpeted in glee as they saw a possible opportunity to tie the score.
They didn’t have to wait long for that opportunity. It came after the kickoff, when Warren, thrown back by a 15-yard clipping penalty and two of the best Tiger tackles of the evening, was forced to punt. The pass from center was over the kicker’s head and the ball, rolled back to the 10-yard line where it was first down for Massillon. Resh made a yard on the first play and Coach Houghton rushed in Brown and Clarence Johnson. Al circled left end for two, and Johnson in two attempts could get no nearer than the two-yard line where the Tigers lost the ball.
Warren punted out and the Tigers got back to the 26 on a pass, C. Johnson to E. Johnson, but Warren covered up and the locals again lost the ball on downs, with two minutes and 45 seconds remaining to be played. The game ended with the Tigers in possession of the ball on their own 33-yard line.
A Real Whipping
Massillon Pos. Warren
E. Johnson le Yurtin
Eberhardt lt Scott
Williams lg Lawrence
Olenick c Pollick
Houston rg Doulo
Wittmann rt Fetsko
Roderick re Manyak
Badarnza qb Robinson
Jacobs lh Edington
Resh rh Corbin
C. Johnson fb Smith
Score by periods
MASSILLON 0 0 7 6 13
WARREN 20 0 0 0 20
Substitutions:
Massillon – Takacs, fb; Hillk qb; McVay, c; Ferris, rg; Morrow, lg; Jones, lt; Brown, lh; Grier, rh; Schludecker.
Warren – Minnick, lg; Bevan, fb; Schier, lh; Doing, lt; Williams, rh; Thompson, qb.
Touchdowns:
Massillon – C. Johnson; Jacobs.
Warren – Edington 2; Schier.
Points after touchdown:
Massillon – Schludecker (placekick).
Warren – Edington, 2. (placekicks).
Referee – Lobach.
Umpire – Gross.
Head Linesman – Lindsay.
Field Judge – Brown.
Statistics
Massillon Warren
First downs 6 15
Yards gained rushing 84 305
Passes attempted 17 7
Passes completed 3 3
Passes had intercepted 2 1
Yards gained passing 109 26
Total yards gained 193 331
Yards lost 30 9
Total net yardage 163 322
Times kicked 3 4
Average kicks (yards) 40 55
Times punted 3 3
Average punts (yards) 39 40
Average return of kicks 19 15
Average return of punts 10 0
Fumbles 5 6
Fumbles recovered 2 2
Fumbles lost 3 4
Times penalized 4 5
Yards penalized 30 32
