Seaman Says
‘Wait Until Next Year’
By
CHUCK HESS, JR.
Independent
Sports Editor
Fans of the old Brooklyn baseball Dodgers had the right idea at a time
like this: “Wait until next year.”
Washington high Coach Bob Seaman had his own
version: “We’ll be back next year and
should have a heck of a team.”
The error-pocked and anguish-filled 1966-football
season is history. The final chapter
was penned Saturday in a bruising 25-16 Tiger stadium loss to Canton McKinley
in the 71st annual inter-city classic.
For the first time since 1931 the Bengals ended
below .500 with a 4-5-1 record. There
have been only 4 other seasons of 8 or more games since 1894, which have ended
below the
Break-even point.
The only consolation for Seaman was that he has a
lot of company among first-year coaches who have lost to McKinley. Seven other mentors, including Paul Brown,
either lost to or were tied by the Bulldogs in the first or only year those
coaches were here.
McKinley ended a 9-year famine in wining and assured
itself of a winning season under Ron Chismar with a 6-4 record. The Bulldogs also dropped the defending
champion Tigers into a cellar tie in the All-American High School football
league at a 1-3 ending.
Niles won the title with a 3-0 record, Steubenville
finished 2-1, Warren 2-2.
Massillon’s play, at times Saturday, resembled the
zany Dodgers referred to above.
Maladies, which have plagued them all-season burst out in full bloom –
inability’s to handle kicks and fumbles.
Three McKinley touchdowns happened because of miscues on handling
kicks. The fourth resulted from an
inability to stop a punt return.
* * *
SOME SAY the Pups didn’t
deserve the win but they were a good enough team to capitalize on the breaks
and reverse the script of the past 2 seasons when the Tigers bounced back to
win after half time deficits.
The contest started as if it were to be a
high-scoring affair with both teams scoring in the first one minute, 54 seconds
of play. McKinley went over on the
first play from scrimmage after Bengal sophomore Marc Malinowski attempted
unsuccessfully to return George Fronimo’s stocking footed, soccer-style kickoff
which rolled pass Malinowski to the 5-yard line. End Henry Lewis recovered a fly ball fumble on the 9.
Quarterback Milford Lucius passed to halfback Leroy
Wilder, who was to score twice more, on the 5 with Wilder carrying the rest of
the way. Fronimo’s boot made it 7-0
with 11:32 remaining.
Halfback Tommy James got the Obiemen to their 38
with a 29-yard runback of the next kickoff.
On second and 4 from the 44, fullback Will Foster cut through the center
and back to the right for the Tigertowners’ longest run from scrimmage this
season at 11:26. Quarterback Craig
Maurer hit James in the right corner of the end zone to make it 8-7 in
Massillon’s favor.
Massillon scored again in the first quarter but not before squandering a first and 10 at the Bulldog 18 after a pass interception by Foster with a fumble by James recovered by halfback Ted Bowersox.
* * *
LINEBACKER
Hoyt Skelton pilfered again on the Pups’ 40.
Four plays later, Maurer took off from 26 yards out on first and 10 and
scampered into pay dirt on a counter keeper to the left at 3:55. He hit James with another right corner end
zone pass for a 16-7 score that was the Bengal fans’ last cause for joy.
McKinley missed an opportunity after Jim Krenzer’s
punt was blocked by one of his own men at the beginning of the second
stanza. George Austin recovered on the
Massillon 25.
On third down Clayton grabbed a pass on the 25, ran
to the 17, was pushed out of bounds and into the east track seats. A 15-yard personal foul infraction was
called during the melee and Chismar rushed onto the field to engage in a
violent argument with head linesman Joe Romano.
McKinley was set back to the 30. Linebacker Ron Ertle intercepted a pass on
the next play to halt the drive.
Massillon was forced to hold on again later in the
period when Bulldog linebacker Jerry Hontas recovered Foster’s fumble on the
Tigers’ 24.
Fronimo’s bad-snap punt following the first Bulldog
series of the second half grazed Tiger junior Trevor Young; subbing for James,
who was injured earelier. Pete
Coleman’s recovery gave the Bulldogs a life on the Tigers 34.
* * *
EIGHT PLAYS after
a 12-yard run by Lucius and an 11-yard scamper by fullback Larry Clayton, who
broke tackles numerous times during the afternoon, Wilder scored around the
left side on a pitchout at 4:21. Lucius
was halted short of conversion territory as the scoreboard showed Massillon
with a 16-13 lead.
Massillon got the ball but once in the third quarter
going nowhere.
With Fronimo punting on the second play of the final
stanza, junior Tiger safetyman Kevin Henderson fumbled on the 5. Coleman recovered again – this time on the
half-yard line.
Lucius sneaked through the center at 11:28 for the
score. Fronimo tried to run the
conversion after a bad snap, fumbled after a tackle. Bowersox recovered and ran over but the ball was ruled dead,
giving McKinley a 19-16 lead.
Fronimo kept the Tigers in the hole with long punts
in the second half and the Bulldog defense kept the Orange and Black
there. On one of these frustrating
occasions Krenzer punted to Wilder on the McKinley 42. A touchdown runback along the west-side line
resulted at 4:21 with the help of a block by Paul Robinson at the 3.
* * *
FRONIMO MISSED
on the PAT. McKinley led 26-15 but the
Tigers weren’t dead even though many fans started to exit.
The Bengals got back to the McKinley 4 after the
kickoff to 8 and 20-yard passes to sophomore halfback Mark McDew and senior
tight end Keith Griffin and 7-yard runs by Foster and Maurer. But the Tigers ran out of downs.
In the last minute of play, Maurer hit McDew for an
8-yarder and interference was called on a 24-yarder. It took several minutes to clear fans off the field in order to
run the final play after the penalty, which had occurred as time lapsed. A pass into the end zone was incomplete.
Seaman agreed that the Tigers had been placed behind
the 8-ball too many times by errors.
“Each week we’ve done something wrong,” he said. “This time the specialty team hurt us.” Then he mused, “McKinley got a negative 3
yards in the last quarter and 3 touchdowns.
We evened the battle of statistics.”
Chismar said, ‘It was a real great game. Our linebackers Hontas and John Patterson
did as much as anybody to shut off their defense. But it was a team effort.”
The much-hearlded battle of fullbacks was a standoff. Clayton, who left the contest in the final
quarter with torn ankle ligaments had 83 yards in 19 tries. Foster had 85 in 14.
Ends – Snell, H. Lewis, Iams.
Tackles – Austin, Adamski, Rushe.
Guards – Robinson, Sweat, Shimek.
Centers – Dowing, Coleman.
Quarterbacks – Lucius, Bowersox, Hontas.
Halfbacks – Wilder, B. Lewis, LeFlore, Fronimo.
Fullbacks – Clayton, Patterson.
MASSILLON – 16
Ends – Griffin, Moyer, Smith, Sterling, Richards,
Liggett, Gallion.
Tackles – Houser, Campbell, Neago, Sherrett, Ricker.
Guards – Porrini, Russell, White, Hauenstein,
Beiter, Ertle.
Centers – Senften, Kraft, Skelton.
Quarterbacks – Maurer, Henderson, Malinowski, Young.
Halfbacks – James, Simon, McDew, Fenton, Hannon,
Staples,
McFadden, Muhlbach.
Fullbacks – Foster, Moore.
McKinley 7 0 6 12 25
Massillon 16 0 0 0 16
Touchdowns:
Massillon –
Foster (58-yard run); Maurer
(27-yard run).
McKinley – Wilder 3 (9-yard pass run from Lucius,
3-yard run, 58-yard punt return);
Lucius (half-yard run).
Extra points:
Massillon –
James 4 (passes from Maurer).
McKinley – Fronimo 1
(kick).
Referee – Tony Pianowski.
Umpire – Harold Rolph.
Head Linesman – Joe Romano.
Field Judge – Brenton Kirk.
Attendance: 20,140
THE GRIDSTICK
Massillon Opp.
First downs –
rushing 5 5
First downs –
passing 1 0
First downs –
penalties 2 1
Total first downs 8 6
Yards lost rushing 32 22
Net yards gained
rushing 136 102
Net yards gained
passing 35 19
Total yards gained 171 121
Passes attempted 11 9
Passes completed 4 2
Passes intercepted
by 3 0
Yardage on passes
intercepted 24 0
Times kicked off 3 5
Kickoff average
(yards) 52.3 51.6
Kickoff returns
(yards) 94 63
Times punted 6 5
Punt average
(yards) 25.3
36.8
Punt return (yards) 0 85
Had punts blocked 1 0
Fumbles 8 3
Lost fumbled ball 5 1
Penalties 3 3
Yards penalized 32 35
Touchdowns rushing 2 2
Touchdowns passing 0 1
Touchdowns by
interception 0 0
Miscellaneous 0 1