Tiger Kittens Help Beat Libbey 56-0
Strang Sweeps Bench As Bengals Roll On To Their 9th Victory
By CHUCK HESS, JR.
The rain drops came down pretty fast at Tiger stadium Friday night. But Washington high Coach Leo Strang was moving players from the bench into the game even more quickly.
After the varsity had run up a 27-0 score on Toledo Libbey midway in the second period, Strang started moving his reserves into action. The second-string seniors and underclassmen added 29 more points for a 56-0 victory.
Every man on the squad played.
It was the Tigers’ ninth straight win of the season, second shut-out in a row and their fourth of the year. It was Libbey’s sixth straight defeat. The Cowboys have won only one of seven contests.
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A TOTAL of 8,267 fans, the smallest gathering of the seven home games, sat in on the defeat of a hopelessly outmanned, but scrappy, Toledo eleven. The fans who were at the final home game had to brave a continuous rain that varied from a downpour to a drizzle and made ball handling extremely dangerous in the home-coming tilt.
In spite of this the two teams threw a total of 26 passes. Massillon completed four of six attempts for 108 yards, two touchdowns and a conversion. Libbey, forced to the air, because it couldn’t move on the ground connected six of 20 times for 51 yards.
The Tigers’ fine defense held Libbey to 44 net yards on the ground for a total of 95 net yards gained. The Bengals used their blitz at times, but not often.
Massillon had 356 net yards on the ground, most of the gain in the first half, and 108 via the airwaves. The total was 464.
Strang said, “I’m real pleased that all the boys got a chance to get into the game. It’s been a real grind for the past five weeks. The second-stringers have had very little chance to play. I’m happy the fans got to see them.”
Youthful Dave Lundberg of Libbey said, “Our younger boys got some good experience down here. This is one of the finest teams our staff has ever seen. Their reaction on defense was terrific.”
“We helped Massillon look good. But they’ve looked good against fine teams and would have looked good against us anyhow.”
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THE TIGERS SCORED just about every time they got their hands on the ball, failing to tally only in the final stanza. Two drives were stopped by fumbles, one by an interception.
Wilbur Paisley tried a 23-yard field goal when another drive bogged down. But the kick was bad and went off to the left. However, the junior booter had six conversions in seven tries to his credit by the end of the night – one was blocked – to give him 14 for 15 in three games.
Counting Paisley, nine different Tigers broke into the scoring column. Co-Captain Charlie Brown did it twice. He got the first two scores of the game.
This made up for Charlie’s fumble on the Libbey 21-yard line during the Tigers’ first try at moving the ball. They had taken the opening kickoff on their 30.
The next opportunity for the Bengals came after a bad 10-yard punt from the Libbey 15 to the 25. Six plays and two first downs later the Tigers had their first tally.
They got some help from a pass interference penalty. Quarterback Jim Alexander tried to hit long side End Larry Ehmer, in the west corner of the south end zone. He was pushed from the rear. The penalty gave the Tigers possession on the one.
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PHILPOTT FUMBLED on the next play, losing two yards. Then Brown went between the outside tackle and long side end from the three with 6:06 left. Paisley’s boot was good.
Minutes later the Tigers took over on their 36 after an incompleted pass and on the first play Brown was off and running on the same play for his second score at 2:26. Paisley got his second conversion.
In the second period Massillon got the ball after a punt on its 20. Brown went between the tackles for seven yards. Then Alexander threw on the diagonal. Co-Captain Ken Ivan, Short side end, cut across, grabbed the ball at midfield and raced for the touchdown at 9:48. Paisley’s kick was blocked.
The next TD came at 3:45, after the Bengals had taken over again on a punt. Alexander cut between his short side guard and end on the first play, lugging the ball from his 46 to the Libbey nine. Ken Dean ran through the center to the one. Alex scored on the next play. Paisley’s kick was good.
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MASSILLON SCORED twice within the last two minutes of the first half. A blocked punt gave the Tigers the ball on the Libbey 17. Quarterback Bob Baker ran two plays through the center, hitting pay dirt on the second from one yard out at 1:44.
This time Paisley faked the kick. Alexander, who was holding stood up and fired to Willie Poole, a guard playing the end spot on the kicking team and Massillon led 35-0.
Fifty-one seconds later sophomore Cornerback Floyd (Duke) Pierce intercepted a Bill Brown aerial on the Massillon 41 and galloped 59 yards for a TD. Paisley connected again.
Both of the Tigers’ second half TD’s came in the third stanza, after the Bengals had forced Libbey to punt.
Early in the canto Massillon got the ball on its own 47. Utilizing six plays with three first downs, the Tigers had their seventh TD at 8:23. Quarterback Keith Jarvis passed down the center to long side End Steve Garland from the 13. Paisley booted the extra point.
On the previous play, Jarvis had broken through the center on a key run from Toledo’s 36 to the 13 to set up his own score.
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THE FINAL tally came at 2:34 on a 39-yard run by sophomore Tailback Terry Getz. Getz midway through the season made the switch from quarterback to tailback. The run was a sweep around the long side end. Paisley’s seventh conversion attempt was good.
The Benglas had moved from their 30 in seven plays and two first downs for the score. A key run was by another sophomore Quarterback Ron Swartz. His run from the Massillon 37 to the Toledo 48 helped set up the tally.
The play chart shows that Libbey was able to get into Massillon territory only once in the first period and twice in the last, the final two times being on a fumble recovery and pass interception. The Cowboys had the ball on the Bengal 25 when the game ended
Although Libbey didn’t show a whole lot, Halfback Jim Goings, a sophomore, ran well when he was able to get loose. So did sophomore Halfback John Williams, playing his first game and Fullback Guy Warner. End John Searcy showed well on defense.
STATISTICS
Mass. Libbey
First downs – rushing 17 1
First downs – passing 3 4
First downs – penalties 0 0
Total first downs 15 5
Yards gained rushing 165 70
Yards lost rushing 9 26
Net yards gained rushing 356 44
Yards gained passing 108 51
Total yards gained 464 25
Passes attempted 6 20
Passes completed 4 6
Passes intercepted by 2 1
Times kicked off 9 1
Kickoff average (yards) 44.1 30.0
Kickoff returns (yards) 70 117
Times punted 0 7
Punt average (yards) 0 28.7
Punt return (yards) 18 0
Had punts blocked 0 1
Fumbles 2 2
Lost fumbled ball 6 0
Penalties 2 0
Yards penalized (unreadable information)
Massillon Statisticians
Junie Studer.
Earl O’Leary.
