Massillon Shuts Down Legacy Sports from Texas

October 12, 2024October 12, 2024
by Don Engelhardt

Massillon Shuts Down Legacy Sports from Texas

Game Statistics

Each week at the Booster Club meeting Massillon Head Coach Nate Moore distributes to the members a detailed scouting report on the upcoming opponent. For Legacy School of Sport Sciences it showed that the Titans had a boatload of Division 1 athletes on offense, but was a bit lacking on defense, particularly in the front seven. So, he firmly believed that the Tigers could have some success running the ball. And that they did, to the tune of 385 yards. Coming up big in that category was running back Ja’Meir Gamble, who had a career day, rushing for 290 yards on just 15 carries. He also scored five touchdowns. In addition, the defense had another fine outing, particularly against the run, holding the visitors to just 41 yards on the ground.

The Tigers led 21-0 at the half and 34-0 at the end of the third enroute to a 41-0 victory. A running clock was in effect for the entire fourth quarter. With the win the Tigers have improved their record to 6-2, while averaging 34 points per game and giving up 13. In their six wins they have averaged 40 points per game, while giving up 9.

Massillon On Offense

Gamble, who runs a blistering 4.3 seconds in the 40-yard dash, scored three touchdowns in the first half on runs of 22, 24 and 34 yards. He then added a couple more in the second half on runs of 68 and 77 yards. Once he gets into the secondary, he is a hard player to stop. Gamble has a tendency to bounce his runs to the outside and was effective doing that in this game. But the offensive line was also able to exploit their counterparts on many long runs, with the defensive end on Massillon left side lining up wide to aid his pass rush. So, guard Michael Looney and tackle Nolan Davenport took full advantage, opening gaping holes for Gamble.

In the passing game, quarterback Jalen Slaughter was under duress most of the night for his few passes, owing to a strong pass rush by the Titan front-4. However, he did manage to complete 6 of 9 passes for 99 yards, including a 41-yarder to a wide open Ricardo Wells Jr. on a 3^rd and 20 and a 33-yarder to a well-covered Braylyn Toles. But the remaining passes were of the short yardage variety, as Legacy played very good man-to-man coverage with their cover-1 alignment, taking the deep routes mostly away.

In the fourth quarter running back Peytton Mitchell finally got some meaningful carries, rushing 4 times for 17 yards, including a nifty run 12-yard run to the one, followed by the TD.

Legacy On Offense

The Titans were led by 6’-4” Keisean Henderson, who is rated as the top junior quarterback in Texas and has committed to play next year for the Houston Cougars. In the first half he completed 14 of 19 passes for 109 yards, but all of the completions were for short yardage. In the second half he was just 3 of 8 for 13 yards. He was also pressured the entire night by blitzing Tiger linebackers, who managed to get to him three times for sacks. Wide receiver Michael Brown, who has an offer from Ohio State, caught six of the passes for 55 yards. But two passes were picked off; one by Daylan Pringle and one by Braylon Gamble. And Lucas Shertzer recovered a fumble when Henderson mishandled a snap.

Meanwhile, the running attack gained just 41 yards and averaged just 1.9 yards per attempt. Of course, the sack yardage figured into this number. The Tigers recorded nine tackles-for-loss for the night. The one consistent bright spot for the Titan offense was running back Landon Binford, who carried the ball 13 times for 71 yards (5.5 ave.).

Special Teams

Mateo Herrera handled all of the kicking duties and did a great job of moving his kickoffs around the field. However, his long streak of 54 consecutive extra points came to an end. On the punting end, Tyler Hackenbracht only had two attempts, but made the most of them with boots of 64 and 48 yards.

The Record Book

Gamble’s 290 yards now occupies the third spot in the single game rushing category, behind Willtrell Hartson’s 324 against Westerville South in 2020 and Travis McGuire’s 302 against Canton McKinley in 1991. His 19.0 yards per carry average occupies the second spot, behind Mike Mauger’s 20.0 ave. against Cleveland Benedictine in 1970.

Mylen Lenix’s 2.5 quarterback sacks enters the fifth position in that category.

Unfortunately, Hackenbracht’s 64-yard punt was just one yard shy of the Top Ten.

The Penalties

The one glaring downside to the game was the number of penalties. A total of 25 were dropped: fifteen on Massillon ten and Legacy. So, the head coaches were in the faces of the referees throughout the contest, causing several delays. But most of the flags were probably deserved, with the Tigers penalized eight times for five yards, three times for ten yards and four times for fifteen yards. They were also off-sides on every kickoff, but fortunately were called on that only once.

Next Game

Next week Massillon (6-2) will travel to Warren (6-2) for a renewal of that long rivalry. Legacy (3-4) will hit the road again, this time to LaPlace, Louisiana, to face St. Charles Catholic (1-4).

Go Tigers!

Photos by Rob Engelhardt