Tigers Beat Barberton 35-6
Score Three Touchdowns In First 10 Minutes
By CHARLIE POWELL
Rolling up 159 yards via 10 running plays, Massillon’s Tigers rocked Barberton with three touchdowns in the first 10 minutes of play Friday evening and it looked like a simon-pure rout was in the making at Tiger stadium.
But the Orangemen apparently suffered a let down except for brief spurts in the third and fourth periods and a Dads’ Night crowd, including only 9,945 paid admissions, watched them grind out a methodical 35-6 triumph, their seventh in eight starts.
The Magics, anything but tricky or reminiscent of some of their previous arrays, were outplayed all around and had it not been for their passing game would have been sadly outclassed.
There wasn’t much difference in first downs as the Tigers had only two more than the opposition but the host crew hipper-dippered and blasted its way for 258 net yards rushing while the Magics gained only 96 on the ground.
Passing gave the Magics their only touchdown and all told netted them 105 yards on eight compleltions in 15 attempts.
The aerial game benefited the Tigers too as one connection went for the jackpot and Bob Rinehart, the sweet thrower and neat manipulator of the Tiger “T”, had a pretty fair night with five completions in seven tosses.
The handwriting was on the wall in a jiffy. There wasn’t much for Bengal followers to shout about the last three periods but Coach Lee Tressel was not too discouraged.
He thought the defense, on Barberton running plays, was more than adequate and noted that the pass defense needs polishing up. The only time the Magics didn’t fare too well in the airlanes came in the final session when they resorted to spread formations.
Until that time Junie Ferrall stayed with the straight T with a balanced line and the Magics’ tactics in the ozone kept the Tigers on their toes.
Barberton was weak at the middle and the Tigers quickly took advantage of the situation as Chester Brown, the big fullback who hammers then gallops, carved out the first two scores on lengthy jaunts of 48 and 53 yards. Then Ivory Benjamin, the twinkle-toed speedster, took over the burden and made the last three six-pointers, two on runs (six and 16 yards) and the other on a pass play which covered 16 yards.
Little Davie Richardson, with Mike Hershberger sidelined by a pulled leg muscle, handled the conversion chores in fine fashion. He split the uprights on four with his other shot barely clearing the crossbar.
* * *
BROWN and Benjamin each gained more yards than the entire Barberton team on the ground as chuggin’ Chester averaged over 14 yards per try on 143 yards in 10 trips and hurrying Ivory made 107 in 15 carries. Larry Washington, Jimmy Bivings and “Chuck” Beiter worked at Hershberger’s right half slot and although none of the trio was scintillating, all were just as instrumental in giving Massillon its 16th victory in 20 meetings with Barberton teams. Beiter also played some at fullback.
It required the Tresselmen just 53 seconds to draw blood.
Washington grabbed up a short kickoff and got back to the Tiger 27. Benjamin made four at right tackle, then came back and zipped around the right flank. The junior standout reeled off a 21-yard run (the last man having a chance shot at him got him) to put the oval on the Magic 48.
Then Brown got a big hole at the middle, wriggled free at the 34 and raced into the end zone standing up.
Barberton made one first down after the kickoff and on a fourth and two situation at the Massillon 36, Bob Savage, the tank-like fullback, fumbled the center pass and Tackle Jim Mercer pounced on the bobble to give the Tigers possession at their own 44.
* * *
AFTER BROWN made 11 (Barberton’s Dave Lee Bartee came up with a shoe-string tackle to stop him from going the distance) and Bivings lost eight on a sweep, Massillon reached the Promised Land again.
It was Brown again. The play was the same as on his first trip. Given a key block by End Don Elavsky, Chester raced 53 vards, Richardson again converted and the Tigers led 14-0 with 5:22 remaining in the opening heat.
The third tally was set up by Benjamin’s interception of a pass by Magic Quarterback Marco Burnette. Massillon was pounding at the visitor’s 27 after Ivory returned 28 yards.
In five plays six more points flashed up. Beiter pounded for seven, ditto for Brown before Benjamin picked his way 10 yards to the three.
Barberton was then penalized to the one for being offside and on the next play Rinehart sneaked across. But the locals were offside and penalized five yards back to the six. From that point Benjamin found a hole at right tackle and his spurt came easy at 1:46.
Early in the second period Rinehart hit Clyde Childers for 18 yards but the locals stalled and Burnette returned Jim Dutton’s punt to the 32. The Magics digested a five-yard penalty and marched the rest of the way with three passes doing the damage.
* * *
BURNETTE did all the throwing with Moses Iverson catching one for 13, Bartee one for 10 and Les Jones one for 27 – the final 27 yards. A 15-yard dash by Jim Hatula kept the drive going.
On the touchdown, which came at 3:40, the toss down the middle was snagged by Jones at the five and he could have walked past the final stripe. Barberton had to settle for six after Jones’ placement sailed wide to the right.
Tackle John Halter leaped on a Barberton bobble at the Magic 28 on the third play of the third frame and Massillon jacked the margin four plays later. Benjamin got one, Brown three before Ivory squirted eight to the 16. Rinehart then went to the air. His pitch to the left hit Benjamin, who juggled the oval momentarily at the 10, turned around, twisted away from one would-be tackler and fought his way into the end zone at 9:22.
An exchange of punts followed the kickoff and Barberton then threatened to score. Burnette passed to Sub End Bob Velloney, Regular End Alan Cooksey and another sub, Jerry Mattingly accounted for 41 yards with a 10-yard completion to Mattingly placing the ball on the Massillon 10 as the quarter came to a close.
But Barberton magic failed, and after three aerials went for naught, the locals took over. Benjamin, Beiter, Brown and Washington (text missing)
HOWEVER a holding penalty cost the locals. A Rinehart to Bivings pass made six but Brown got only six and Bivings just one and Dutton was called on to kick again.
Barberton fumbled four plays later and Mercer again recovered.
With 4:09 left and the ball at the 34, Rinehart sneaked for one, Benjamin ran three times for nine, Beiter got five and Brown three before Benjamin made his third TD trip from 16 yards out. He simply got some fine blocking off the left side and outran the defenders to pay dirt at 1:04. Three plays later it was all over.
In addition to the aforementioned Hershberger, Bob Brown, regular right left guard, missed the game because of a broken bone in his left hand. Luckily the locals came out of the scrap without any more serious injuries.
The summary:
MASSILLON – 35
ENDS – Brenner, Elavsky, Childers, Mitchell, Hagan, Williams, Zorn, Wells, Steele, Mays.
TACKLES – Whitfield, Meldrum, Bixler, Halter, Slabaugh, Mercer.
GUARDS – Heine, Meldrum, Heimann, Cook.
CENTERS – Krier, Kiplinger.
QUARTERBACKS – Rinehart, Dutton.
HALFBACKS – Benjamin, Washington, Beiter, Bivings, Pledgure, Richardson.
FULLBACKS – G. Brown, Reese, Dean, Beiter.
BARBERTON – 6
ENDS – Cooksey, Bartee, Gissinger, Bob Velloney, Hampton.
TACKLES – Creager, Shaffer, Goletz, Reeves.
GUARDS – Mystovich, Chaykoski, Dilbeck, Gardner, Johnson.
CENTER – Schens.
QUARTERBACKS – Burnette, Mobley.
HALFBACKS – Jones, Iverson, Mattingly, Spencer, Savage.
FULLBACKS – Savage, Hatula.
Scoring by quarters:
Massillon 21 0 7 7 35
Barberton 0 6 0 0 6
Massillon scoring:
Touchdowns – Benjamin 3 (runs 16, 6, pass 16); Brown 2 (runs 48 and 53)
Extra points – Richardson 5.
Barberton scoring – Touchdown – Jones (pass 27).
STATISTICS
Massillon Barberton
First downs, rushing 11 5
First downs, passing 3 7
First downs, penalties 0 0
Total first downs 14 12
Yards gained rushing 280 126
Yards lost rushing 22 30
Net yards gained rushing 258 96
Yards gained passing 66 105
Total yards gained 324 201
Passes attempted 7 15
Passes completed 5 8
Passes intercepted by 1 0
Times kicked off 6 2
Kickoff average (yards) 47.5 37.0
Kickoff returns (yards) 17 130
Times punted 4 3
Punt average (yards) 34.3 30.7
Punt returns (yards) 15 20
Had punts blocked 0 0
Fumbles 0 6
Lost fumbled ball 0 2
Penalties 4 3
Yards penalized 40 12
