Scores from last week:

• Varsity defeated East St. Louis, Illinois, 46-40.
• Junior Varsity defeated Lakewood St. Edward, 27-14.
• Freshmen lost to Lakewood St. Edward, 42-16.
• 8th Grade defeated Akron Ellet, 30-26.
• 7th Grade defeated Medina, 45-6 and Western Crusaders, 34-26.

This week’s schedule:

• Wednesday – 8th Grade vs. Western Crusaders at Massillon Middle School, 5:00 pm
• Thursday – 7th Grade vs. Brunswick at Brunswick Field #3, 5:00 pm
• Friday – Varsity vs. Sun Valley, Pennsylvania, at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, 7:30 pm
• Saturday – Freshmen vs. Cleveland St. Ignatius at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, 10:00 am
• Saturday – Junior Varsity vs. Cleveland St. Ignatius at St. Ignatius, 10:00 am

Tre’von Morgan (wide receiver / outside linebacker) and Jamir Thomas (running back/linebacker) were the guest co-captains.

During last Friday’s game aqainst East St. Louis, Jamir Thomas broke the 58-year old record for the most career rushing yards.  The previous mark was 3,090 yards, held by Art Hastings.  During the Booster Club meeting, Jamir presented the football he used to break the record to Bailey Yoder, football curator of the Massillon Museum.  The ball will be on display during the public soft opening of the new Paul Brown Museum, which is scheduled for Friday, October 26, from 4:00 to 9:00 pm.  Thomas already holds the record for the most career carries and is poised to break the record for the most career rushing touchdowns (47), a mark currently held by Bob Glass. He needs just one more TD to tie.

“I’m really proud of this,” said Massillon Head Coach Nate Moore of Thomas’ performance.  “He’s come a long way since his freshman year.  He loves playing football.  I’m really proud of what he’s accomplished.”

Eric Copeland was the guest assistant coach.  Copeland said that the Tigers had difficulty in the first half adjusting to the speed of East St. Louis.  But in the second half, the Flyers were a little slower as their 2-way players began to tire and it presented more of an even matchup.  He also emphasized that the Massillon players believe that they’re a second-half team owing to their superior conditioning.

“They pushed us around,” said Copeland.  “Our kids woke up.  We fixed some mistakes.  We made the plays when we needed to make them.  I’m really proud of these guys.  This is the best group of Tigers I’ve ever been around.”

Head Coach Nate Moore reviewed the game film, but noted that there were few defensive highlights due to the proficiency of the East St. Louis offense.  In spite of manageable third downs, the defense couldn’t get off the field.  But the Tigers made the defensive stops at the end when the game was on the line.  “The crowd at the game was absolutely phenomenal,” he said.  “It was definitely a factor in the game.”

Moore also boasted of his team beating the all-time win leader for the state of Illinois.  That coming on the heels of doing the same feat against the New Jersey opponent, Montclair.

This week’s foe, Sun Valley of Pennsylvania, is not nearly the caliber of East St. Louis, coming in with a 3-4 record and having surrendered 195 points in their last five games.  But they do have some offensive threats.  Two players to keep an eye on are senior running back Julz Kelly (6′-0″, 180 lbs.) and senior quarterback Anthony Ellis (6′-2″, 190 lbs.).  The quarterback rarely runs, but throws fairly well.  Kelly has good speed and appears on film to be the catalyst for the offense.

The offensive line averages 6′-0″, 217 lbs. and the 3-front defensive line averages 5′-11″, 220 lbs., which places the Vanguards at a significant size disadvantage.  Eight players go both ways, three of which are sophomores.