Tiger Gridders Defeat Big Red 28-0
Orange And Black Seal Verdict By Outplaying Foe In Third Period
By LUTHER EMERY
The Washington high Tigers completely outclassed Steubenville for five minutes Friday evening and won a 28-0 victory.
That hardly seems possible but that is just about the way it happened.
The smallest crowd of the season, a disappointing 10,420 fans, turned out for the game which ended football relations between the two schools.
The Tigers achieved their goal of winding it up with a victory, but they were hard pressed for a time to do it.
They scored their first touchdown on the last play of the first half as Halfback Homer Floyd raced 75 yards to score. Time expired while he was somewhere en route. Then with a devastating attack, they ripped Steubenville for three touchdowns in the short space of five minutes in the third period, two of them on runs of 84 and 30 yards by Floyd and another on a little buck through center by Quarterback Rich Crescenze.
Bit Bob Williams kicked all four extra points after touchdown from placement and that’s all there was to it.
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BATTLING in their effort to win at least one game of the 18-game series, Steubenville put up quite a scrap against the Tigers, and save for the local team’s one touchdown effort in the first half, had a little the better of the play. Even on that one there was questionable clipping which brought a mild protest from the Steubenville bench, though it in no way figured in the play and occurred nearly 10 yards behind the ball carrier.
The Big Red threatened three times, twice in the first half and once in the last period. Intercepted passes ended two of the threats and a fumble stopped the third. The nearest the visitors got was 10 yards from the goal line.
So the series has been ended by Steubenville without it having won a game in all the years of play since 1937, and the Tigers getting back on the victory road after their loss, first in 26 games last week at Alliance. It was No. 3 in four games for the Tigers and No. 3 in four games in reverse for the Big Red, whose only triumph was a decision over Cleveland East Tech last week.
The Tigers had a considerable margin in yardage thanks to Floyd who totaled 180 of the locals 399 net yards. Steubenville had a net gain of 195 yards.
The revamped Tiger offense didn’t click too well the first half, and Coach Tom Harp wound up by putting his star runner, Homer Floyd back at halfback. He did most of the gaining, though Don Duke and Jerry Yoder, who started at the halfback spot, picked up some yardage the first two periods.
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DISAPPOINTING from a Massillon standpoint was its passing attack which has been practically nil the last two weeks. Nine were thrown and only two completed for seven yards. Steubenville completed five of 12 for 77 yards.
Best pass uncorked by the Tigers all night produced a touchdown that didn’t count because a Massillon player was offside. Sub Quarterback Don Humes threw to Bob Williams who ran to the 20 and tossed a backward pass to End Bob Jones just as he was about to be tackled. Jones went the rest of the distance. The whole play would have been good for 63 yards.
The Tigers won without being sharp. Steubenville stopped them cold inside the tackles in addition to throttling the local’s aerial weapons. Floyd was the difference. It looked like a scoreless first half until he got away for his 75-yarder. Up to that time the Tigers hadn’t gotten closer than the Stubber 40, while the latter knocked twice on the Massillon goal.
Out-charging the Massillon team, the visitors got down to the 15 in the middle of the second period but Dick Fromholtz ended the threat when he pulled down Quarterback White’s pass behind the goal. Then after the Big Red had recovered a Massillon fumble on t he latter’s 44, White whipped a long pass that Don Wilson caught on the 12, but he fumbled when tackled and Tom Stephens covered for the Tigers. Even the Big Red had the local team stopped but jumped offside when Massillon shifted into a punt formation. The five-yard penalty gave the Tigers a first down and two plays later Floyd ambled 75 yards for the first touchdown with time expiring while he was on the loose. That’s just how close it came to being a scoreless first half.
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IT WAS ALTOGETHER different in the third period however. “Between halves we figured out what Steubenville was doing,” said Harp, “made our corrections and things went all right until they changed on us again.”
Things did go all right. The Tigers kicked off but Stavroff got them the ball by intercepting a pass and running back to the Big Red 40. Floyd and Yoder took turns carrying until they reached the two and Crescenze sneaked it over from that point.
The Tigers kicked off, forced Steubenville to punt, the ball rolling dead on the 16. On the first play Floyd went 84 yards for the orange and black’s third T.D.
They kicked off again and Steubenville fumbled the kickoff on the 30. Dick Roan flopped on it and on the first play Floyd again went for the distance.
What looked like a severe rout for the Big Red stopped there and it got funny, when neither team appeared to want the ball, each throwing passes into opponents’ arms.
Steubenville did manage to penetrate to the 10-yard line before another interception by Stavroff stopped the threat. The Tigers’ only effort in the fourth quarter has already been explained, the lateral off a forward that was not allowed because of an offside penalty.
The line-up and summary:
MASSILLON
ENDS – Canary, Lorch, R. Williams, Jones, Francisco, Houston.
TACKLES – B. Williams, Hill, Blocher, Schumacher, Graber.
GUARDS – R. Ramier, Holloway, Tracy, Fisher.
CENTERS – Spicer, Roan, Morrow.
QUARTERBACKS – Crescenze, Humes, James.
HALFBACKS – Duke, Yoder, Fromholtz, Stavroff, Stephens.
FULLBACKS – Floyd, Boekel, Cocklin.
STEUBENVILLE
ENDS – Wilson, Fulton.
TACKLES – Pettresa, Crawford, Ensell.
GUARDS – Goffali, Starr, Jones, Copps, Anathan, Glannamore, Haverfield.
CENTERS – Moncilovich, Giamnrarco.
BACKS – White, Ray, Ross, Morgan, Porter, Jeter, Yates,
Sizemore, Collins, Callas.
Score by periods:
Massillon 0 7 21 0 26
Touchdowns – Floyd 3, Crescenze.
Points after touchdowns – Williams 4 (placekicks).
Officials
Referee – Tony Pianowski (Cleveland).
Umpire – Jerry Katherman, Jr. (Cleveland).
Head Linesman – Earl Schreiber (Canton).
Field Judge – W.K. Dunton (Warren).
STATISTICS
Mass. Steub.
First downs 16 10
Passes attempted 9 12
Had passes intercepted 2 4
Passes completed 2 5
Yards gained passing 7 77
Yards gained rushing 422 123
Total yards gained 429 200
Yards lost 30 5
Net yards gained 399 195
Times punted 1 4
Average punt (yards) 33 41
Yard punts returned by 0 0
Times kicked off 5 1
Average kickoff (yards) 48 48
Yards kickoffs returned by 18 84
Times fumbled 6 4
Lost ball on fumbles 3 3
Times penalized 1 3
Yards penalized. 5 15
