Tigers Rock, Roll Benedictine In 55-0 Waltz
Herring Is Top Back In Biggest Win Of Series
By STEVE HAPANOWICZ
A bunch of Swingin’ Cats dug the Bossu-Novak beat provided by the Benedictine Bengals at Tiger Stadium Saturday night and turned what was expected to be a Pier 6 brawl into a waltz.
It was the wildest party of the 10 rock’em sock’em football socials played between the 2 foes and when it was over the mighty Massillon Tigers walked off with a 55-0 victory.
The 11,097 who saw the game were amazed at the outcome. Never did they expect to see a Benedictine team beaten as badly as this one. Not since 1961 when the Benies lost 40-0 to Cleveland Holy Name had the Benies had such a score rolled up against them. It was the worst beating the Benies have suffered in the series with Massillon, which now stands at 8-2 in the Tigers’ favor.
Benedictine Coach Augie Bossu, obviously unhappy with the outcome, was asked if he had any comments on the game and came back with a standard reply, “What can you say? We got beat by a good ball club.” Asked if the absence of his 2 stars, halfback Larry Zelina and Captain Greg Betts, both out with leg injuries, hurt his club, he replied, “How the heck should I know? You can’t tell what they would have done. I won’t take away from their (the Tigers) effort.”
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AND IT WAS quite an effort by the Tigers who almost duplicated their 58-0 victory of last week over Steubenville.
The Tiger touchdown parade started after Benie quarterback Glenn Novak picked up 9 yards on 2 roll outs, failed to get the necessary yard on a 3rd and 1 at the Benie 44 and booted to the Tiger 36 where Dave Sheegog ran it back 2 yards.
Halfback Edgar Herring got 6 yards in 2 tries and then his running mate Bob Hewitt broke inside the Benie left end from his own 44 to the visitors’ 9 for a 47-yard gain. Herring went off tackle for 9 yards for the touchdown and the Tigers were on the scoreboard with 8:04 to be played. Herring made the 2 extra points on a run over his left side.
Benedictine had the ball for 2 plays including the kickoff when safety man Nick Pribich intercepted a Novak pass on the 50 for the Tigers. A Massillon pass was incomplete and on second down, Hewitt went off his right side and down the west sideline for a 50-yard touchdown romp. Fullback Jim Lawrence scored the extra points and the Tigers led 16-0 with 5:57 to play in the first quarter.
Benedictine moved from its 32 to its 47 where Konrad Kmetz punted out of bounds at the Massillon 22. Massillon moved from its 22 to the Benie 47 in 9 plays where Kanner punted to the 12 when the Tigers ran out of downs. Jack Dienes returned to the 15.
THE BENIES picked up 5 yards in 3 tries and Kmetz went back to kick on a 4th and 5. However, linebacker Paul Marks broke through and blocked the kick and defensive end Dave Whitfield picked up the ball about the 6 and went in for the score making it 22-0 with 9:06 to go in the second quarter. The extra point try failed.
Three plays netted the Benies 7 yards after the kickoff and Massillon got the ball on a punt at its own 48.
Seven plays later a 52-yard drive sparked by an 11-yard gain by quarterback Steve Kanner and another dazzling run, this one for 20-yard by Hewitt, was climaxed by an 8-yard cut off tackle for a touchdown by Lawrence. Hewitt picked up the extra points and a 30-0 score with 4:38 left to be played in the first half.
The half ended with the Tigers in possession on the Benie 44.
In the third quarter an 8-play, 49-yard Tiger drive stalled on the Benie 10, wasting a
25-yard gain by Herring. With a 4th and 13 for Benedictine on its own 13, the Tigers blocked a punt and recovered the ball in the end zone, but an offside penalty nullified the score and Kmetz kicked out to his 45 where Sheegog returned it to the 25. The Tigers moved in to the Benie 18 from where Herring ran a gauntlet of Benedictine tacklers, twisting out of the arms of the last one at the 5 and scored to make it 46-0.
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THE CLEVELANDERS then made their deepest penetration to the Massillon 10 from their own 34 in 12 plays. With a 4th and 1 on their own 14 as a result of a penalty, the Bengals’ tried to pass but Tiger safety John Frieg intercepted at the 5 and returned to the 18.
An 82-yard drive in 12 plays highlighted by a 15-yard run by Terry Manson and aided by a 15-yard penalty on the Benies ended when halfback Walt Lemon scored for 19 yards out to make the score 42-0. Junior place-kicker Bill Pearch made his first conversion of the season to put the score at 43-0.
Benedictine never got past its 46 on the following series and punted to Sheegog at the 16, the junior quarterback returning to his 33. The Tigers moved to the Benie 34 from where Sheegog connected with end Rick Paige who took the pass on the 25 and went down the sideline, lunging into the end zone for the score making it 49-0.
Co-captain Don Schenkenberger recovered a Bengal fumble on the Benie 48 with 41 seconds left in the game. The Benies were called for offside and when a disgusted Bengal kicked the official flag, a 15-yard penalty for unsportsman like conduct was called on the visitors putting the ball at the Benie 28. Sheegog hit end Phil Garcia with a 12 yarder putting the ball on the 16. Two passes failed before Sheegog found Paige alone in the end zone for the final tally with 6 seconds left.
Massillon Coach Earle Bruce’s only comment along with surprise that the Tigers were able to score so much on Benedictine, was that his team came up with “a real good offensive effort.” He added, “We had some good blocking, especially at the point of attack by tackles Dennis Morgan and Dennis Rambaud.” Morgan got his man 90 per cent of the time and Rambaud 80 per cent.
ON THE BASIS of the movies grades, John Muhlbach, center and co-captain, was named player of the week, guard Tom Whitfield the lineman of the week and Edgar Herring the back of the week.
Muhlbach received an overall grade of 67 per cent and was credited with 10 tackles and 1 assist. Whitfield got a 66 per cent grade, was accredited with 4 tackles and 6 assists, applied pressure on the Benedictine passer, and blocked a Benedictine punt.
Herring got an 84 per cent grade. The movies showed Herring did a real fine job of blocking.
BENEDICTINE – 0
Ends – Petrus, Hodakievic, Ciccone, Kane, Pilcavage.
Tackles – Iwan, McManamon, Koprowski, Inman, Russ.
Guards – Busi, Morgan, Treska, Hyclak, Braschwitz.
Center – Baumbick.
Backs – Novak, Ellis, Kmetz, Marn, Dienes, Scanlon, Roff, Mihalek, Grim.
MASSILLON – 55
Ends – Goodnough, Paige, Crone, B. Williams, Gilmore, Franklin,
Garcia, McGuire, Pollock, Lash, D. Whitfield.
Tackles – Croop, Morgan, Binge, Hartley, Petroff, Paul, Anderson.
Guards – Zorger, Larsuel, Richards, Whitfield, Mazon, T. Whitfield.
Centers – Muhlbach, Biddle, Rambaud, F. Williams, Hartman.
Backs – Kanner, Sheegog, Pribich, Frieg, Schenkenberger, Marks,
Shanor, James, Foster, Herring, Hewitt, Lemon, Schaar,
Lawrence, Healy, Conti.
BENEDICTINE …………… 0 0 0 0 – 0
MASSILLON ……………. 16 14 6 19 – 55
Touchdowns – Herring 2 (runs of 9 and 18 yards), Paige 2 (passes
of 34 and 16 yards from Sheegog), Hewitt (50-yard
run), D. Whitifield (6-yard run with blocked kick
recovery), Lawrence (8-yard run), Lemon (19-yard
run).
Extra Points – Herring 2 (run), Lawrence 2 (run), Hewitt 2 (run),
Pearch 1 (kick).
Officials:
Referee – Don Welsh (Wooster).
Umpire – Russ Kemper (Cincinnati).
Head Linesman – Clarence Rich (Canton).
Field Judge – C.W. Rupp (Cuyahoga Falls).
Statistics
Mass. Ben’e
First downs—rushing 18 5
First downs—passing 4 4
First downs—penalties 2 0
Total first downs 24 9
Yards gained rushing 397 109
Yards lost rushing 4 57
Net yards gained rushing 393 52
Net yards gained passing 79 75
Total yards gained 472 127
Passes attempted 17 13
Passes completed 4 5
Passes intercepted by 2 0
Yardage, on passes intercepted 0 0
Times kicked off 9 1
Kickoff average (yards) 47.2 33
Kickoff returns (yards) 12 166
Times punted 2 6
Punt average (yards) 25.5 30.3
Punt returns (yards) 49 4
Had punts blocked 0 1
Fumbles 1 2
Lost fumbled ball 0 1
Penalties 1 7
Yards penalized 5 54
Touchdowns rushing 5 0
Touchdowns passing 2 0
Touchdowns by miscellaneous 0 0
Miscellaneous 1 0
Total number of plays 66 54
