Showdown turns into a mauling
By DAVID HARPSTER
David.Harpster@IndeOnline.com
The Massillon Tigers undoubtedly hope their next encounter with a Federal League team ends up much better than the last.
They don’t have long to
recover, though, as the Tigers will host North Canton Hoover this Saturday at 7
p.m. in a regional quarterfinal matchup. The Vikings
finished in a tie for second in the Fed and qualified for the playoffs by
virtue of last week’s 10-7 win over
“McKinley outcoached
us, they outplayed us and give them all the credit,’
McKinley got a standout effort from
junior tailback Morgan Williams, who rushed for 234 yards and four touchdowns.
The 5-foot-11, 187-pounder broke off a 47-yard run - his longest of the
afternoon - on McKinley’s second possession to help set the tone for the
day. The play, on which McKinley caught
“We just happened to catch them in a blitz with that draw call,” McKinley coach Brian Cross said after his team wrapped up a 10-0 season. “That wasn’t really planning, it was more luck. It wasn’t like we saw something there and called it. We were just lucky. We called it at the right time and we’ve got a great tailback to give it to.”
“That was a beautiful grab and we’d been trying to set that up before by cracking on the safety,” Grimsley said. “We ran a new play that we put in this week and Mark got open in the middle. He just went up and made a great play.”
The Bulldogs took the 14-0 lead into the locker room, as Williams piled up 192 of his yards in the first two quarters.
“Our line did a nice job,
especially in the first half,” Cross said. ‘We kind of had
A 32-yard punt return by Joe Morgan set up McKinley’s third score of the day, which came when Williams took a toss and found the end zone from 6 yards out to make it 21-0 McKinley with 8:40 left in the third quarter. Zach Campbell, who made all five of his extra points, nailed a 38-yard field goal three minutes later extend McKinley’s lead to 24-0.
The only offense
defense.
Cornerback Troy Ellis picked off a McKinley pass and returned it 50 yards for a
touchdown with just 24 seconds left in the third. A two-point run by Brian
Gamble brought
“I don’t think there was a key point necessarily,’ Stacy said. “McKinley just controlled things early on and we could never get into a rhythm offensively. We didn’t throw the ball well, we weren’t consistent in our running game. We just didn’t play well.”
Williams added a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown runs, from 14 and 4 yards out, to wrap up the scoring.
“We didn’t just try to
take Gamble out, we had to defend their entire offense because
In his first season at the Tigers’ helm, Stacy put the responsibility for his team’s first loss squarely on his shoulders.
“We just were outplayed and out coached today,” he said. “I don’t think it had anything to do with physical toughness. I just didn’t have our guys prepared. That’s pretty obvious ... I’m the head coach and that’s my responsibility and we were not ready to play for whatever reason.”