TIGERS BEAT BULLDOGS TO
WIN STATE TITLE
MASSILLON TEAM ENDS
UNDEFEATED SEASON BY TAMING OLD RIVAL 6-0
Bob Glass Plunges Over Canton
Goal
From Three-yard
Line in Third Period
To Score Only Touchdown of
the Game;
12,000 See Battle
By LUTHER EMERY
The Tigers are champions!
Champions of Stark
County! Champions of Ohio!
Only two teams can challenge their title, Steubenville
and Sandusky. Both have refused post season games. The Tigers are champions.
The role of David and Goliath was re-enacted Saturday
afternoon before 12,000 fans who crowded Lehman stadium, Canton to the corners, when the Tiger eleven,
picked from an enrollment of 1,100 rose up and slew the Canton Bulldogs
selected from a school of 5,000.
Waited Four Years for Victory
Four years, Massillon fans had waited for that moment and
when fullback Bob Glass, in the third quarter, poked his 176 pounds through the
Bulldog line for the one and only touchdown of the game, pandemonium broke
loose in the Tiger stands and a shout went up that could be heard miles
away. A disappoint sigh followed a
moment later when Jake Gillom was hit hard in an
unsuccessful left end sweep for the extra point, but it mattered not in the
end, for those six points were sufficient to beat Canton and victory was what
Massillon fans had been waiting for.
They swarmed out of the bleachers at the end of the game,
kept their hands on the horn button the eight-mile stretch to Massillon, fell
in behind the Tiger band as it marched down Lincoln Way and shouted and blew
horns again with delight as the band marched round and round the public square.
Their Tigers were champions.
The county championship was their first in 11 years. The undefeated season was their first since
1922 and it was their first state championship in 13 years.
It was the 14th knot the Tigers had tied to the
Bulldog’s tail since 1909, five more than Canton
and most pleasing of all it conquered the jinx Lehman field has been to Massillon teams. Never before had a Massillon eleven won on that gridiron.
Game Hard Fought
It was a battle from start to finish, the Tigers glorious in
victory, the Bulldogs gallant in defeat.
Old grads scratched their heads afterward and wondered if
the scrap had ever been duplicated. It
was a vicious game, charged with an undercurrent of bitter rivalry that
electrified teams and spectators.
Never did the Bulldogs play as they did Saturday. Oak Park and Steubenville beat Canton,
but Oak Park and Steubenville didn’t play the same team the
Tigers defeated Saturday. It was a fighting
eleven super charged with the pointing of Coach Jimmy Aiken and the latter at
the conclusion of the game, heaped words of praise on his boys. “They even surprised me,” he said, “I never
saw them fight that way before.”
Cold figures even game the Bulldogs an edge in offense. They made more first downs, gained more yards
from scrimmage and staged the longest sustained drive, 75 yards, but the
Tigers, playing a conservative game, braced when the Bulldogs ripped into
dangerous territory and repulsed both of its attempts to score.
The eight-man line did it.
Massillon fans booed when Coach Brown yanked his second stringers and
put in his first string men to stop New Philadelphia’s goal line thrust two
weeks ago. He did it for experimental
purposes with an eight-man line. It
turned back New Philadelphia and it beat Canton Saturday, turning
the Bulldogs back twice, once on the seven yard line and once on the three-yard
stripe.
Tigers Capitalize on Break
Favored to win by two or three touchdowns, the Massillon eleven took no
chances with the slippery ball and treacherous field. Denied a touchdown in the opening minutes of play when Jake Gillom was downed two inches from the goal the Massillon team capitalized
on its second break of t he game early in the third period when Charley
Anderson, alert and steady, pounced on Sabin’s fumble on the 21-yard line. Jake lugged the leather around right end for
three yards and Dutton drove through for two at left tackle. Then the ball was given to Glass. It was only the fifth time in the game that
he had been given the pigskin.
He plowed through for five yards and a first down on the Canton 11. Again Glass took it and this time went four
yards forward to the seven-yard line.
Dutton hit his left tackle for two and it was third down with the ball
on the five-yard line and four yards needed for a first down. Glass was the logical choice and he bored at
the Canton line again and put the ball on the
three-yard line; fourth down, three yards to go for a touchdown and the Canton secondary hugging
the line of scrimmage.
What to do was Quarterback Howard Dutton’s problem. He had faced the same problem earlier in the
game and thought he would cross the Bulldogs up by sending Gillom
through right tackle. The strategy had
failed. He decided to shoot Glass
through the center once more on a power play and called upon every man to give
that extra energy necessary for this one big push. It was a perfect play. Glass’ line charged and the Tiger ball
carrier pumped his feet into the ground and drove his way over the goal by a
foot.
Jake Gillom was tackled viciously
as he unsuccessfully tried to sweep left end for the extra point.
In the lead by a slim six points and nearly half the ball
game yet to be played, the Tigers remembered the counseling of their coaches
who told how a great undefeated Massillon team
in 1915 was whipped 7-6 by Canton
on an intercepted forward pass.
A conservative game was ordered by General Dutton, as he
scrapped his forward pass which has been 50 percent of the Massillon offense this season.
Canton Scares Fans
Relying on a running attack, the Massillon eleven set about
to successfully protect its lead, but not without one big scare that carried
the Bulldogs to the seven-yard line.
It was toward the close of the third period that Canton got a break somewhat similar to that which paved
the way for the Massillon
touchdown.
Stopped on their own 40-yard line when Pete Ballos in an almost super human effort dove over Eddie Molinski and tackled Charley Anderson for a two-yard loss
just when it appeared Charley would get loose, the Tigers were forced to
punt. Big Don Scott smashed through and
threw himself at the ball just as it left Dutton’s toe. He blocked the kick and pounced
on the ball, back on the Tiger 25-yard line.
It was McKinley’s big moment and it appeared the Bulldogs would make the
most of it when Bill Adams passed to Jack Young for a first down on the Tiger
six-yard line.
Tigers Check Advance
Massillon
went into its eight-man line. Sabin whirled
off tackle but failed to gain. Adams tried to circle left end but he too was stopped
without gain. Here the period ended and
the crowd at the west-end of the field which got more breaks than both teams
together for most of the play was in that section of the lot, had a chance to
see the Bulldogs’ make their last desperate onslaught.
Sabin tried to carry again, but this time the Massillon eleven moved in
on him and set him down for a one-yard loss.
It was evident that McKinley could not gain through the Tiger line. A pass was the only thing left, for it was
fourth down. Risoliti
faded back and threw toward the left corner.
Two Tigers were there to bat down the ball, but Schultz slipped, the
ball hit the ground and the Bulldogs’ last thrust was repelled.
The Tigers took possession of the ball and hammered their
way to three consecutive first downs and would have had another had not a
15-yard penalty for holding stopped the effort.
In that last march, Dutton again demonstrated his generalship. The ball was on the 28-yard line, it was
fourth down and a yard to go. To control
the ball and consume time was his bet.
He couldn’t afford to punt and give Canton the ball furthermore the kick might be
blocked. He gambled and taking no
chances, carried the leather himself, right through left tackle to a first
down.
Two long runs by Ballos and Sabin
put Canton in the ball game again and brought
the pigskin to the 30-yard line where the Bulldogs went into a spread formation
and Risoliti passed to Scott to the 15-yard line, but
Canton was
offside on the play and punted on fourth down.
The Tigers drove back from their 20-yard line and were traveling past
midfield at the final gun.
Players Exhausted
After such desperate goal line stands and smashing offensives,
it was no wonder that the teams at the end moved somewhat in slow motion like
the fatigued boxer who can hardly lift his arms dangling at his sides. It was no wonder that Ed “Echo” Herring, who
entered the game in the last two minutes nearly got away twice and it was no
wonder that when the final gun released the tension and brought relaxation that
several players of both teams crawled up the steps to their dressing rooms on
hands and knees, completely exhausted from their efforts.
That is why the game ranks with the greatest
Canton-Massillon games ever played – a swift moving panorama filled with hard
football capably officiated and dramatic in excitement and color.
Massillon won because it had the better team, not as
superior Saturday as many Tiger fans had wagered, but still good enough to beat
the Bulldogs who in one afternoon had climbed to super heights.
Massillon
won because it had the stronger defensive team and because it had the punch
when it needed it. The breaks were even,
but the Tigers capitalized on theirs while the Bulldogs failed.
While statistics show the Bulldogs made more yards from
scrimmage and more first downs than the Tigers, the conservative game of the
local eleven checked its own offense.
Only three passes were attempted. Two were completed for gains of seven and two
yards while one was batted down.
Canton
used a shovel pass to success and gained 33 yards. Two passes were intercepted and six others
batted down or grounded.
Tigers Get Kickoff
That both teams were in there to hand out punishment was
evident from the start. Capt. August
Morningstar won the toss and elected to receive, defending the east goal.
Adams kicked to Anderson,
who headed up the alley but was tackled in a big pile up on the 29-yard line
after a 19-yard return. Gillom made five at center.
Glass hit for four and Gillom made it first
down on the 42-yard line. Dutton picked
up two yards and Gillom on a delayed buck only got
one. Gillom
barely picked up a scant three on a right end sweep and Dutton kicked a beauty
out of bounds on the 14-yard line.
Ballos plunged for two yards, but
when he tried to go through Buggs he was stopped
without gain. Risolitie
dropped back to punt and Don Voss broke through, blocked the ball and recovered
it on the Canton
nine-yard line. Dutton failed to gain on
a spinner, but Gillom got five yards on a right end
sweep. Dutton carried the ball to the
one yard line and it was fourth down and a yard to go. Dutton decided to send Gillom
to the right. Jake ran hard but the
Bulldogs ganged him at the goal line. At
first Referee Dave Reese raised his hands to signal a touchdown, but Head
Linesman, Hummon said that the ball did not go over
and when the pile was uncovered the nose of the sphere was two inches short of
the chalk line.
That bolstered McKinley and temporarily upset the Tigers and
the red and black got a break a moment later when Gillom
fumbled Risoliti’s punt and Sabin recovered on the
Canton 34-yard line. Massillon took time out. Ballos made four at
left tackle and Sabin four at right tackle.
Ballos plunged for a first down on his own
47. Adams
made a yard at left tackle and Sabin three at right end. Third down and six to go and Gillom intercepted Adams’
pass on the 38. Gillom
made three at center, but lost a yard at right end. Dutton lost two at right end. Dutton punted to Sabin, who slipped and fell
after catching the ball on the 16-yard line.
Ballos made one-half yard at
center. Morningstar charged through and
put Ballos down for a three-yard loss as the quarter
ended with the ball on the 13-yard line.
Second Period
Risoliti kicked, Sabin downing the
ball on the Canton
41-yard line. Gillom
passed to Dutton for seven yards. Glass
made a yard at center and Dutton bucked for a first down on the Canton 31-yard line. Scott knocked down Dutton’s pass intended for
Anderson who was 10 yards in the clear.
The pass, was short. Glass failed
to gain. Gillom
made six at right end. Fourth down and
four to go and Gillom missed a first down by a yard
on the 22-yard line and Canton
took the ball.
Sabin found a big hole at right tackle and wormed through to
a first down on his 38-yard line. Adams made five at left tackle and Ballos
four at center. Adams
got through for a first down on his own 49.
Sabin made a yard. Risoliti’s pass to Ballos was
grounded. The Tigers took time out. A shovel pass to Sabin gained a first down on
the Massillon
40-yard line. Adams
failed to gain. Sabin got through right
tackle again for a first down on the Tiger 29-yard line. Ballos made four
yards and the Tigers were penalized 15 yards when Molinski
roughed Ballos on the play. It gave Canton
a first down on the 12-yard line. Sabin
hit right tackle for two yards. Sabin
broke through the same spot for six yards and put the ball on the four-yard
line. The Bulldogs needed but two yards
for a first down and had two chances left.
Ballos hit the line but failed to gain. He got barely a yard the next time and the
Tigers took the ball on their own three-yard line.
Dutton kicked back to Sabin who carried from the Tiger 43 to
the 32-yard line. Ballos
made three at center. The Bulldogs tried
a pass, but Canton was offside and a Massillon player
interfered with the receiver. Risoliti tried to pass again but the ball was
grounded. Sabin made five at tackle and Adams attempting to plunge for a first down was stopped
with a one-yard gain.
The Tigers took the ball on their own 22-yard line. Dutton made two yards at right end. Glass picked up three. Gillom made a yard
and there the half ended with the ball on the Massillon 28-yard line, fourth down coming
up.
Third Period
Glass kicked off to Sabin who fumbled but recovered on his
13. Ballos
made four yards at right guard. Sabin
swept right end for three yards. Sabin
was given the ball again but he fumbled and Anderson and Buggs
hopped on the pigskin on the Canton
21-yard line.
Gillom whirled around right end
for three yards. Dutton made two at left
tackle. Glass went through for five
yards and a first down on the Canton
11. Glass plunged through left tackle
for four. Dutton hit the same spot for
two. Glass put the ball on the
three-yard line. Glass went over for the
touchdown. Gillom
failed to make the extra point on a wide end sweep. Score:
Massillon 6; Canton
0.
Glass kicked off to Adams who caught the ball on the 21 and
brought it back to his 29-yard line. Ballos made three at left tackle. Ballos picked up
two at right tackle. A shovel pass, Risoliti to Sabin netted a first down on the Canton 45. Ballos hit center
for two yards. Morningstar batted down Risoliti’s pass and nearly intercepted. Adams lost a
yard at left end. Risoliti
kicked to Gillom who returned six yards to his own
32. Dutton made eight yards at left
end. Anderson on an end around play was thrown for
a two-yard loss by Ballos in a remarkable
tackle. Glass got two yards at
center. Scott blocked Dutton’s pass and
recovered on the Tigers’ 25-yard line.
Sabin failed to gain at right tackle. Ballos drove
through for five yards. Ballos failed to gain; Adams
passed to Young for a first down on the six-yard line. Sabin failed to gain and Adams
running from a triple reverse was stopped without gain as the third period
ended with the ball still on the six-yard line.
Fourth Period
It was third down and goal to gain. Sabin coming around the right side of his
line was tossed with a one-yard loss, being hit hard by Buggs. Risoliti’s pass to
Schultz hit the ground and it was Massillon’s
ball on the seven-yard line.
For the only time during the game, Molinski
hit center for three yards. Gillom picked up two and Glass rammed through left tackle
for a first down on the 18-yard line.
Dutton ran over Held for four yards and Glass followed the big Tiger
lineman through for two more. Dutton hit
to his right for three yards and it was fourth down with a yard to go. Gambling, Dutton carried again and easily
made his yardage, a first down on the 29.
Anderson
picked up eight on a reverse around right end.
Glass plunged behind Woods for three yards and a first down on the
40. Dutton barely missed a first down on
a left end reverse. Gillom
drove past midfield but the ball was called back and the Tigers penalized 15
yards for holding. It put the ball on
the Massillon
37-yard line. Dutton made two
yards. When Gillom
failed to gain, Dutton wisely kicked out on the Canton 37.
Ballos was 15 yards to the Tigers
48. Sabin raced through for 13 more and
first down on the Massillon
35. He was tackled by Glass, Sabin
failed to gain and a check of time showed five minutes left to play. Adams made
five yards on a shovel pass taking the ball to the 30-yard line. Canton tried a
spread formation and a pass was completed to Scott who had hopped into the
secondary, but Canton
was offside on the play and was penalized five yards. Risoliti’s pass was
grounded. Risoliti
got off a pretty punt that went over the Tiger goal line by a couple of inches
and Massillon
took the ball on its own 20.
Herring substituting for Gillom,
made one at right guard. Dutton made
five at left tackle and Glass three more.
Dutton kicked out on the Canton
40. Canton attempted a spread formation. Risoliti’s pass to
Schultz was grounded. Sabin made five at
right end. On the third down, old Jim McDew dropped back with Schultz and ended Canton’s hopes by intercepting Risoliti’s pass intended for the Bulldog left end. Herring made two yards and then raced around
left end for seven more. Glass plunged
for a first down on the Canton
44 as the ball game ended.
It would be difficult to pick an outstanding star on the Massillon team. The line from Capt. Morningstar on one end to
Anderson on the
other played a great game, while the backfield struck when a big push meant
points.
Ballos A Great
Player
Pete Ballos was the outstanding
performer offensively and defensively for the Bulldogs. Little Ray Sabin, played a fine game at
halfback, gained many yards, but unfortunately his fumble in the third period
was costly.
Both coaches relied on their first stringers to carry
on. Coach Aiken didn’t make a substitution,
while Coach Brown made two. He sent Mike
Byelene in for one play in the second period when he
took Dutton out to give him advice and he put Herring in Gillom’s
place in the last two minutes of play when the first string halfback was
exhausted.
There were no injuries on either team, something unusual for
a Massillon-Canton game. Though hard
played, it was cleanly contested with but few exceptions. Massillon was
penalized twice for 30 yards; Canton
once for five yards.
The game definitely closed the season for the Tigers. They will not play a post season game. The Massillon eleven had received an offer of $5,000 to meet New Castle at Youngstown,
but the game fell through. Akron North’s
championship ambitions having been blasted by Toledo Devilibiss
Saturday, only two logical post season game contenders remain, Steubenville
and Sandusky,
and neither will play.
Quiet Saturday Night
It was quiet in Massillon
Saturday night. Students and townspeople
trod the streets looking for a celebration but there was none to be found.
The only celebration was that staged by the Tiger band after
the game when the young musicians climbed out their buses at the top of Lincoln Way East
hill and marched through the business district, stopping at Lincoln Way and Erie to drill.
The football team dressed in Canton
and returned to Massillon
to have dinner at the Silver Maples.
Exhaustion did not check the boys’ appetites and they were a happy bunch
of fellows. Capt. August Morningstar lost no time getting to Referee Reese
after the game. He wanted the ball and
got it. He turned it over to Coach Brown
who carried it around all evening like a pet poodle. The ball will be lettered and placed among
the souvenirs.
The Washington
high band staged a colorful drill before the game and at the intermission. The young women drum majors carried large
bouquets of yellow mums, the gift of Kester
Bros. The Canton band likewise gave a fine exhibition.
Among the spectators was B.F. Fairless, president of the
Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation who came from New York for the game.
There was a scuffle in front of the Canton
bench late in the game that few Massillon
fans could see. Jim McDew
tackled Sabin hard and tossed him into the lap of Coach Aiken. Aiken shoved McDew
off, rather roughly, the Massillon player throught and he and Anderson
cocked their fists, but before anything came out of it other Tiger players
pulled back their teammates and no blows were struck. It was only an outgrowth of the great tension
of the game.
Massillon fans, unaccustomed
to the Canton
bleachers dropped many blankets on the ground.
The McKinley management, however, had made provision for such instances
and had men ready to pick up all fallen blankets and place them in a room in
the Lehman school. At the end of the
game, there must have been 100 in the pile.
Blankets were returned as rapidly as identified.
The game will be played and replayed tonight at the Tiger
Booster club meeting in the Washington
high school. It probably will be the biggest
meeting of the year. Plans also will be
discussed for the annual football banquet Dec. 11 at the Republic Steel office
building. Noble Kizer,
Purdue coach will speak.
The Tigers Rule
Massillon Pos. Canton
Anderson RE Schultz
Held RT Scott
McDew RG Angelo
Voss C Rice
Woods LG Virdo
Buggs LT Wortman
Morningstar LE Young
Dutton QB Risoliti
Gillom LH Sabin
Molinski RH Adams
Glass FB Ballos
Massillon 0 0 6 0 6
Touchdowns:
Massillon – Glass.
Substitutions:
Massillon – Byelene, qb; Herring, lh.
McKinley – none.
Referee – Dr. David Reese (Denison).
Umpire – C.J. Graf (Ohio State).
Head Linesman – J. M. Hummon (Wittenberg).
Game Statistics
McKin. Mass.
First downs, rushing 10 8
First downs, passing 1 0
First downs, penalties 1 0
Yards gained, rushing 151 143
Yards gained, passing 13 6
Yards lost 5 8
Yards gained, total 159 141
Passes attempted 9 2
Passes completed 1 2
Passes incomplete 6 1
Passes intercepted by 0 2
Punts 6 6
Punts, average yards 33 33
Punts blocked by 1 1
Punts returned by 11 10
Fumbles 1 1
Own fumbles recovered 0 0
Opp.
Fumbles recovered 1 1
Kickoffs 1 2
Kickoffs, average yards 50 43
Kickoffs returned 11 20
Penalties 5 30
First Undefeated Season
For Tigers Since 1922
By FRED J. BECKER
Independent Sports Editor
Undefeated in 10 games, with a record of 483 points to their
credit and only 13 scored against them, the Tigers of Washington high school
today can lay claim to the scholastic football championship of Ohio. Few there are, who
will dispute their right to be recognized as the best school boy gridiron
aggregation within the borders of the buckeye state.
The crowning achievement to the most successful football
season Washington high school has had since way back in 1922 came last Saturday
afternoon at Lehman stadium, Canton, when the rampaging Tiger, hungry for just
one more victory, smacked down its perennial enemy, the Bulldogs of Canton
McKinley, 6 to 0, in one of the greatest scholastic contests ever witnessed by
the 12,000 shouting fans who packed every available inch of space in the Canton
enclosure and the hundreds of others who hung from windows in buildings, tree
tops and telephone poles in the immediate vicinity of the battle ground.
When husky Bob Glass, 185-pound Massillon fullback, cracked
through the center of the Canton line late in the third quarter and drove
across the goal line for the touchdown that eventually brought victory to the
orange and black he brought joy to the hearts of thousands of local fans who
were in the stands and despair to the thousands of Canton supporters who had
prayed and hoped that their beloved Bulldogs would be good enough to come
through with another victory over the old enemy.
Won 10 Straight In 1922
Way back in 1922 a team of mighty Tigers, coached by David
D. Stewart, now football tutor at Sharon, Pa., high school, roamed the
scholastic gridirons of Ohio sweeping aside all opposition to travel undefeated
through a 10 game schedule, winding up with a magnificent 24 to 0 conquest of
Canton.
From 1922 until this fall Washington high has had some prosperous
years on the gridiron and some that were quite lean but not until 1935 was it
able to turn loose another football juggernaut able to sweep everything before
it and finish unbeaten and untied.
For three years, prior to this fall, it bowed in defeat
before the devastating attack of powerful Canton McKinley machines.
But this year Massillon
came back into its own. A dashing gallant and courageous band of
youthful gridiron giants stormed the heights to glory. When they started their campaign back in
September they were aiming for an undefeated season but more than anything else
they wanted to defeat Canton.
Every day on the practice field and in every game they
played prior to last Saturday that thought was uppermost in their minds. “Beat Canton!” That was their goal and they achieved
it. Now they are contest.
The young man who last Saturday watched the machine that he
and two able assistants had fashioned through hours of hard work, crash through
to its greatest triumph, was a football pupil under the coach who gave Massillon its undefeated
team in 1922.
“Kids” Come Through
That young man was Paul Brown, who has completed his fourth
year as football tutor of the youthful Tigers and who Saturday saw the “kids”
score their first victory over Canton since Jimmy Aiken was brought to the east
end city from Toledo to pull Canton McKinley out of the football mire.
The game Saturday was the 25th in the series
between the ancient scholastic rivals since 1909. Of those 25 battles 14 have been Massillon victories, nine have gone to Canton and two ended in ties.
Prior to Saturday Canton
had won three straight times. The last
beating a Tiger team administered to a Bulldog outfit was in 1931 by a 20 to 6
count, being the third in a row for Massillon. But from then on until this fall, McKinley reigned supreme, winning 19 to 0 in 1932, 21 to 0 in 1933
and 21 to 6 in 1934.
But the reign of the Bulldog was snapped Saturday and to Massillon at least, the 1935 Tigers of Washington high are
the scholastic champions of Ohio.
The victory over Canton
was a fitting climax
to a brilliant season but it was not achieved without a struggle
– a desperate struggle all the way in which individual brilliance and equally
brilliant team play on the part of both aggregations made it one of the games
that long will be remembered.
Thrills Aplenty
Three great goal line stands, one by Canton
and two by Massillon
provided the great outpouring of fans with enough thrills to last them until
another football season rolls around.
It was a break of the game that decided the issue in Massillon’s favor. A fumble by Sabin of Canton on McKinley’s
22-yard line paved the way for the Tiger touchdown march.
Earlier in the first quarter the battling Bulldogs stopped
the Tigers inches away from the goal but this time the orange and black was not
to be denied and steadily it marched toward the Canton goal never to be halted
until Bob Glass plunged through for the points.
Canton fans probably will
gain some measure of solace from the fact that a fumble paved the way for Massillon’s victory. But it was Massillon’s hard, clean tackling
and the alert manner in which every member of the local team followed the ball
that made it possible for the local lads to pave the way for that break and
then cash in on it for all that it was worth.
Such breaks occur in every football game but they mean
nothing to a team unless it has the punch necessary to put the ball back on an
opponent’s goal line. The Tigers had
that punch and that’s why they won.
Twice Canton was inside Massillon’s 10-yard
line. Once it got there through a march
that came after blocking a Massillon
punt. The other time it reached scoring
territory by a brilliant and steady 72-yard march down the field but neither
time was Canton
able to cash in on its opportunity. When
disaster threatened those Tigers just dug their cleats a bit deeper into the
frozen turf and tossed back the Bulldogs with ferocious charges and deadly
tackling.
Massillon
fans expected the Bulldogs to put up a sturdy battle and they were not
disappointed. In fact the Bulldogs
played their greatest game of the season.
Followers of the sport who had seen Canton in action before last Saturday
declared the Bulldogs Aiken trotted out against the Tigers played better
football than at any time during the campaign.
Inspired Canton
Team
That was to be expected.
Aiken, one of the shrewdest high school coaches in the state, knew how
to prime his boys for the Massillon conflict and
it was an inspired team that trotted out to meet the rough riding boys from Massillon. The 11 Canton boys who started
the game were in there at the finish, not one substitution being made for the
red and black. Massillon made three. Byelene was sent in
for Dutton just as the second quarter needed but after the first play in the
third the clever Massillon
quarterback was rushed back into the fray.
Near the end of the game Herring replaced Jake Gillom.
A few Massillon
fans; probably, may be a bit disappointed because the Tigers did not win by a
larger score. Days before the game some
of he more enthusiastic Massillon
supporters were predicting a local victory by two, three, four and even more
touchdowns.
But in making their predictions they didn’t take into
consideration this one important fact:
never attempt to predict a Massillon-Canton game on the basis of what
the two teams have done prior to that all-important contest. It just can’t be done with any degree of
accuracy.
Massillon
won – and that is all that is necessary.
One of the greatest Tiger teams in local history conquered a worthy,
hard fighting foe, an enemy that resisted stubbornly to the last and one that
had its moments of greatness.
The Tigers received their stiffest test of the season
Saturday – and they came through. Victory
is the thing. Points are secondary. A triumph by six points is just as sweet as
one by 20 or 30.
The Tigers conquered their old rival. They finished their season undefeated. They are as good, if not better than any high
school football team in the state.
All the glory that comes to an undefeated team belongs to
those stalwart lads and their coach, Paul Brown and his assistants, C. Widdoes and Hugh McGranahan.
Our hats are off to them.
Long may the Tiger rule!