TIGERS TURN BACK BIG RED 31-0 BEFORE 14,000 GRID FANS
MASSILLON LINEMEN GALLANT IN VICTORY
Largest Crowd Of Season Treated To Great Gridiron Show With Steubenville And Washington High Bands Strutting Color
By LUTHER EMERY
The Big Red wave of Steubenville, washed up from the Ohio river Friday evening and splashed harmlessly against a granite Massillon wall that would not allow as much as a touchdown to trickle through.
When the Red Tide receded after 48 minutes of hammering, the Massillon record built on three state championships, was strengthened with the sixth straight victory of the season, a 31-0 triumph.
Record Crowd Gets Real Treat
An immense crowd which school officials estimated at between 13,000 and 14,000 fans, saw the Tigers produce an open exhibition of sensational football as they throttled all offensive efforts of the Big Red and tore it apart for six touchdowns.
They saw a dazzling performance by two high school bands, who will take their hats off to no other musical organizations in the state and they witnessed a gridiron festival, the like of which has made this 1938 season the biggest and best in the history of Washington high school.
From the moment the Tiger band took the field before the game until it again swept triumphantly down the gridiron after the final whistle, the evening was filled with activity and between half entertainment such as caused one ticket purchaser to request “two reserved seats for the floor show please.”
No Blocking For Stubs
As expected the Big Red brought to Massillon a hard tackling team, but one that failed to put into use the important fundamental of hard blocking. Without blocking the Stub’s offense was stagnant and they only gained the sum total of four first downs and a net of 49 yards.
The superiority of the Tigers was shown not only in the score but in the statistics as well. They were credited with 17 first downs and a net total of 361 yards, 146 of which were made on the completion of nine forward passes.
Seven blocks of granite you could have called the Massillon line last night as it withstood the wash of the Red Wave.
Seven blocks of granite they were and the line can be given a whale of a lot of credit for the victory. Standing out defensively were Lynn Houston, Horace Gillom, Jim Russell and little Bud Lucius. Lucius played a great game and time and again his 142 pounds circled the giant 260-pound George Straka, Stub tackle before the latter could get in motion.
From Lucius to Bill Croop, who swept through in the late stages of the game to drop a Big Red runner for a 15-yard loss, the Tiger wall stood out last night. There is reason to rejoice over it, for all season the principal weakness of the Massillon team has been its defense. Coach Paul Brown set out to strengthen this department last night and how well he succeeded the statistics show.
Henderson Plugs Gap
Red Henderson, plugged the gap left vacant by the injured McMichael in worthy fashion, McMichael sitting on the bench throughout the game, felt good that he would have a worthy successor when he graduates next June. Earl Martin never made a bad pass from center and so jammed things up in the middle of the line that the Big Red could never find anything but a pileup when they struck that spot.
But out of the joy and glory that goes with victory, there comes gloom that may and again may not be forgotten in a few days.
Getz who has improved with every ball game and who came out of last night’s contest as the leading scorer with 13 points, sustained an injury to his right leg that caused coaches some concern. It may be another charley horse and a charley horse goes particularly bad with a ball carrier. Then too, Fred Toles, who was a big part of the Tiger defense, suffered a shoulder injury which may handicap his defensive play for a couple of weeks. Freddie was taken out of the game. He may not have been seriously hurt, but football injuries frequently do not show up until the next day.
The most serious casualty of all was a dislocated shoulder suffered by Ernest Carducci, 140-pound Steubenville end. The injury will put him out of service for several weeks.
Few there were who thought the game would approach the one-sided proportions it did.
There were those who picked the Tigers winners by two and three touchdowns but the fellow who said 32-0 in a certain cigar store before the game was called plumb crazy. He only missed it by a point.
Score In Every Period
The Tigers took the kickoff and as Massillon teams have been accustomed to doing, did not give up the ball until they crossed the Big Red goal. They scored a second touchdown in the second period, another in the third and two in the fourth.
The Big Red failed to threaten. In fact it never got the ball inside the Massillon 41-yard line. But in defeat the Stubs had their stars. One was Eddie Mike, a substitute back who had been kept on the bench all season. Eddie tackled and ran better than any other Stubber and threw the only two Big Red passes that were completed.
Cartledge apparently came out with the intention of playing a defensive game, punting on third down, hoping to hold the Tigers and capitalize on breaks. His strategy did not work. There were no breaks save for penalties that halted two Tiger touchdown marches and the Big Red could not hold. The Tigers picked out the Stubs 260-pound co-captain. George Straka as one of the weak spots in the Big Red line and time and again his belly was dented with Rocky Red Snyder’s head.
Cartledge substituted frequently in an attempt to halt the touchdown parade and even called upon those players he had benched last week because of their failure to give a satisfactory performance. It was Massillon’s night, however, and there was nothing Steubenville could do about it.
It was evident from the opening kickoff that the Massillon eleven was determined to even the series with the Big Red at two games each, by avenging the 68-0 licking the 1931 Tiger team took at Steubenville.
Winning the toss, the local team elected to receive at the north goal and a touchdown march began when Snyder took Hank Zawack’s kickoff on the 15-yard line and ran back to his 32 where Rogers and Wallace downed him.
Tigers Score Early
Getz ripped for two, Snyder made two more and with third down coming up and six to go, Getz raced around his left end for 15 yards and a first down on the Stub’s 49-yard line. Slusser put his trusty right arm into play. He whipped the ball to Zimmerman who gathered it in on the 40-yard line and ran beautifully along the sideline to a first down on the Stub’s eight-yard line. Bob Mike threw Getz for a four-yard loss on the next play and Toles was stopped for no gain on an end around play. The Stubs were offside on the play, however and a five-yard penalty moved the ball up to the seven-yard line and Snyder took it over in two hard cracks at the line. Getz kicked the extra point to make it 7-0.
The Tigers worked the ball into Big Red territory again in the closing minutes of the quarter, but the Stubs’ held for downs on the 35 when Gillom tried to run from punt formation.
Lucius’ recovery of Golembeski’s fumble when he was tackled as he attempted to pass, gave the Tigers the ball on their own 43 and set the stage for the second touchdown. Snyder and Getz took turns at ramming the ball through the Stub’s forward wall for two first downs as they reached the 10-yard line. Slusser moved it up to the five, but when Getz was thrown for a five-yard loss, the Big Red became the victim of a penalty for offside that put the ball on Steubenville’s one-yard line. Getz went over for the touchdown but missed the kick for the extra point.
The Tigers struck again in the closing minutes of the second period and carried the ball to the two-yard line where a five-yard penalty for too many times out ended their threat.
They had no intention of taking time out at the spot and no one knew exactly how it happened. Slusster thought Snyder had called time out and shouted to Red, asking if he had. The referee heard it, thought Massillon was taking time out and a five-yard penalty was the result. It would have been a costly mix-up in a close game.
Statue Of Liberty Scores
Michigan’s old Statue of Liberty produced the third touchdown early in the second half. All evening the Big Red ends had been rushing Slusser and the Massillon quarterback was patiently awaiting the opportunity to cross them up. He had put the ball on the 20-yard line with a twisting 24-yard dash through tackle and he was rushed hard as he passed to Roscoe Clendening in the flat for a two-yard gain.
That was enough. Out came the Statue of Liberty and as Slusser faded back for what appeared to be another pass, Getz took the ball off his outstretched arm and sped around the left side of the Big Red flank. The Big Red ends had rushed as usual and Getz was by them running hard, 18 yards for a touchdown. His kick for the extra point went to the right of the uprights.
The same play worked again in the fourth quarter with Getz running to a first down on the six-yard line. A 15-yard penalty, for failing to hesitate on the shift, throttled the touchdown attempt and it was not until the middle of the last quarter that the Tigers could again score.
The drive began when Snyder was tackled on the Stubs’ 35 just as he caught Stauffer’s punt. A 15-yard penalty for clipping put the ball back on the 50. A 15-yard pass to Getz and a 28-yard toss to Gillom took the ball to the one-yard line where Slusser went through a big hole at right tackle, standing up.
The sixth and last touchdown came cheap. Trying desperately to score, Charley Albritten threw a short pass from behind his own goal line which Foster, substitute Massillon end, gathered in on the 10-yard line and raced over the payoff stripe. An attempt to plunge the extra point failed. The game ended on the following kickoff.
As the crowd streamed out of the stands, the Tiger band marched triumphantly down the field in recognition of its team’s victory. That band is helping to pack them in. The investment the athletic board risked in buying new uniforms and instruments has come back many fold.
Present New Routine
A new routine, in which the young musicians were on the move every minute during their share of the intermission period, kept the fans away from the refreshment stand. A series of quick maneuvers spelled the words “Big Red” and ended with a capital S in front of the Steubenville stands. Back to the Massillon side of the field the band came to form an M while the alma mater was being played. “Obie” the Tiger was introduced from the goal posts. He scampered over the field to pick up Miss Margaret Busse, acrobatic cheerleader, who did 11 back flips to the roll of the band’s drums.
Steubenville’s state champion band, marching in militaristic step, likewise maneuvered brilliantly, writing Stub on the field and forming a Tiger head in front of the Massillon stands. The Big Red band is an excellent playing band and finished second in a national contest last year.
The crowd was the largest that has witnessed a football game here with the exception of the 1934 and 1936 Massillon-Canton games. Additions the past two days have increased the seating capacity of the field from 14,000 to 15,000 and most of the seats were filled. School officials estimated the crowd at between 13,000 and 14,000.
The game was relayed by two telegraph sets and a P.A. telephone system to Steubenville where three different football parties were held. Several thousand attended one of the parties held in the open air.
Six In A Row
Massillon Pos. Steubenville
Toles LE Balkun
Lucius LT Mike
Russell LG Dunkle
Martin C Wallace
Houston RG Rogers
Henderson RT Straka
Gillom RE Williams
Slusser QB Gaich
Getz LH Golombeski
Zimmerman RH Stauffer
Snyder FB Zawacki
Score by periods.
Massillon 7 6 6 12 31
Substitutions:
Massillon – Clendening, rh; Fabian, fb; Pizzino, qb; James, lh; Lechleiter,re; Foster, le; Croop, lt; Sweezey, c; Broglio, rt; Appleby, c.
Steubenville – Allen; Carducci; Gillian; Ed. Mike; Starr; Stitt; Mylinski; Hurand; Albritten; Cybulski.
Touchdowns:
Massillon – Snyder; Getz 2; Slusser; Foster.
Point after touchdown:
Massillon – Getz (placekick).
Referee – Graf.
Umpire – Gross.
Head Linesman – Lindell.
Field Judge – Wallace.
Statistics
Massillon Steubenville
First downs 17 4
Passes attempted 24 9
Passes completed 9 2
Passes incomplete 14 6
Passes intercepted 1 1
Yards gained passing 146 16
Yards gained rushing 244 66
Total yards gained 390 82
Yards lost rushing 29 33
Net yards gained 361 49
Times penalized 7 2
Yards penalized 75 14
Times punted 4 10
Average punts yards 33 28
Times kicked off 6 1
Average kickoff yards 47 45
Lost ball on fumbles 0 1
