Passes Give Tigers 19-6 Victory Over Warren High
Touchdown Pegs Defeat Presidents When Ground Attack Fails To Move
By LUTHER EMERY
The Washington high Tigers waited until the wettest night of the year to come out with a passing attack Friday evening and they can thank their lucky stars they had it for instead of beating Warren 19-6, they undoubtedly would have finished in a 6-6 deadlock.
While 16,000 fans, more than half of them drenched by the downpour of rain, looked on, the Tigers tossed two touchdown passes, one of which was the prettiest thing that has been seen here in a football way for a good many years.
Little To Report About
Aside from that the local team had little to be happy about. Its running attack was almost completely smothered by an inspired Warren line that out charged the Tiger forward wall, and the visitors in turn moved the ball quite freely through the Massillon offense to outnumber the local team 11-4 in first downs.
The pay off on touchdowns, however, and the Massillon gridders got three of them to Warren’s one. They gained more yards too, thanks to the completion of four of seven passes for 111 yards. Warren made the most yardage on the ground, 180 to the Tigers’ 101.
The first touchdown came cheap for the local team and it looked at the time as though Warren would have a bad evening. On the first play the visitors attempted, Dave Dowd broke through and, with a couple of other Tigers, batted down a pass as it left the hand of Herb Eddington, fleet Warren back. The ball went up in the air and Dowd hauled it in as it came down. He only had to scamper five yards to get over the Warren goal and over he went for a touchdown. Al Brown missed an attempt for the extra point. It was a personal achievement for Dowd who was starting his first game at right tackle where Gene Krisher and Julius Wittmann had already been laid low with injuries. Before the period was over, Dowd joined them with a lacerated nose that took several stitches.
The Tigers unleashed their passing attack to produce the two other touchdowns when their running failed to gain.
A 34-yard peg from Dan Byelene to Jack Zeller set up the second late in the opening period with a first down on the seven-yard line. When three line plays failed to move the ball any nearer the Warren goal, Byelene pitched one into the flat to Zeller who went over for the touchdown. This time Brown booted the ball between the uprights for the extra point.
The Tiger attack bogged down and neither team threatened in the second period.
Came the third quarter and Warren ran Massillon all over the gridiron and eventually climaxed a 50-yard march that saw Eddington skirt his right end for three yards and a touchdown. The Tigers appeared to have the Warren drive stopped on the 39, but with fourth down coming up, Eddington ran to a first down on the Massillon 23 on a fake kick and then with the help of Louie Schier and a five-yard penalty carried it on to the three from which he danced away for his touchdown.
A Real Thriller
The Tigers’ last touchdown was the thriller of the year. A 15-yard penalty for holding that followed the kickoff had the local team in deep water back on its 19-yard line. Interference on a pass moved the ball to the 35 and then it happened. Al Brown pegged a pretty 30-yard pass to Gene Zorger who caught the ball over his shoulder on the dead run. His blockers came up from nowhere and he gave them time to go to work.
Jack Zeller dumped the first Warren tackler, then Tony Uliveto dropped one, and finally Jim Young took out the last man who had a chance to lay a hand on Zorger as he raced 35 yards into pay dirt.
It was the prettiest display of setting up blocks and downfield blocking that has been seen here in a long time.
Trouble was, there wasn’t enough of it at other stages of the game, for the Tiger ball carriers had a hard time moving last night, and had it not been for their ability to complete an occasional pass it is doubtful if they would have scored more than the one touchdown that Dowd gathered in on Warren’s first play from scrimmage.
Penalties hurt the locals; offensive work many times. The linemen were unusually eager to get at their opponents and were penalized seven times for offside. In fact their eagerness frequently got them in bad for Warren used a series of trap plays that time and again cut down Tiger tacklers and left big openings in the Massillon line.
Many Massillon fans, bearing the scores of other high school games announced over the public address system, considered the local team fortunate that it was able to come through on a night of upsets such as Mansfield 6, Canton Timken, 6; and the scoreless tie that locked Canton McKinley and Steubenville together.
Fortunately for the local gridders, they emerged from the game without too many injuries.
Wittmann’s split nose required several stitches and Gene Yost, who has been playing in tough luck all season, left a couple of teeth on the field and sustained a cup lip that had to be stitched. His tackling in the early stages of the game when he threw Warren runners for losses was cheered by the fans.
Several of the boys came out with bumps and bruises on their faces and bodies but it was the first game this season that nobody turned up with an injured leg and Coach “Bud” Houghton is happy on that point, for one of his big tests of the season is coming up next Friday when Dayton Chaminade brings its undefeated, unscored on team to Massillon.
Houghton didn’t take many chances with any of his cripples last night for that reason. He kept Junior Pedrotty on the bench and used Wittmann only briefly. He hopes, as a result, that Wittmann, Pedrotty and Krisher and possibly Chick Cary will all be ready for the Chaminade game, and if they are, that will be the first time the team has been intact since the second game of the season.
Aside from the blocking accorded Zorger on his long touchdown run, the outstanding dashes of the game were made by Warren’s Herb Eddington. Only a sophomore, he is fast on the get away and several times almost gave Tigers tacklers the slip.
His long runs practically accounted for the one Warren touchdown and he almost got away on the return of Massillon’s last kickoff when he raced from his own 10 to the 42 before being tackled. It set the stage for Warren’s last march and its only other serious threat of the evening. The Presidents reached the 15-yard line before they were thrown back to the 20 and forced to surrender the ball.
The Tigers have reason to show concern over the outcome of the contest, even though they did win. It was the second straight game in which an opponent succeeded in taking their defense apart fairly well. They couldn’t stop Mansfield successfully two weeks ago and the 180 yards aimed on the ground by Warren last night were too many to be passed up without a bit of serious thinking.
The defeat was Warren’s fourth in seven games, it having been previously beaten by Campbell Memorial, Canton McKinley and Akron Garfield. It was the Tigers’ fourth victory in six games.
PASSES CLICK
Massillon Pos. Warren
Zeller LE Smedi
Young LT McGee
Uliveto LG Spelich
Darrah C Coleman
Brooks RG Rogers
Dowd RT Graham
Eberhardt RE Bassett
Byelene QB Cardinal
Giloff LH Eddington
Zorger RH Corbin
Yost FB L. Schier
Score by quarters:
Massillon 13 0 0 6 19
Warren 0 0 6 0 6
Substitutions:
Massillon – Schludecker, re; Brown, qb; Ceckler, rt; Wittmann, rt; Roderick, lh; Bishop, re.
Warren – Bevan, lh; C. Schier, rh; Pulca, fb; Smith, lh; Flowers, c; Allgood, lh.
Touchdowns:
Massillon – Dowd; Zeller; Zorger.
Warren – Eddington.
Point after touchdown:
Massillon – Brown (placekick).
Referee – Rupp.
Umpire – Lobach.
Head Linesman – Gross.
Field Judge – Shafer.
Statistics
Mass. Warren
First downs 4 11
Passes attempted 7 1
Passes completed 4 0
Had passes intercepted 0 1
Yards gained passing 111 0
Yards gained rushing 101 180
Total yards gained 212 180
Yards lost 33 50
Net yards gained 179 130
Fumbles 1 2
Lost ball on fumbles 0 2
Times kicked off 4 2
Average kickoff (yards) 46 39
Kickoffs returned (yards) 31 79
Times punted 6 5
Average punt (yards) 26.5 32.8
Punts returned (yards) 30 23
Times penalized 9 3
Yards penalized 65 35
Merle Darrah
