Each week, the staff of massillontigers.com will provide input of their choice related to the current season or Massillon football in general.
There were a number of things one could point to in describing the Tiger’s efforts that resulted in a victory over Warren Friday. The defense contained a pretty good Warren running game, our passing game was very efficient, but our ground game was the clincher. Those two fourth quarter drives are examples of how to play with a lead. They ate up the clock and kept the Warren offense off the field. The first drive was huge as it ended with a Klay Moll 21-yard field goal that gave the Tigers a two score lead. The second ate up the clock and ended with Aiden Longwell taking a knee to end the game. That is how to finish. A like effort will be needed this Friday against Youngtown Ursuline. We will need a good defense against the run, timely passing and of course a physical run game. — GV
Three weeks into the season, just three unbeaten teams remain in Division II, Region 7: Columbus Mifflin, Boardman and Columbus Walnut Ridge. Massillon continues to position itself for a qualifying position with a big win over Warren Harding, which should provide plenty of second-level points down the road. Hoover, which lost to Akron East last week 27-20, remains a mystery team. But it should sort itself out on Friday when the Vikings travel to GlenOak. Licking Heights edged New Albany 35-30, but both teams should finish in the Top 8. The crystal ball says that the final eight teams in Region 7 should come from this group: Columbus Walnut Ridge, Massillon, Columbus Mifflin, Licking Heights, Canal Winchester, New Albany, Boardman, Dublin Scioto and Columbus West. Time will tell for North Canton, Lake, Ashland, Westerville South and Worthington Kilbourne. — DE
Youngstown Ursuline comes to Massillon sporting a 1-2 record. The lone win was over hapless Youngstown East 40-19, while losses were to Cleveland Benedictine 39-29 and Akron Hoban 49-0. The offense revolves around the quarterback, who returns from last year. Coach Nate Moore says that he throws and runs equally well. The running backs have good size, but not the speed of Warren’s. The receiver corps is all new. The offense uses a similar scheme to Massillon, except that the running backs are aligned closer to the QB. A weaker area would be the defense, which returns just three starters, one on the line, one at linebacker (although he was a defensive end last year) and one in the secondary. The two corners are both sophomores and just 5’9″ tall. The Irish operate out of a 4-3 alignment. Six players go both ways. — DE
In the Warren game you may have noticed the Warren quarterback threw a backward pass to the receiver while they were behind the line of scrimmage. If the pass is completed the statistician makes the judgment, if the pass is forward or backward. If the pass was backward the play is recorded as a rushing play. If incomplete the action of the game officials determines if the pass is a forward pass or a lateral. In the Warren game the play was recorded as a rushing play. There were a couple of other stats that are interesting from the Warren game. Massillon made 4 of 8 third down conversions and Warren made 2 or 8. On fourth downs, Warren only made 1 or 3 forth down conversions. Massillon was winning at half time but the time of possession was in Warren’s favor 8 minutes to Massillon’s 4 minutes. That was turned around by Massillon in the second half, Massillon controlled for 16:32 minutes and Warren for 7:28 minutes. Warren only having 8 plays from scrimmage in the 4 quarter. — JB
