Tigers Roll Over Canton Lincoln 45-7
Long Touchdown Runs Spark Massillon Drive On Rain-Soaked Field
By LUTHER EMERY
What hopes Canton Lincoln had of ending the Massillon football jinx was buried in the mud of Tiger stadium before 9,171 fans Friday evening as the Washington high Tigers chalked up a 45-7 victory, their second of the season and their 10th in the 11-game series with the Lions who escaped with a scoreless tie in 1945.
Playing in rain from beginning to end, the Tigers proved themselves good mudders as they ran up seven touchdowns, scored three extra points and rolled up the big total of 406 net yards from scrimmage.
Added to the ability to gain ground was good handling of the slippery ball. The first team fumbled but once, losing the ball, and the second team fumbled late in the game, recovering the ball.
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LINCOLN had more trouble with the slippery leather as the ball squirted out of players’ hands seven times, and into Tiger hands on three occasions.
The Massillon gridders showed more speed and more power last night than they did in beating Youngstown North 31-0 in their opening game a week ago.
Yet, despite the lop-sided score, it was quite a ball game the first half with the Tigers trailing for the first time this season when Lincoln caught them flat-footed with a fourth down pass in the second period that went 39 yards for a touchdown.
The Tigers’ who were leading 6-0 at that point, thanks to a nifty 53-yard T.D. run by Johnny James, were looking for Lincoln to punt for it was fourth down and 11 to go and the ball was on the 39. But the Lions did a lot of fancy ball flipping in the backfield with Quarterback Chuck Dinkins finally shooting a long one to End Larry Ellison who was way beyond the unsuspecting Massillon secondary. Halfback Jim Care slipped through for the extra point and pandemonium broke loose in the Canton stands.
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MASSILLON FANS were uneasy too but their fears were short-lived for the T.D. only made the Tigers snarl.
They took the kickoff on their 30 and with Charlie Brown and Don Duke doing the leather lugging, marched the pigskin over the Lincoln goal, Brown getting the honors on an
11-yard counter and Dave Archibald bucking over the extra point that made it 13-7.
And although only two minutes and 15 seconds of the half remained to be played, the Tigers sneaked in another just as the last seconds of the clock were ticked off. Dick Whitfield blocked a Lincoln punt to give the locals the ball on the Lions’ 19. Willie Long moved it up to the 15 and James to the one.
Then as the hands of the clock pointed to 0, Long crossed the goal for the local team’s third T.D. of the game which proved to be a crushing blow to Lincoln. It ended what hopes Coach Paul Dellerba might have had of rallying his squad during intermission. Duke sliced through for the extra point and it was 20-7.
With Fullback Archibald running like a mad man, the Tigers scored four more touchdowns in the second half to put the game in the cooler. Archibald got three of them on runs of 12, 45 and 47 yards, and sub Quarterback Bob Rinehart added the other on a 15-yard jaunt.
His long touchdown runs made Archibald the leading ground gainer of the night, with a net 126 yards on nine carries. Duke gained 105 net yards on nine attempts and Charlie Brown 61 net yards on eight attempts.
James gained 52 net yards but carried only four times.
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THE TIGERS, who got by last week without punting a single time, were forced to kick once last night and Archibald did it on the run as Lincoln tacklers closed in on him. He booted the ball only 15 yards beyond the line of scrimmage but that was better than being thrown for a loss or having the kick blocked.
A pre-game argument over the color of the football helped to fire the Tigers.
Lincoln wanted to play with a brown ball, while Harp held out for a striped ball. The rules state that if the coaches cannot agree on the color then a tan ball is used – but the Tigers didn’t have one. So they thought to scrape the stripes off a ball, but not too successfully.
When Lincoln continued to insist on a tan ball, the officials told Harp to get one. “We don’t have one,” the Tiger coach replied.
The officials decided the game could be played with the ball from which the stripes were scraped, then Lincoln informed the officials they had a tan ball.
“All right, we will play with it and we will ram it right down their throats,” Harp told his team.
Maybe the incident stirred up the local players. At least they showed more pep and vigor than they did in the Youngstown game.
And they scored their first touchdown in a minute and 25 seconds.
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LINCOLN kicked off to Massillon which won the toss. It was a short kick to the 42. On the third plays, James on a keep ran 53 yards for the touchdown. He was supported by some pretty blocking as he turned his left end and headed down the sideline. An attempt to kick the extra point failed and the Tigers led 6-0.
The two teams exchanged punts before the end of the period, but Lincoln was on its way to its only touchdown.
Getting the ball on their 20 through a punt, the Lions advanced it back to their 34 as the period ended. Ronald Worstell got a first down in two carries.
Jim Care advanced the leather to the Tiger 40. Three plays gained but a yard and that set the stage for the Lions’ razzle dazzle touchdown pass to Ellison.
Details of the Tigers next two touchdowns that brought the score to 20-7 at the half have already been given.
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THREE FUMBLES in as many minutes with the ball lost each time got both teams off to a poor start in the third period. Lincoln committed the first boner on its 45 and Massillon got the ball. Then the Tigers fumbled on the Lions’ 30 and the latter recovered. But Lincoln didn’t want the ball, for it fumbled the very next play and Jerry Kreiger got it for Massillon again on the 30. Three plays later Archibald was ramming up the middle for 12 and a touchdown that made it 26-7.
Lincoln completed a pass to the Tiger 25, the next time it got the ball, but the receiver fumbled and the locals covered on their own 23. They moved it to the Lions’ 45 where Archibald broke through the middle to score and make it 32-7.
He made it 39-7 with five minutes gone in the fourth quarter on a run of 44 yards that climaxed a 69-yard march.
Coach Harp substituted heavily after that (he used 38 players) and the seconds got a chance to score when they recovered a Lincoln fumble on the Lions’ 21; Rinehart going the last 15.
The Tigers escaped from the game in good shape, and Harp was thankful for that. “Now if Fisher and Kasunick’s ankles just come along, we will be in pretty good shape for next week’s game with Alliance
The Massillon coach felt pretty good about the performance of his team – said he didn’t intend to single out any individuals for praise. “They did a pretty good job as a whole, I thought,” he said.
The line up and summary:
MASSILLON
ENDS – Canary, Houston, Geschwind, Anderson, Chengery.
TACKLES – Graber, Maier, Schumacher, Kreiger, Hofacre, Whitfield, Wells, Meldrum, Allen, Mercer.
GUARDS – Roan, Ertle, Tracy, R. Brown, Harrison.
CENTERS – Spicer, Dowd, Gentzler, Kiplinger.
QUARTERBACKS – James, Rinehart, Brenner.
HALFBACKS – Duke, Brown, Long, Benjamin, Radtke, Cocklin, Butcher, Washington, Herring.
FULLBACKS – Archibald, Chet Brown.
LINCOLN
ENDS – Ellison, Copeland, Wetzel.
TACKLES – Mulheim, Groetz, Griffin, Craddock, DePasquale.
GUARDS – Ross, Vohelsang, Kelly, Kortis, Ludwig.
CENTERS – Stroia.
QUARTERBACKS – T. Dinkins, Volzer, C. Dinkins.
HALFBACKS – Care, Grinstead, Worstell, Cosentino, Ferry, Richards.
FULLBACK – Farrall.
Score by quarters:
Massillon 6 14 12 13 45
Lincoln 0 7 0 0 7
Touchdowns:
Massillon – Archibald 3, James, Brown, Long, Rinehart.
Lincoln – Ellison.
Points after touchdowns:
Massillon – Duke, Archibald 2 (carried).
Lincoln – Care.
Officials
Referee – Tobin (Akron).
Umpire – Shopbell (Canton).
Head Linesman – Murphy (Cleveland).
Field Judge – Schreiber (Canton).
STATISTICS
Mass. Lin.
First downs 18 7
Passes attempted 2 5
Passes completed 1 3
Yards gained passing 27 62
Yards gained rushing 396 129
Total yards gained 423 191
Yards lost 17 23
Net yards gained 406 168
Times punted 1 3
Average punt (yards) 15 24
Yards punts returned by 6 2
Times Kicked off 8 2
Average kick (yards) 36 29
Times fumbled 2 7
Lost ball on fumbles 1 3
Times penalized 4 6
Yards penalized 20 50
