Forward Passes Help Tigers Conquer Timken 26 To 7
TAKE TO AIR FOR TWO TOUCHDOWNS
Washington High’s Gridders Score First Points Of Season On Aerial Heaves As They Conquer Sturdy Foe; Keller Shines As Punter
By FRED J. BECKER
The Tiger is still alive, believe it or not.
He took quite a kicking around a week ago from Warren but he bounced back off the ropes Friday night out at Tiger stadium and, uncorking a few knockout drops, bowled over Canton Timken’s Trojans 26-7 for his sixth triumph of the 1944 campaign against 2 defeats. It was Timken’s third reverse in 8 battles.
1943 Attendance Mark Passes
The visiting gladiators discovered early that Coach Elwood Kammer’s Washington high Tigers still have quite a wallop left and a rather surprisingly large outpouring of fans, estimated at over 12,000, learned that the Tigers may be knocked groggy one week but still can snap out of it and come bounding back to administer punishment to a foe which had been nursing the idea it might take its place alongside Cleveland Cathedral Latin and Warren as conquerors of the orange and black.
The big turnout Friday night is convincing evidence that the fans must like the Tigers stadium show and with 8 games under their belts the Tigers already have attracted more spectators than they did in 10 games a year ago and still have 2 games to go.
Timken Proves Sturdy Foe
In taking the measure of Timken’s Trojans for the second straight year, the Tigers marched to victory over and through a rugged, hard fighting aggregation, a team that never quit trying and which late in the game saw its determined efforts to score rewarded with a touchdown. Once before, in the second quarter, the Trojans had made a bid for a touchdown, working the ball to the 3 yard line but their hopes went glimmering when the Tigers intercepted a pass.
Showing an improvement in their tackling and with the line showing decidedly more prowess, both on offense and defense, than it did a week ago against Warren’s Presidents, the Tigers last night held a decided advantage over the Trojans in all departments of the game except one. The visitors were about even with the orange and black in forward passing but the Tigers last night accomplished something they had not been able to do before this season – score points on a forward pass. Last night they made 2 of their touchdowns via the aerial route.
In addition to installing Gene Krisher, young sophomore, at right tackle, Coach Kammer also made a change in his defensive lineup, sending Co-Captain Glenn Keller from linebacker to right end and pulling Bob Heltzel out of the line and installing him as a linebacker. The switch worked well with both Keller and Heltzel playing bang up defensive games. Co-Captain Bill Gable, Tom Brooks, another sophomore, Fred Bonk Dick Ielsch and Krisher also played strong defensive games. Wilmer Luke, in the secondary on defense, also did a good job in breaking up a lot of Timken’s passes.
Offensively Keller, Bert Webb, Don McGuire, Don Sedjo and Junie Pedrotty were consistent ground gainers with Webb scoring one touchdown and being on the tossing end of the aerial heaves that produced 2 others, Luke and Pedrotty being the receivers who scampered across the goal line after taking Webb’s tosses. Paul Cary scored Massillon’s first touchdown in the opening quarter.
The Trojans came to town last night with a boy in their lineup by the name of Calvin (Red) Moore, who in addition to his other qualifications as a football star, was labeled one of the best high school punters in the state.
Well, Moore does right well as a kicked but when it come to booting he has to take his hat off to Massillon’s sturdy southpaw hoofer, Glenn Keller. Keller never expected to become a punter but when Vic Turkall sustained an injured ankle in the Alliance game the job fell to the Tiger Co-Captain and ever since he has been doing a swell job. Last night he punted 3 times and his kicks averaged slightly better than 50 yards, which is not bad punting in anyone’s league.
Some Punt
Keller’s best kick came in the second quarter when the Tigers stopped Timken on their 3 yard line. Standing behind his own goal Keller got away a beautiful kick that went to Canton’s 29-yard line.
It traveled 68 yards from the line of scrimmage and the kick was good for almost 80 yards from the point where Keller applied his foot to the leather.
The statistics gave the Tigers a wide margin over the Trojans in everything except forward passes. The orange and black made 14 first downs to 6 for the visitors. The Tigers had a gross yardage gain of 367 with a loss of 24 for a net of 343 yards while Timken had a gross of 162 with a 10-yard loss for a net of 152.
The Tigers tried 14 passes and completed 5 for 118 yards, 2 of them producing touchdowns. One Massillon pass was intercepted. Timken tossed 12 aerials, completing 5 for 101 yards with 1 intercepted. A long pass set up Timken’s touchdown in the final quarter.
The Tigers knocked twice at the touchdown door early in the first quarter before gaining admission. With Timken kicking off Kammer’s lads hammered the ball down the field to the Trojan’s 14 yard line only to lose it when Cary missed a first down by 6 inches.
A holding penalty set the Trojans back to their 5 from where Moore punted to Cary on the 50 and the Tiger halfback lugged the ball back to the 40 before being tackled. Then Cary slipped around his right end on a neat run for 18 yards and Webb followed with a dash around left end good for 9 before he was run out of bounds. This put the ball on Canton’s 13 from where Cary hit the line for a first down to the 12. A 5-yard penalty for man in motion pushed the Tigers back but Cary skirted right end for 9 to the 6, Sedjo cracked the line for 3 and with fourth down coming up Cary went through right tackle and across for the first Massillon touchdown. He added the extra point on a dash through the visitors.
A few minutes later the Tigers were back on the Canton 20 but lost the ball on downs when Cary with 2 yards to pick up, was tossed for a 5-yard loss. Timken got nowhere in its offensive attempts and Moore punted to Cary who was downed on the 40. A Webb to Cary pass netted 18 yards and put the ball on Canton’s 22 but here the Tiger machine sputtered and miss fired on 4 straight attempts to score through the air and Timken took over the ball.
Timken Checked on 3 Yard Line
Starting from their own 28 yard line, Timken launched its first determined drive for a touchdown moving the ball deep into Massillon territory. Stan, Neago and Kraft alternated in lugging the ball and then Stan heaved a long pass to Kraft which was good for 31 yards and took the ball to the Massillon 12. A series of line plays and a Stan-Logan pass put the ball almost on Massillon’s goal line but the Trojans were penalized 5 on a substitution play for delaying the game. Stan then attempted a short pass over the line but McGuire pulled it down on his 3 yard line to end the Timken scoring threat.
It was then that Keller got away his spectacular punt for 68 yards and Canton again found itself deep in its own territory. Moore punted to McGuire who was downed on the Massillon 47. McGuire then tossed a pass to Pedrotty good for 15 but the play was called back because Pedrotty caught the ball after Bill Gable, the intended receiver, had touched it first but failed to hold it. This however did not stop the Tigers and the next play produced one of the highlights of the game as well as Massillon’s first touchdown of the season on a forward pass.
Webb dropped back and shot a long pass toward Luke, well down the field. Kraft hit the ball in an attempt to break up the pass but, much to his disgust, he helped set the stage for the Tiger score. Kraft knocked the ball into the air and when it came down toward earth there was tall, lanky Luke running for dear life toward the Timken goal. All Mr. Luke had to do was to wrap his hands around the ball, which he promptly did, and without slowing down a bit continued his touchdown romp unmolested. The gain was good for 53 yards. Keller added the extra point on a placekick.
The third Massillon touchdown came early in the third quarter and the Tigers traveled 34 yards to 4 plays. Gaining possession of the ball on the Canton 34, Webb made 2 at left end after Dan Byelene and Featheringham had failed to connect on a forward pass attempt. Then McGuire tossed a good one to Gable which netted 12 yards and took the ball to the Canton 20 from where Webb set his educated dogs into motion and on a sweep around left end ran the remaining 20 for the touchdown. Massillon’s attempt to convert on a pass failed.
Late in the third quarter the Tigers were again touchdown bound. Keller and Pedrotty on sweeps and line plays along with a Webb-McGuire pass for 14 yards took the ball to Timken’s 8 but here Keller fumbled and Piatt covered for the Trojans.
Pedrotty Scores On Pass
The visitors, however, were forced to punt and once again the Tiger scoring machine moved into high gear. Getting the ball on Massillon’s 45 Keller clipped off 18 on a neat end run and Webb followed suit with another end sweep good for 16 yards to put the ball on the Canton 20. Here Webb and Pedrotty combined forces on an aerial. Bert tossed to Junie who took the ball out in the clear and scampered 20 yards for Massillon’s fourth set of counters. Cary’s attempted place kick failed.
A pass interception late in the period paved the way for Canton’s lone touchdown. Tomsho pulled down Cary’s pass on his 40. Meolo who had replaced Neago when the latter was injured, tossed to Stan for 20 yards, putting the ball on the Massillon 40. Then Moore tried a heave to Logan, which Luke knocked down. Moore, however, came right back to try another and this time he uncorked a long one which Stan and 2 Tiger players battled for right on the goal line. Stan came out the winner. He grabbed the ball as the Tigers attempted to knock it down and then held on to it as a Tiger vainly attempted to pull it out of his hands. Stan was downed a half yard from the line and the play was good for 37 yards. On their third attempt to pierce the Tigers line Stan went over from Timken’s lone touchdown and Moore added the extra point from placekick.
The Right Way
Massillon, 26 Pos. Timken, 7
Gable LE Moore
Ielsch LT Leppka
Heltzel LG Sweitzer
Bonk C Tomsho
Brooks RG Pont
Krisher RT Van Horn
Luke RE Logan
Keller QB Colaner
Cary LH Kraft
Webb RH Stan
Sedjo FB Neago
Score by quarters:
Massillon 7 7 6 6 26
Timken 0 0 0 7 7
Touchdowns:
Massillon – Cary; Keller; Webb; Pedrotty.
Timken – Stan.
Points after touchdown:
Massillon – Cary (run); Keller (placekick).
Timken – Moore (placekick).
Substitutions:
Massillon – McGuire, rh; Giloff, qb; Green, lt; Cicchinelli, lg; Gibson, rt; Byelene, rh; Featheringham, rg.
Timken – Kallgides, qb; Milan, lh; Samonides, rt; Colceri, fb; Piatt, rg; Auld, le; Neala, fb; Senter, rt; Williams, c.
Referee – McAfee.
Umpire – Long.
Head Linesman – Lobach.
Field Judge – Shafer.
Statistics
Mass. Timken
Total first downs 14 6
Yards gained by rushing 249 51
Yards lost by rushing 24 10
Net yards gained, rushing 235 41
Forward passes attempted 14 12
Forward passes completed 5 5
Yards gained by passing 118 101
Total net yardage
rushing and passing 243 152
Passes had intercepted 1 1
Number of punts 3 7
Average distance of punts 54 36
Number of kickoffs 4 2
Average distance, kickoffs 23 25
Number of fumbles 3 1
Times ball lost on fumbles 2 1
Number penalties against 6 2
Yards lost by penalties 50 20
