Iggy passes by Tigers
Wildcats jump out to 49-0 lead at half, cruise to 49-7 win
By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent
MASSILLON, OH —
The St. Ignatius Wildcats spent the first half of Friday night’s game at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium putting on a clinic. Unfortunately for the Massillon Tigers, they were on the other end of the Wildcats’ demonstration.
St. Ignatius jumped out to a 49-0 halftime lead and never looked back in posting a 49-7 victory over the Tigers in front of around 8,000 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. It is the worst defeat the Tiger program has suffered since a 46-0 loss to Alliance in 1962.
“They came out and executed, and we buried ourselves in a hole defensively and offensively right off the bat,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said. “We were just never able to … we were just almost shell-shocked. That’s the feeling I saw and I felt with our kids. They’re a good football team. Do I think they’re 49-7 better than us? No. We made some mistakes in all phases of the game. It’s just a situation where we have to keep working.”
The loss dropped Massillon to 3-3 on the season, and 1-11 all-time against the Wildcats. The Tigers will step out of the country next Friday when Brantford (Ont.) Collegiate Institute visits.
The Wildcats, who led 35-0 after one quarter, scored on all five of their first-half possessions, and added a pair of interception returns for scores in building up their seven-score edge at the intermission.
“Mainly the message was like anything else,” Hall said of the halftime talk. “I told them it’s a life lesson. Winners fight and losers quit.”
St. Ignatius, which has won five in a row since dropping their season opener to Glenville, was led by the precision passing of quarterback Andrew Holland. Holland, who played only in the first half, completed 10-of-11 aerials for 262 yards with three touchdowns.
By the end of the first quarter, Holland already had 229 yards through the air, and all three touchdown passes.
“Quarterback presence really was what you saw tonight,” St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said. “When he felt the pressure from the outside, he did a very good job of stepping up into a seam and still looking downfield. A lot of quarterbacks will step up, but they look down to see where they can run. But he was still looking up for where he could throw, and that paid off.”
Where the Wildcats hurt the Tigers the most was with the deep post pattern. Connor Ryan had all three of his catches for 136 yards and two scores on that particular play.
Joey Parris added five catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.
While the Wildcat offense was clicking on all cylinders in the first half in racking up 373 yards, the Tigers were struggling to get anything going against a stout St. Ignatius defense. Massillon trailed 21-0 before picking up its first down of the game, and had just 22 yards on 23 first-half plays. The Tigers ran just two plays in Wildcat territory in the first half, both coming from the Ignatius 49 amd each resulted in lost yardage.
Massillon finished the game with 135 total yards.
“They controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” Hall said. “They were being aggressive. We just couldn’t get anything moving up front.”
Adding to Massillon’s struggles was the fact two of its first four pass attempts were intercepted by St. Ignatius defenders and returned for scores. The first, a 25-return by Jake Ryan, made it 14-0 Wildcats, while Dan Fox brought one back 35 yards to make it 35-0 with 24 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Tigers’ first score didn’t come until J.T. Turner stepped in front of a pass in the third quarter and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown to make it 49-7 Ignatius.
GAME STATS
St. Ignatius 49,
Massillon 7
At Paul Brown Tiger Stadium
St. Ignatius 35 14 00 00 49
Massillon 00 00 07 00 07
SCORING SUMMARY
SI – C. Ryan 30 pass from Holland (Hennessey kick)
SI – J. Ryan 25 interception return (Hennessey kick)
SI – C. Ryan 68 pass from Holland (Hennessey kick)
SI – Parris 25 pass from Holland (Hennessey kick)
SI – Fox 35 interception return (Hennessey kick)
SI – Holland 1 run (Hennessey kick)
SI – Johnson 47 run (Hennessey kick)
M – Turner 60 interception return (Geier kick)
St. I Mas
First downs 15 9
Rushes-yards 35-145 32-78
Comp-att-int. 10-14-1 9-26-3
Passing yards 262 57
Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-0
Penalty yards 59 35
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon
Roberson 8-29;
Turner 10-27;
Reiman 6-19.
St. Ignatius
Johnson 18-129 TD;
Myers 3-19.
Passing:
Massillon
Partridge 9-21-57 INT;
Clark 0-5-0 2 INTs.
St. Ignatius
Holland 10-11-262 3 TDs;
Myers 0-2-0 INT;
Teresczuk 0-1-0.
Receiving:
Massillon
Phillips 3-19;
Roberson 2-6;
Remark 1-10;
Adkins 1-8;
Grunder 1-7;
Price 1-7.
St. Ignatius
Parris 5-101 TD;
C. Ryan 3-136 2 TDs;
DeSico 1-17;
Johnson 1-8.
Records:
Massillon 3-3;
St. Ignatius 5-1.
