Tigers Beat McKinley
Bengal Team First In local
History
To Win 11 Games In A Season
By LUTHER EMERY
The ballots have
been cast and in their number is the 1961 Ohio high school football champion.
Which team will it
be?
Massillon’s Washington
high school Tigers have the best record in games won and lost – 11 straight this season. No other state power can boast that many,
and the Tigers have met and conquered many of Ohio’s strongest teams.
They deserve the
title.
Last week they led
the Associated Press poll by 29 points, and since last week they have added an
11th triumph to their schedule a 7-6 victory over Canton McKinley
Saturday, to become the first team in Massillon history to win 11 games in a
season.
* * *
UNFORTUNATE
the determining factor of some
pollsters appears to be how close Massillon comes to losing a game, rather than
by how many points the Tigers have measured some of the state’s powerhouses.
Since Saturday’s
game was a close one, this could again be a factor in this week’s final voting
in the AP poll which is recognized by the Ohio High School Football Coaches
association as the poll to determine the state champion. The results of the poll will be officially
announced Tuesday afternoon.
A gallant Canton
McKinley team gave the Tigers all they could handle Saturday afternoon before
20,000 fans at Fawcett stadium Canton, and outplayed the Tigers in many
departments except points.
Here the Tigers led
and 50 years from now the score will still read Massillon 7, McKinley 6.
Both touchdowns were
scored in the first half – Massillon going across the first time it got the
ball – McKinley scoring early in the second period.
The Bengals won by a
toe and a foot so to speak. The toe was
that of Wil Paisley, the guy who came out of the halls to boot 16 of 17 extra
point attempts from placement, including the point that beat McKinley, and the
foot was the measurement of ground the Tigers refused to yield when the
Bulldogs had them hanging on the goal line in the fourth quarter.
* * *
THAT
GOAL LINE stand brought out the
championship caliber of the Massillon team.
McKinley folk had
much to be proud of even in defeat.
Their fighting
Bulldog eleven, which had been made underdog by as many as 32 points, became aroused
and fought the Bengals to a standstill.
They had the advantage in total net yards gained from scrimmage and in
first downs, and made more serious threats than the Tigers, who actually had
but the one scoring opportunity.
The McKinley team by
far played its best game of the season.
The Bulldogs’ coach Pete Ankney, asked each boy to give a little extra
measure Saturday and they all did. And
for it Ankney, bitterly disappointed at having an upset victory so near his
reach, never-the-less was thankful and praised his boys for it.
“We gave it
everything we had,” he said in a little room off a quiet McKinley locker
room.
“Our boys for their
size did a Herculean job and I thought they deserved to win it. We worked hard for this game. I thought all day we would win. I was real proud of our team right down the
line, offensively and defensively. Our
assistants and our associates did a good job of scouting Massillon. I knew Massillon had a great team and a
great staff. I want to congratulate
Strang and his fine team for a great year.”
* * *
AND
STRANG, whose eyes were dripping
too – but from tears of joy – said in a happy Massillon dressing room. “It is a tremendous feeling to know your
team has set a school record of winning 11 games in a season. That was a great McKinley team we played out
there today. Ankney has done a great
job of bringing them along this season.
Why today they could have beaten most of the teams in Ohio.”
We asked Strang why
he didn’t open up more. “We were
probably more conservative than we should have been,” he replied.
“But gosh, when you
have two passes intercepted and you are leading by a point, you don’t like to
take a chance on much ball handling.
Remember from the start of the second half when we fumbled the kickoff
and were downed on our own five yard line, we never had the ball where we could
afford to take chances.”
Strang was
particularly proud of the goal line stand of his Tiger team that thwarted
McKinley in its bid for a winning fourth quarter touchdown and Ankney was still
second-guessing himself hours after the game, if maybe he should have tried a
field goal on fourth down instead of trying to ram a foot through the Tiger
line for a touchdown.
We asked Pete if he
had considered a fourth-down field goal attempt at the time. He said, “I did, and I have a thousand times
in the last 20 minutes, but I thought the chances of getting that foot and a
touchdown were better than trying for a field goal and three points. If the ball had only been on the five-yard
line, there wouldn’t have been any question, we would have tried for a field
goal – and maybe we would have won the game.
* * *
BUT
ANKNEY, we are certain, made the
choice that 40 out of 50 high school coaches would have made and tried for the
touchdown.
Massillon fans will
be talking the rest of the year about that goal line stand.
McKinley, trailing
7-6, had gained possession of the ball on its own 49-yard line when Ken Austin covered
Ken Dean’s fumble, which would have given the Tigers a first down. The Bulldogs marched to a first down on the
Massillon three and the Tigers dug in.
Mark Hall banged
into the line for no gain. Willie Dent
dented the center for a yard and a half to put the ball not much more than a
foot from the goal line. Came the last
big effort for both teams.
The Tigers were dug
in with their toes just on the goal line when Williams came crashing forward
again. Ken Ivan and Charles Whitfield
met him with a thud that could be heard in the stands. Williams’ forward momentum was stopped and
he coughed up the ball which was grabbed quickly by Ivan. The Bulldogs had been stopped in their
tracks and the Tigers had saved the day.
Three plays later they had moved the ball out nine yards for safe
punting distance and as the game turned out that was it.
Both teams had
difficulty moving and not much to show in the way of offense for an afternoon’s
effort.
Ankney threw what
amounted to a nine-man line against the Tigers all afternoon but the boys were
able to drop back quickly enough to intercept the only two passes thrown by
Massillon, thereby frightening the locals into clamming up. The Bulldogs jitterbugged on the defensive
line and after the first quarter were fairly successful in jamming up the
middle down which the local team ran most of its stuff.
* * *
AND
THE TIGERS were far from
sharp. They gave McKinley the ball
twice on fumbles and twice on intercepted passes and they had a couple of other
fumbles which though they recovered, retarded their offense.
Looking at the
statistics, Canton made 11 first downs to Massillon’s 8 and gained 42 yards
passing to none for the Tigers. The
Bulldogs gained 135 yards rushing, two more than Massillon, but lost 22 to the
Tigers seven giving the locals a net rushing advantage of 126 to Canton’s
113. But in net yards gained rushing
and passing, Canton again had the advantage, 155 yards to 126 for the Tigers.
The way the game
started it looked as though the Tigers might be complete masters of the day.
They kicked off to
McKinley, forced the Bulldogs to punt and poorly at that, to the Canton 47.
Charlie Brown got
five yards on two tries and Philpott 11 for a first on the Canton 31. Brown hit tackle for two and Philpott 11
more for a first on the 18. Ken Dean
banged through for nine yards on two lugs and Jim Alexander on a sneak put the
ball on the Bulldog four. Dean slammed
through to the one and Alexander went over.
Paisley kicked the extra point and that was Massillon’s scoring for the
entire day.
The Bulldogs took
the kickoff and began a drive that carried over the centerfield stripe where
Charlie Brown made a one-handed pass interception to end the threat. The Tigers came back into Canton territory
but a pitchout was fumbled and Hall covered for Canton on the Tiger 49, on the
first play of the second period.
AUSTIN
made nine yards on a keeper and
Jim Patterson fumbled and covered for a first down on the 36. McKinley was penalized back to the 41 for
being in motion. Austin and Williams
moved it up two yards and Lou Harris fired the ball on third down to Willie
Dent for a touchdown. Dent getting
behind the Tiger secondary to make the catch.
McKinley elected to
run with the ball and try for two points to get the edge on the Tigers. Roy Yancey was thrown before he got to the
goal line and the score stood at 7-6.
And that’s were it
still stood when t he game was over.
The Tigers never
threatened again in the entire game. In
face, they only got as close as the 49-yard line once and that was on the last
series of plays when the game ended with the Bengals in possession of the ball
on the McKinley 28.
Canton was in
Massillon territory four times after scoring its touchdown. It had a first on the 23 late in the second
period but could not get any closer. It
got over the midfield stripe on an intercepted pass early in the third period
but lost the ball also on an interception by Floyd Pierce on the Massillon 40.
After being stopped
on the one foot line the Bulldogs made one more bid and got down to the 21
before giving up the ball on downs.
The victory was
Strang’s 38th against two losses and a tie since coming to Massillon
four years ago.
From all appearances
the game will be the last between Massillon and Canton until 1963, because of
McKinleys suspension in Ohio interscholastic competition for one year for
having allegedly used undue influence in getting a family to move from
Portsmouth to Canton so that two boys could play football at McKinley
high. Members of the McKinley Booster
club and an assistant coach were named in the accusations. Canton school officials are considering
taking the suspension into court.
The
Big One
MASSILLON
Ends – Ivan, L. Ehmer, Pierce, Paisley, Garland.
Tackles – Spees, Strobel, Mercer, C. Bradley,
Clendening.
Guards – Radel, Clendenin, Whitfield, Poole.
Center – Ben Bradley.
Backs – Alexander, Philpott, Schenkenberger, Dean,
Brown, Blunt, Davis, Snively, Baker.
McKINLEY
Ends – Singleterry, Parks, Barboto.
Tackles – Day, Seymour, Peterson, Campbell.
Guards – Johnson, Currence, Ghezzi, Turner, Hall.
Centers – Wood, Pope.
Backs – Harris, Fontes, Dent, Patterson, Yancey,
M. Hall, F. Hall, Williams and Auston.
Massillon 7 0 0 0 7
McKinley 0 6 0 0 6
Touchdowns – Alexander
(one-yard plunge),
Dent (39-yard pass from Harris).
Point
after touchdown – Paisley
(placekick).
OFFICIALS
Referee – Tony
Pianowski.
Umpire – Jim Lymper.
Head Linesman – Jack
McLain.
Field Judge – Bobbie
Brown.
STATISTICS
Mass. Can.
First downs – rushing 8 9
First downs – passing 0 2
First downs – penalties 0 0
Total first downs 8 11
Yards gained rushing 138 135
Yards lost rushing 7 22
Net yards gained rushing 129 113
Yards gained passing 0 56
Total yards gained 129 169
Passes attempted 2 12
Passes completed 0 3
Passes intercepted by 2 2
Times kicked off 2 2
Kickoff average (yards) 47.7 45
Kickoff returns (yards) 0 30
Times punted 4 1
Punt average (yards) 34.7 28
Punt return (yards) 0 17
Had punts blocked 0 1
Fumbles
4 2
Lost fumbled ball 2 0
Penalties 0 2
Yards penalized 0 10