Tiger offense explodes for 36-8 win
Harmon scores first 22 points
By DENNY HIGHBEN
The Tiger defense continued its outstanding play and the offense finally got rolling Friday night at Tiger Stadium as Massillon thrashed Cleveland Benedictine, 36-8.
It was “Dads’ Night” at the stadium and the Tigers’ performance certainly made the group of fathers proud – and two of the men had double reason to smile.
ONE WORE placards bearing numbers 32 and 43, identifying him as the father of Bill and Keith Harmon. The other wore numbers 35 and 45, identifying him as the father of Tom and Tony Gizzard. Bill and keith accounted for 30 of Massillon’s points. Tom and Tony gained any yardage needed when Bill wasn’t running the ball and together formed a
hard-hitting duo as Tiger linebackers.
Bill Harmon carried the ball 27 times, over, under, around and through the Bennies’ defense, gained 196 yards and scored Massillon’s first 22 points. He also threw some fine blocks for his fellow running backs.
“We didn’t know how many yards he had,” Shuff commented in the locker room. “We would have let him run the ball a few more times to break 200 yards if we had known.”
The concrete fullback did gain 201 yards but, unbelievable as it seems, he lost five yards somewhere and finished with a net 196 yards – and he didn’t touch the ball in the fourth quarter.
But Harmon was not alone on the Tiger side of the scrimmage line. The whole offensive team played an outstanding game and the defense held the Bengals to a total of eight first downs, (two on penalties) and only three of those were in the second half.
BENEDICTINE HAD only lost one game – by four points – prior to the battle at Tiger Stadium and Coach Auggie Bossu said his team’s defensive play was its strongest point. After the game he summed the loss up by saying, “We couldn’t stop the run.”
The Bennies kept the game interesting in the first half and the teams went into the locker rooms at the half with eight points each. Asked if the Tigers were worried about the halftime score, Shuff said, “I don’t know about anybody lese, but I was.”
“But we came out poppin’ it the second half…They (the Bennies) never gave up, we just wore then down,” Shuff added.
After exchanging punts, Harmon ran the ball six times, with Tom Grizzard running it once just to keep the Bennies guessing and with 3:05 left in the first quarter Bill went six yards for a score. Quarterback Todd Keller handed off to Harmon on the conversion and the big fullback crossed the line for two more points.
Benedictine moved into Tiger territory on the following series and on first-and-10, at Massillon’s 29, quarterback Steve Martuas threw a touchdown pass to end Bruce Kniola. Martuas and Kniola teamed up on another pass for the conversion and the score was tied at 8-8.
WHEN THE TIGERS got the ball in the third quarter the first time, runs by Harmon, Tom and Tony Grizzard got the ball to the Benedictine two-yard line and Bill drove in for the TD with 7:26 left in the period. Harmon ran for the extra points, making it 16-8.
A few moments later Massillon had the ball on Cleveland’s 49 and Harmon ran a sweep around the left end. Expert blocking took out most of the Benedictine defenders, Harmon ran over the rest and went THE distance for the score with 4:44 left in the third. Tom Grizzard tried a run for the extra points but was stopped short and the score was 22-8.
“We tried a couple new plays tonight, to get Harmon wide,” Shuff said. That sweep was one of them.
After that score, fresh troops for the Tigers poured into the game and the result was another 14 points. As the third period ended, reserve tailback Pete Killins followed the interior line and Bill Harmon into the end zone from two yards out for a score and Keith Harmon booted the extra point.
With 10:14 left in the final period reserve quarterback Dave Smith dropped back and threw an 18-yard pass to Keith Harmon for the final TD.
THE LAST POINT took some time to score. The Tigers lined up at the three and Keith was going to kick the conversion, but Massillon was penalized five-yards for illegal procedure. The Tigers lined up again but got another five-yarder tacked on, so Keith ended up kicking from the 20-yard line, which made it a 30-yard extra point.
Keith was wide on a 39-yard field goal attempt in the second period.
Though Bengal running backs Bob Conwell and Damian West both made some fine runs, gaining a combined total of 84 yards, the Cleveland rushing game couldn’t do the job and the Bennies resorted to the pass. The results were two interceptions, one by Willie Conley in the third period and one by Tom Grizzard in the fourth. Grizzard’s interception came at the Massillon 34 and he was prevented from going the distance by a shoe-string tackle that tripped him up at the Bengals’ 18. That’s when Smith stepped in and threw the bomb.
“It was a total team effort,” Shuff summarized. He gave the reserve players a lot of credit. Those athletes haven’t seen much action this season because of the rough going experienced by the starting units in previous games.
“The reserves work awful hard in practice to make our first unit go and they proved themselves tonight,” Shuff said.
The contingent of reserves that played contained four sophomores and one, fullback, Ken Nagle, was mistakenly identified as Van Jones. Jones is the regular number 24 and Nagle was also wearing a number 24 Friday night. Nagle played offense while Jones played defense.
The Tigers, now 3-1-1, travel to Steubenville Friday for a game against AAC foe Steubenville. Steubenville is 3-2.
MASSILLON 8 0 21 7 36
BENEDICTINE 0 8 0 0 8
SCORING SUMMARY
M – B. Harmon, 6 yard run (B. Harmon run);
B – Kniola, 29 pass from Martuas (Kniola pass from martaus);
M – B. Harmon, 49 run (run failed);
M – Killins, 2 run (K. Harmon kick);
M – Killins, run (K. Harmon kick);
M – K. Harmon, 18 pass from Smith (K. Harmon kick).
MASSILLON – 36
Ends – Arner, Conley, Chovan, Butterfield, Eberhart, Matie, Bammerlin, Jones.
Tackles – Mark Lauber, Genet, Drobney, Baughman, Mike Lauber, Dennison, Tourney.
Guards – Ricker, Brand, King, Schumacher, Christoff, Baus, Bettilyon, Ramsey, Hauser, Fatigati, Sweterlich.
Centers – D. Nagle, Grove, Mitcheal, Englehardt.
Backs – Smith, Traylor, Arner, Keller, Stewart, Warthen, Jones, Harper, B. Harmon, Killins, A. Grizzard, Ellis, Rogers, Parson, K. Harmon, Dorsey, T. Grizzard, Toles, K. Nagle, Walterhouse.
BENEDICTINE – 8
Ends – Peters, Kniola, Washington, Kogovsek, Few.
Tackles – Tanner, DiPietro, Glowik.
Guards – Cavers, Charles, Farris, Huesdash.
Centers – Martinez, Armelli, Augustine.
Backs – Martaus, Conwell, Hodakievic, Ford, Clayton, Adams, Marino, Burt, West, Manning, DiPaulo, Modzelewski, Germano.
Kicker – Szocs.
GRIDSTICK
MASS. BENE.
First downs-rushing 15 2
First downs-passing 2 4
First downs-penalties 1 2
Total first downs 18 8
Yards gained rushing 290 88
Yards lost rushing 10 1
Net yards gained rushing 280 87
Net yards gained passing 62 51
Total yards gained 342 138
Passes attempted 10 17
Passes completed 5 7
Passes intercepted by 2 0
Yardage on passes intercepted 61 0
Times kicked off 6 2
Kickoff average (yards) 55.2 50.0
Kickoff returns (yards) 28 104
Times punted 3 7
Punt average (yards) 35.3 37.9
Punt returns (yards) 52 0
Had punts blocked 0 0
Fumbles 1 1
Lost fumbled ball 0 0
Penalties 7 3
Yards penalized 55 25
Touchdowns rushing 4 0
Touchdowns passing 1 1
Touchdowns by interception 0 0
Miscellaneous touchdowns 0 0
Total number of plays 61 48
Total time of possession 28:44 19:16
