Massillon Defends American Turf with Opening Game Victory
Game Statistics
It was the 3rd Annual Nike Football Kickoff Classic and the Tigers were honored to be invited to participate and represent the United States. The opponent was NFL Academy-London, an all-star team representing Europe and Africa and mentored by selected NFL coaches. The event was held at Nike World Headquarters, which is located in Beaverton, Oregon.
Massillon came out of the game on top 35-20, but it could have been much, much worse. Consider this: three near-miss passes (hands on the ball) at the goal line on separate drives. Two touchdown passes called back on account of penalties. Several questionable officiating calls on line blocking within the tackles that halted drives deep in the opponents’ territory (I guess the rules in Oregon are different!). On defense, the Mylen Lenix just couldn’t secure a pick-six pass interception, while another pass to the ten was also nearly taken away. Plus, a drive-stopping fumble recovery that was negated by the referee, resulting in multiple penalties for protesting the call that moved the ball inside the ten. And that’s not considering those 5-yard technical penalties that often occur in an opening game. Nevertheless, those items did keep the score close to the delight of the broadcast announcers. The last thing they wanted was a running clock that affected the time slot.
Massillon jumped on the Academy early by scoring on each its first two possessions. After holding the Academy to negative six yards on their opening try and forcing a punt, the Tigers went on an 8 play 60-yard drive that culminated in a 3-yard stretch play touchdown run by Ja’Meir Gamble. The key play was a 22-yard pass from quarterback Jalen Slaughter to Braylyn Toles that advanced the ball to the Academy seven. Two plays later, and following the PAT kick by Mateo Herrera, the Tigers were up 7-0, .
Again, the Academy was held to a 3-and-out and Massillon was on the move again, this time from the 30 yard line. It took just three plays to cover the distance. First, Slaughter connected with Ricardo Wells for 50 yards over the middle. Wells had split the safeties and hauled in the pass in stride and unopposed. Slaughter next hit Jacques Carter to the 12 and Gamble did the rest on a 12-yard run. Score, 14-0.
The quick scores seemed to shock the Academy, giving the message that if they wanted to compete in this game, they would need to raise their defensive level of play in terms of response to keys and the level of physicality. Only, they did just that. For the remainder of the game they were much more aggressive and matched Massillon with their effort. They were stingy against the run, with blitzes up the middle and quick secondary responses to the edges. However, they didn’t have a match for the speed the Tigers had at the wide receiver positions and were forced into cover-3, with the second safety pulled up near the inside linebackers to aid the linebacker blitz. So Slaughter, who managed the pocket quite well with his scrambling, took full advantage of it. By game’s end, he had completed 29 of 44 passes for 403 yards and three touchdowns and all three marks are now in the Massillon record book for single game passing: The 29 pass completions ties Kyle Kempt and Justin Zwick for first, the 44 pass attempts ranks fifth and the 387 yards ranks second.
Following an exchange of punts, the Academy finally found the scoreboard, on a 70-yard bomb from quarterback Michael Szabo to Seb Harris, who had beaten his defender by two yards along the sideline and received the ball in stride.
Late in the second quarter, following a missed 36-yard field goal by the Tigers, the Academy struck again. This time the speedy Justus Seelig broke through the middle of the Tiger line, reversed direction across the field and outraced the secondary to the end zone for a 46-yard score, tying the game at 14 apiece. It became Seelig’s best run of the day, while his other 18 carries netted just 61 yards, owing to good run defense. The score came with just 2:44 left before halftime.
Massillon fumbled the ball inside its own territory on its next possession, but managed to stop the Academy on downs and take over the ball at its own 25, now with just 1:18 left. Managing the clock perfectly, the Tigers methodically moved down the field. A 6-yard completion to Deonte Malone. A 21-yard pass to Wells. A 15-yards shovel pass to Gamble. Another shovel pass to Gamble for 12 yards and suddenly the ball was at the Academy 21 with 25 seconds left. Slaughter then wrapped it up with a perfectly thrown pass to Carter in the right corner of the end zone, giving his team a 21-14 lead going into the locker room, a lead that they did not relinquish for the rest of the game.
The coup de gras came on Massillon’s first possession of the second half. After Wells returned the kickoff to the 45, the Tigers marched 55 yards in just four plays and tallied when Slaughter hit Carter on a 40-yard strike. With the score now at 28-14, Massillon had assumed better control of the game.
That’s until later in the quarter when Tyler Hackenbracht stripped the Academy runner of the ball at the Massillon 38 and Garner secured it. Only, the referee ruled the runner down by contact. That set off a massive protest by both the players and the coaches. Interestingly, the NFL game broadcast showed that it was clearly a fumble and a Massillon recovery. The result of the mayhem was multiple penalties against the Tigers, which advanced the ball to the eight yard line. From there, Szabo fired a swing pass to Seelig for a score, aided by two missed tackles. That made the final score 35-20. Szabo ended the game with 15 completions out of 32 attempts for 244 yards and two touchdowns.
Later in the quarter, Massillon put the final points on the board when Slaughter sent a short pass to Toles on a crossing pattern and Toles did the rest for a 44-yard score.
The Academy did threaten one more time, in the fourth quarter, but a 9-yard pass was intercepted by Lenox Lemon when he stepped in front of the receiver and returned it to the 24 yard line.
After that, the sportsmanship deteriorated somewhat, with the Tigers being assessed several penalties. This will surely be addressed by the coaches. But the chippiness from withing both teams was going on for most of the game and the referees just didn’t take control of it early. Eventually, it led to this.
Nevertheless, the Academy showed they are a fine team that plays serious football and very much look the part. Their players took the loss hard, and rightly so. But they also earned the respect of the many Tiger fans that traveled to Oregon. Spectators saw a team that has excellent size and positional speed and is well-coached. They would certainly compete well against most of the teams in this country. In addition, they showed marked improvement from their close loss of a week ago to a team from Edgewater, Florida. Finally, having played in this high-level physical game, they may also grasp what it takes to move to the next level. The future looks good for this program.
For the Tigers, those first-game technical penalties are now out of the way and they too can get down to playing sounder football. The passing game is at a high caliber, the running game has great potential and the run defense is very stingy. However, play in the secondary against the pass will need some polishing. However, based on their game performance in this one, Massillon has shown that they are going to be a VERY good football team.
Massillon led in first downs 20-13 and total yards 504-346. But they were also assessed 18 penalties for 189 yards, a couple of which negated potential scoring opportunities. The Academy punted eight times to the Tigers’ six. Toles caught 9 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown, Wells caught 7 passes for 113 yards and Carter caught 4 passes for 76 yards and 2 touchdowns. Gamble rushed 10 times for 58 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also caught four passes for 69 yards. Save for the passing near misses, Slaughter would have certainly re-written the record book.
Next week Massillon travels to Canton GlenOak. The Academy will host De La Salle from Los Angeles on October 8th and IMG Academy on November 8.
