Barberton Beats Tigers 26-12 Claims State Title
30,000 See Gondor And Goudy Pace Undefeated Magics To Big Victory
By LUTHER EMERY
A couple of G-men, Dick Goudy and Paul Gondor, racing 74 and 88 yards respectively to touchdowns, gave Barberton high school the right to claim the Ohio scholastic football championship Friday evening when they closed an undefeated season here by plastering a 26-12 defeat on the Washington high Tigers before an inside and out throng of some 30,000 people.
Goudy and Gondor were magnificent in their long touchdown dashes, when supported by fine blocking into the open field, they faked the secondary out of tackling position.
Defensively the Tigers had only a couple of lapses, and that’s all speed merchants like Gondor and Goudy needed to go the route. Otherwise they were not able to gain too much ground through the Massillon line.
The Magics scored two other touchdowns, one, their first of the game, following a lucky pass deflection and the second coming after a poor pass from center gave them the ball on the Tiger 27-yard line.
The game was one of exciting long runs, and Gondor and Goudy did not do all the entertaining, for Massillon’s second touchdown came on a 27-yard run by Clarence Johnson, Tiger fullback.
Barberton, which came to Massillon with a record of eight consecutive victories and holder of the No. 1 spot in the Ohio football poll was battled on even terms by the Tigers the first two periods which ended 6-6. If anything, the locals even had an edge, for they not only scored one touchdown but thrice took the ball inside the 15-yard line, losing once on downs, a second time on a fumble, and a third time when time expired with the ball on the 15.
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THE MAGICS in fact were first to score, Goudy going over from the one-yard line on second down.
The Tigers got their touchdown in the closing minutes of the half when Al Brown went eight yards to the one yard line and Clarence Johnson banged it across.
Came the third period, and everything was going fine until Goudy broke loose midway in the quarter. The Tigers had the Magics stopped with third down coming up and three yards to go on the latters’ 26-yard line when the lightening struck. Goudy came around the left side of the Massillon line behind marvelous blocking, headed for the sideline, cut back toward midfield and faked two of the Massillon secondary out of tackling position to go 74 yards for a touchdown. His buddy, Gondor, kicked the extra point to give the Magics the lead 13-6.
Massillon still had hopes until the fourth period came around bringing touchdowns quick and fast.
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DICK JACOBS, trying to punt on fourth down got a poor pass from the center and was thrown for a big loss, Barberton getting the ball on the Tiger 27. It capitalized on the break in a hurry as Goudy and Gondor made a first on the 14 and Gondor went the rest of the distance for the T.D. A poor pass from center muffed the try for the extra point and left the visitors leading 20-6.
The Tigers opened up for the first time during the evening and, overcoming a 15-yard penalty, Jack Hill tossed 40 yards to Clarence Johnson for a first down on the Barberton 47. Two passes in a row to Ben Roderick brought another first on the 27 and opened up the Magics’ tight defense. The opening gave Clarence Johnson a chance to run and he waded through right tackle for the remaining 27 yards and the Tigers’ second and last touchdown of the evening. Schludecker’s kick for the extra point was wide, leaving the score 20-12 in Barberton’s favor.
Whatever hope the locals’ still had of catching up was quickly dimmed on the next play when Gondor grabbed the kickoff on his 12, fumbled it momentarily and then set out for a beautiful 88-yard touchdown run along the sideline. This time he kicked the extra point which proved the final counter of the day, although Barberton scored another touchdown at the end of the game that did not count when the gun shot as the ball was being handed to Goudy. The latter tossed over the line for three yards into the end zone to the waiting arms of Danny Yakus, but the officials ruled the play was not yet in motion when time expired and as a result Barberton lost the “touchdown.”
Defensively the Tigers played good ball and for the most part Goudy and Gondor had great difficulty trying to puncture the Massillon line, which is a credit to the Tiger forwards and line backers for the two G-men are hard and shifty runners that any ball club would welcome on its roster.
As has been the case in the past two weeks, the local team was lacking most in offense.
It muffed a golden opportunity in the first quarter when Barberton fumbled a powerful kickoff by Clarence Johnson and only got the ball back to the nine-yard line where the Tiger linemen threw back the Magic’s efforts to move the ball and forced them to punt the pigskin. It was a short kick, going out on the 36 and on the very first play, Brown came around his left end for a dash to the 12-yard line. The Tigers hit’em on the right, then on the left, then two more times on the right, but gained only three yards and lost the ball on downs.
The locals’ offense, however, did produce more yards than it did at Cleveland last week where the Tigers lost, 16-12 to the Latin Lions. Against Barberton the locals made 11 first downs to the Magics’ nine, but long touchdown runs do not count as first downs and hence Barberton out gained Massillon from scrimmage, 304 yard to 259.
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THE TIGERS made a bug hunk of their yardage in the last quarter when they began mixing passes with their ground work which caused both to function to better advantage. They completed five of 10 attempts for 88 yards and had but one intercepted.
Barberton completed two of three and one of the completions was a fluke, the ball being deflected into a Barberton player’s hands by a Massillon secondary defender trying to knock it down. The pass incidentally was a fourth down effort that gave the Magics a first down on the 15 and placed them in position for their initial touchdown of the game.
Fumbles hurt the locals and upset their offense on five occasions. Twice they lost the ball in this manner. So did Barberton and the Tigers turned one of the Magics’ bobbles into their first touchdown of the game as they recovered the leather on the 14-yard line.
Most of the game was played in a driving rain, and a wet ball may account to some extent for some of the loose ball handling.
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THE VICTORY was Barberton’s first over Massillon since the season of 1933 when the Magics won a 6-0 verdict at Barberton. The team, fans and Coach Harry Strobel were jubilant over the triumph which gives them a chance to make a strong claim for the state schoolboy championship. They have a hard hitting eleven that functions smoothly and supports the ball carrier with excellent blocking; the best all-around team the Tigers have faced this season.
The only consolation Massillon can get out of the verdict is that Coach Strobel is an
ex-Massillonian who graduated from Washington high in the mid-twenties. He can write the mythical state title into the records of his success which include a state championship basketball team while at Bellevue high in 1945 and an undefeated football team at Orrville high. A lot of Harry’s old Orrville fans came to Massillon by bus last night to see his tam annex the title.
The defeat as far as Massillon was concerned was the third in a row for the Tigers and you have to go way back to the season of 1932 to find where another Massillon team lost that many games in succession. The Tigers dropped four in a row that year – and it was Paul Brown’s first team. Paul himself was a spectator at last night’s game.
The Tigers as a whole emerged from the game in good physical condition. Dick Jacobs came out with a sore ankle that may put him on the shelf for next Saturday afternoon’s game with Akron St. Vincent’s here. In fact for a time last night it appeared that Massillon might not have either of its halfbacks for service next week.
After the game, Al Brown took exception to criticism leveled his way and walked out of the dressing room with the announcement that he was through. His teammates quickly went into a huddle, however, brought Brown to the residence of Coach “Bud” Houghton where the player apologized and was forgiven.
The game ended the Tigers’ night season. They play their first daylight encounter with St. Vincent’s and the following week will close their season against Canton McKinley in Fawcett stadium.
State Champions
MASSILLON Pos. BARBERTON
Johnson LE Yakus
Eberhardt LT Arvay
Williams LG Freeman
McVay C Santa
Houston RG Carbaugh
Wittmann RT Toneff
Roderick RE Kapish
Hill QB Scarr
Jacobs LH Goudy
Brown RH Gondor
C. Johnson FB Sabol
Score by periods:
Massillon 0 6 0 6 12
Barberton 0 6 7 13 26
Substitutions:
Massillon – Olenick, c; Ferris, rg; Morrow, lg; Badarnza, qb; Jones, lt; Schludecker, re; Resh, rh.
Barberton – Hare, ly; Kulsar, c; Cain, qb; Fugitt, lc.
Touchdowns:
Massillon – C. Johnson 2.
Barberton – Goudy 2; Gondor 2.
Points after touchdown:
Barberton – Gondor 2 (placekicks).
Referee – Lobach.
Umpire – Gross.
Head Linesman – Boone.
Field Judge – Jenkins.
Statistics
Mass. Barb.
First downs 11 9
Passes attempted 10 3
Passes completed 5 2
Had passes intercepted 1 0
Yards gained passing 88 33
Yards gained rushing 174 277
Total yards gained 262 310
Yards lost 3 6
Net yards gained 259 304
Times punted 2 3
Average punt (yards) 39 23
Yards punts returned by 0 0
Times kicked off 3 5
Average kickoff (yards) 48 53
Yards kickoffs returned by 109 97
Fumbles 5 2
Lost ball on fumbles 2 2
Yards penalized 20 10
