Defeat can’t
hide Tiger pride
Pups end
Massillon season
By STEVE DOERSCHUK
Independent Sports Editor
MASSILLON
‑ They've pulled the plug on the football season, and it's quiet around
here all right.
No
football playoffs to get crazy about … heck, not even a scrimmage against Akron
East.
Maybe
the calendar says "Nov. 4," but its winter, baby.
You
can say this, though. As the sports soul of Tigertown sighs and enters
hibernation, it can be tucked in with a blanket of pride.
Here’s
a nut and bolts way to took at it: the Tigers got a 21‑6 spanking from
the playoff‑bound McKinley Bulldogs Saturday before 20,174 fans in
Canton's Fawcett Stadium to close their season with a 7‑3 record under
first‑year head coach John Maronto.
Here's
another way: the Bulldogs were heavy favorites but got a pretty good scare.
If
you want to get at the soul of this 91st game, which left the Tigers with a 50‑36‑5
lead in the fabled series, climb on down off the scoreboard.
How
close was this game?
With
8:39 left, Mike Norris was digging for yardage round the 2‑yard line,
needing to get inside the 1 for a first down and into the end zone for a chance
for the Tigers to turn a 14‑6 deficit into a 14‑14 tie - Norris was
stopped right there at the 2 on fourth down.
How
close?
With
fire minutes left, the Tiger defense stuffed the Pups, and Massillon got the
ball on a punt in A‑1 field position near midfield.
Here
was another chance to gun for a touchdown, a two-point conversion, and some
dancin’ in the streets.
On
the first play after they took over, the Tigers lost the ball on an
interception, McKinley got a quick score on a bomb, and that was that.
How
close.
Dead
even, almost. In the end, McKinley had 211 total yards to 199 for the Tigers.
Of
course, "close" only cuts so much ice. Plenty of Tigers shed plenty
of tears after the clock froze at 0:00.
McKinley
was going to the play offs, against GlenOak Saturday night in Fawcett Stadium
as it turns out, with a 9‑1 record.
The
Tigers were going home.
After
the bus wheeled into Paul Brown Tiger Stadium and the players met for it quiet
team meeting, Duane Crenshaw found his locker and removed his pads slowly.
He
was sad and proud all at once.
''Everybody
said they would blow us out,” said the senior defensive tackle. “They sure didn't
blow us out."
Crenshaw’s
locker was near that of Cornell Jackson. By now Jackson had removed his No. 8
for the last time, having gone out in splendid fashion.
His
83 yards in 18 rushing attempts made him the most visibly consistent offensive
player in the game. Late in the contest, he turned the intangible of
"determination" into something that could be seen with the naked eye.
0n
the late drive that set up the Tigers with their fourth and short from the 3,
trailing by 8, Jackson got good blocking and shed many tacklers as he plunged
ahead for 38 yards in seven memorable carries.
"It
dawned on me at about that time that within a number of minutes my high school
career would be over," said Jackson, who was in his third game of a
comeback after arthrosopic knee surgery. "I wanted to go out with my best
effort. I'm just upset that we fell short."
Maronto
was upset, too. His marathon vigils in the film room, which produced a game
plan laced with short passes and helped the Tigers stay in the game, were not
enough to overcome a McKinley team seen by many as a solid state championship
contender.
Maronto
fought to get out the words as he spoke with reporters in the Tiger Stadium
locker room after delivering the season‑ending address to his troops.
“It's
hard to feel anything good about losing to McKinley," said the man who
arrived from Detroit De La Salle High in mid‑June. "But maybe I have
to look at it more maturely. I can say this. The kids just spilled their
guts."
The
game's first four possessions developed with the Tigers and the Bulldogs
imitating each other.
McKinley
received the opening kickoff and had to punt after three plays.
Then
the Tigers had to punt after three plays.
Then
McKinley scored on a long march. Then the Tigers scored on a longer march.
McKinley's
scoring drive began in Massillon territory after Chris Clax returned a punt 15
yards to the 48. Using Brian Chaney‑to‑Jerome Perrin passes and
runs by fullback Percy Snow and the tailback Clax, the Bulldogs marched on six
plays to the 6, where it was first down.
From
there, Snow found a gaping hole on a left‑side trap play and literally
trotted into the end zone for a McKinley score with 5:38 left in the first
quarter. Mark Smith's kick made it 7‑0, Bulldogs.
The
Tigers started from their 34 after the kickoff. Behind senior Paul Fabianich's
sharpest quarterbacking of the season, the Tigers maneuvered downfield against
McKinley's vaunted angle defense.
Highlights
included a 12‑yard pass to Bart Letcavits, a 16‑yard Fabianich
scramble (his longest of the season), a 10‑yard strike to Wes
Siegenthaler and a 17 yard, third and 10 completion to tight end Derick Newman
to the 9.
Had
later events favored the Tigers, the completion to Newman would have emerged as
one of the most interesting developments in the game.
On
the play, Fabianich nimbly darted away from the Bulldog linebacker Perrin. A
year ago, Perrin was making tackles in that kind of situation, as his big‑play
tackles sparked McKinley to a 17‑6 win and led to a first‑team, All‑Ohio
berth for Perrin.
But
this time, Fabianich stole the moment and zipped a completion to Newman ... who
had been a fullback all season.
"We
wanted to use Derick as a tight end from the start, but injuries didn't let us
go that way," Maronto said.
Norris,
a junior fullback, plowed six yards up the middle to the 3. On second and goal,
Fabianich flicked a quick pass over the right side of the line that barely
zipped over the linebacker Snow's hand and nestled into Newman's grasp for a
touchdown.
Norris
changed shoes and lined up for the PAT attempt, but his kick sailed low and
wide right, and the score stayed at 7‑6 with 1:31 left in the first
quarter.
The
game of copycat continued through the rest of the half, which was colored by
excellent defense from both sides.
McKinley
punted, Massillon punted. Then the Bulldogs punted again, then the Tigers
punted again ... but this time Ken Hawkins' boot was partially blocked.
McKinley
took over on its 46 with three minutes left in the half. The Bulldogs could get
no farther than the Tiger 35, where they ran out of downs when a Chaney pass
sailed over Perrin's head.
The
Tigers couldn't budge, and the half ran out shortly after they punted with
McKinley leading 7‑6.
The
defenses dominated the third quarter, too, with McKinley shifting its alignment
to take away Massillon's short passing game, and Massillon playing "stuff
the run," as the Bulldogs put Chaney's arm in seclusion and unsuccessfully
tried to operate a power attack.
In
their first five possessions of the third period, the teams combined for just
five first downs on drives that all ended with punts.
The
fifth of the punts sank the Tigers.
The
boot, a low-flying 41-yarder off the foot of Hawkins, was taken by Clax at the
McKinley 38. Clax started for the middle and found an opening to the outside.
He broke to the left sideline and then back toward the middle of the field,
outracing two Tigers and arriving in the end one at the end of a 62‑yard
jaunt.
Smith's
PAT kick made it 14‑6, McKinley, with 1:55 left in the third quarter.
There
was still fight left in the Tigers.
The
Tigers took over on the kickoff at their 29 and, with the help of a 15‑yard
pass interference penalty, used the running of Jackson and Norris to hammer out
a length‑of‑the field drive.
On
the eighth play of the march, which now was in the fourth quarter, Jackson
exploded through the line on a trap play and exploded for 15 yards, almost
breaking away for a touchdown but getting dragged down just outside the 10.
Jackson
then went around the left side but slipped and fell at the 8. Norris bulled
straight ahead for five yards, but on third and about two from the 3, Jackson
tried the right side and was stopped for no gain.
Now
it was fourth and two.
Do
you go for the field goal and make it 14‑9 with about eight minutes left?
Or do you go for the touchdown and two‑point conversion to tie?
"We
needed a touchdown," Maronto said, who mapped out strategy during a
timeout called by McKinley.
The
Bulldogs might be looking for Jackson to come around one of the ends, as he had
on two of the previous three plays, Maronto figured.
The
Tigers would try to pop Norris through the line.
"It
was an inside belly play," Maronto said. We felt we had enough force to
make that play work. Norris is a strong runner."
Norris
lined up close to Fabianich. Fabianich handed him the ball an instant after the
snap and Norris charged into the left side of the line. McKinley nose guard
Cary Brown lid directly into Norris' path and made the hit as other players
arrived. Norris went down in a pile at the 2. It was McKinley's ball.
McKinley's
poor field position loomed as a possible silver lining for the Tigers, but that
went away when Snow ran eight yards to the 10 on the next play.
Still,
the Tigers were alive and kicking when they forced the Bulldogs to punt from
their 22. Massillon took over on its 44 with five minutes left in the game, but
Smith's interception killed a would‑be drive before the orange army in
the north stands could get worked up.
Five
plays after the interception, Smith struck again, racing behind two Tiger
defensive backs and hauling in a perfect strike from Chaney on a 41-yard TD
play. Smith's kick gave the Bulldogs a 21‑6 lead with 2:30 left, and the
seats cleared out early.
Fabianich
finished with a season high of 21 passing attempts. He completed nine throws
for 75 yards, two interceptions and the touchdown, the only aerial TD the
Tigers achieved in 1985.
Chaney
completed eight of 13 passes for 62 yards.
Snow
led McKinley's rushing attack with 64 yards in 15 carries. Clax, who rushed for
more than 1,000 yards in 1984, was held under 600 yards for 1985 as a result of
gaining just 20 yards in nine carries Saturday.
Back to
Ringling Bros.
Tiger football
season ends for Obie XVI, seniors
MASSILLON
Ed Annen looked a bit sad. But then, he was about to lose a friend.
"It's
back to Ringling Brothers for her now," Annen sighed as he looked at the
friend, who lives in a cage and answers to Obie XVI.
With
help from some loiterers, Annen wheeled the cage of Obie XVI out of a pickup
truck and into her fall home at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
The
football season was over for another year, and so were Annen's special duties:
caretaker of the live tiger that is part of what makes game days in Massillon
different than game days in other towns.
The
echo of the final gun was still so fresh that the players were in a team
meeting within growling distance of Obie's cage.
In
an unplanned moment, the locker room door cracked open and revealed the meeting
scene ... a silent room filled with bowed heads.
Forget
about Obie. Nobody who wears the orange and black feels much in a circus mood
after losing to McKinley, as these Tigers had by a 21‑6 score in Fawcett
Stadium on this Saturday.
“I
thought we played pretty well against McKinley, but we could have played better
… we could have beat ‘em,” said Jerrod Vance, a junior linebacker. “Next year
we’re going to have a super team. I’m going to try my best to make sure of
that.
The
meeting broke up, and folks moved quietly amid the benches,
The
seniors said their good byes to the locker room in which legends have been
born. The juniors talked about setting things straight next year.
"I
thought we played pretty well against McKinley, but we could have played better
... we could have beat 'am," said Jetted Vance, a junior linebacker.
''Next year we're going to have a super team. I'm going to try my best to make
sure of that.
"I
thought we should have done better this year. But we came a long way,"
Another
junior linebacker who will go some more of the way with