WELLSTON TAKES A 74 TO 0 TROUNCING FROM HIGH GRIDDERS
VISITORS FAIL TO HALT MARCH OF LOCAL TEAM

Illinois with “Red” Grange missing from the lineup very long wouldn’t be very much of a cinch bet to cop the Western conference championship and the Wellston high school football team without Harold Kruskamp, its captain and 175 pound halfback, could hardly lay claim to any recognition as a gridiron eleven. This Kruskamp is a wonderful athlete for a high school football team, a roving, stalwart giant of a lad who virtually carries the entire burden of offense and defense for his team.

But Kruskamp, powerful as he is, was not powerful enough last Saturday to stop the orange and black eleven of Washington high school singled handed and so the Jackson county boys were buried under a 74 to 0 score on the Central Steel gridiron by Coach Stewart’s huskies in their first autumnal entanglement with the Massillon aggregation. Wellston filling the date left vacant by the cancellation of Mingo Junction, did Massillon a favor by agreeing to come here from its haunts in southern Ohio but its boys returned home Saturday night a much wiser group of lads and with vivid recollections of how the grand old game of football is played in this neck of the woods where great scholastic gridiron teams are common rather than exceptional.

In paying to Kruskamp all the honor for Wellston’s efforts to stop the victory march of the orange and black is not slighting the balance of the team in the least. Wellston sent here an aggregation of clean cut boys, who played with all the skill they knew and fought to the last ditch but simply were not well enough versed in the rudiments of the autumnal pastime to cope with the powerful Stewart machine.

The Wellston boys, with only a handful of substitutes as compared with the long string of athletes Coach Stewart had available, played through 60 minutes of football, never asking for quarter once although after the first few minutes there was no question but that they were in for a terrific drubbing. Even Kruskamp, a very bull for punishment, at last began to find the pace set by Massillon a killing one and before the end of the game even his great strength began to filter away.

But it is no wonder that Kruskamp began to weaken when one considers that he was 75 percent of his team’s offensive strength, carrying the ball three out of every four plays, doing all the punting and forward passing and 99 percent of its defensive strength making very nearly all of the tackles credited to his team.

Wellston was simply a one man team. True, Kruskamp was given some offensive assistance by Dando, quarterback, a fair line plunger and Bumgartner, a speedy little lad, who could be developed into a good man for end runs but it was always upon the shoulders of the stalwart Wellston captain that the burden of play fell.

Kruskamp ran the ends and hit the Massillon line time after time and any gains he made must be credited only to himself for he ran and plunged without interference of any kind. On defense he roved back and forth across the field, tackling with reckless abandon, jumping from his place in the secondary defense to a position on the line and then back again. They said before the game that Kruskamp was the whole Wellston team and it was right. With its captain out of the lineup they would be still trying to add up the score in Wellston. But put four or five lads on a team like Kruskamp with his ability to stand up under 60 minutes of terrific battering and always come up smiling and it might have been different.

But it was not altogether the weakness of the Wellston team that made Massillon’s second victory in a week go past the70 mark. The team which Coach Stewart trotted on the gridiron Saturday showed more real football than at any time this fall. It was a charging, ripping aggregation, that hammered its way across the Wellston goal line for 11 touchdowns.

It was a team that played well nigh perfect football. It was a bear on defense and its offense was dazzling, presenting an interference that was deadly in its attack and swept the Wellston lads out of the way like chaff in a wind. The orange and black without a doubt presented its best interference of the season and it was this that made possible the many long runs chalked up to the local team. Interference like that of last Saturday and the remainder of the teams on the Massillon schedule are due to have their eye teeth cut and find out the havoc that a charging set of 11 husky youths can wreak once they get under way.

But the victory was not without its cost. It resulted in the loss of Vince Define, backfield flash, for at least a week and maybe for the balance of the campaign. Define, in making a 50 yard dash through the Wellston team, twisted his knee, hurt early in the campaign, and was forced to hobble the last five yards to the Wellston goal line on one leg. The old injury was brought back when Vince side stepped a Wellston tackler.

The entire Massillon team played heads up football. The backfield men were unstoppable while running behind excellent interference, Price, Grant, King, Kammer, Brown, P. Smith and Borza making numerous spectacular dashes. On defense Captain Edwards, McCarthy and Weidman were the big noises.

It required less than a minute of play for Massillon to secure its first touchdown and it resulted from a bad play on the part of the Wellston center. The visitors received and after being held for downs on their 20 yard line Kruskamp dropped back to punt but the pass went over his head and rolled behind his goal line. Edwards and Thomas were hot after the oval but Thomas beat his leader to the ball and smothered it for the first set of counters.

The second touchdown was not long in coming. After Jimmy Price had run back one of Kruskamp’s punts 30 yards to Wellston’s 25 yard line Kammer hit the line twice for eight yards and then Vince Define tucked the oval under his arm and ran through right tackle for 18 and the score.

Another set of counters came before the quarter ended. Wellston was held for downs on its 41 yard line and with Massillon failing to gain Define punted. A penalty for holding put the ball on Wellston’s goal line and then Kruskamp punted. Define caught the ball on the visitors’ 30 yard stripe and with perfect interference ran for a touchdown.

Early in the second quarter after Kruskamp had been tossed for an 11 yard loss by Thomas he punted to Price who was downed on his 35 yard line. Define made a first down on a dash around right end and on the next play Kammer skirted right end for a 38 yard dash, taking the ball to Wellston’s 17 yard line. Price then grabbed a pass from King for a touchdown.

The fifth touchdown came after a march of 42 yards. Getting the ball on Wellston’s 42 yard line Smith tore off 20 around end and Borza and Kammer then smashed the line until Kammer took it over from the four.

At the start of the third quarter with many substitutes in the lineup Massillon took the kickoff and marched from its own 33 yard line on straight line plays and end runs for the sixth touchdown, Borza turning in one dash good for 19 yards and then four plays later Smith went through the line and over for the touchdown. Smith scored another touchdown a few minutes later after Brown had put the orange and black in position to score when he scooped up the ball after Grant had fumbled a punt and ran 23 yards before being tackled. Then a pass from Grant to Brown made nine and on a cross buck Grant made nine more. Smith then hit through right tackle from the eight yard line for his second touchdown, bringing the score to 46.

The quarter ended with the ball on Wellston’s 19 yard line and with most of the regulars back in the game a touchdown was not long in coming. Two plays took the ball to the 13 yard line but a 15 yard penalty on Massillon carried it back. Then Define passed to Gump for a gain of 23 yards and on the next play Kammer inserted his shoulders in the Wellston line and crashed over for the touchdown.

The next touchdown was due to a bit of spectacular running by King, Massillon’s Negro star. After Kammer had received a punt on Wellston’s 28 yard line King was called back for an end run. But the pass from Edwards was poor and went through King’s hands but he raced back, picked up the leather and zig zagging his way across the field ran 30 yards through the visitors for a touchdown.

Then came Define’s brilliant dash and his injury. Receiving a Wellston punt in midfield Vince streaked his way toward the visitors’ goal. Not a single Wellston player laid a hand on him so good was Define’s interference and so clever his dodging but as he reached the five yard line Vince stepped quickly to one side to elude a Wellston tackler and something in his knee gave way. Gamely he hopped across the remaining yards to the goal on one leg, falling to the ground back of Wellston’s goal line.

Then came the rather unusual, the local team played Wellston with only 10 men in the lineup. Coach Stewart had about used up all of his available backfield substitutes and while he was rearranging his lineup and taking care of Define the local team with 10 men lined up while Edwards kicked the goal. Edwards was then shifted to the backfield.

This gave Captain Bill a chance to break into the scoring for a short time later when a pass from King has been batted by one of the Wellston players Edwards grabbed the oval before it reached the ground and ran 25 yards for the final touchdown.

Wellston never came within 20 yards of Massillon’s goal line. The visitors made seven first downs, two of these coming on penalties as compared to 26 first downs for Massillon. The local team completed six out of 11 passes for a total yardage of 104. Wellston completed five out of seven passes for 37 yards.

Poor Wellston
Massillon – 74 Pos. Wellston – 0
Gump LE Darling
McCarthy LT Gettles
Reis LG Stevenson
Edwards C Pierpont
Halco RG Joseph
Weidman RT McCoung
Thomas RE Howell
J. Price QB Dando
Define LHB Kruskamp
King RHB Baumgartner
Kammer FB Pope

Score by quarters:
Massillon 21 15 12 26 – 74

Substitutions:
Massillon – Hise for Reise, Borza for King, P. Smith for Define, Grant for Price, Weymiller for Weidman, Brown for Kammer, J. Smith for Edwards, Agler for Thomas, Edwards for Hise, Williams for Agler, Herbst for Gump, Weidman for Weymiller, Brooks for Williams, Rudder for Herbst, Leroy for Borza, Kammer for P. Smith, King for Leroy, Agler for Rudder, Gump for Brooks, Define for Borza, Price for Grant, Rise for J. Smith, Crone for Hise, Hise for Edwards, Edwards for Define.

Wellston – Gearing for Bumgartner, Griffith for Darling, Worting for Griffith.

Touchdowns – Thomas, Define 3, Price, Kammer 2, P. Smith 2, King, Edwards.

Points after touchdown – Edwards 8.

Referee – Maurer (Wooster).
Umpire – Stevenson (Akron).
Head Linesman – Bast (Massillon).

Time of quarters – 15 minutes.