Author: <span>Eric Smith</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 49, Barberton 24

Keyes continues to roll as Massillon pulls away from Barberton
Oct 18, 2019 10:41 PM

BARBERTON Barberton was lying in wait for Massillon. Getting their first true home game against the Tigers since 1957, the Magics came ready to try and spoil their visitors’ undefeated season.

The problem for Barberton was that Massillon brought Terrance Keyes Jr. with it to the Magic City. And Keyes made certain the Tigers didn’t allow the purple-clad home fans a chance to end the night in celebration.

In a game which saw both teams struggle at times with composure, as they combined for 22 penalties and 230 penalty yards, Keyes provided a certain calming influence on the Massillon offense. His 255 yards and five touchdowns rushing helped the Tigers pull away for a 49-24 victory in front of a capacity crowd at Rudy Sharkey Stadium.

“I don’t think there’s anything really calm tonight, but he’s the guy who’s carrying the ball,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said after his team improved to 8-0 while winning their 19th consecutive regular-season game. “The offensive line starts it and does a nice job blocking. You have to give those guys credit first, but Terrance made some nice plays tonight.”

The last three games have seen Keyes take control of the Massillon running game. Since Week 6, the senior has gained 582 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground, with his latest performance the best of his career.

His previous high was 198 yards as a sophomore at St. Vincent-St. Mary against, ironically enough, Massillon. He cleared that with his final scoring run, a 62-yarder which put the Tigers in front 42-16 early in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a definite plus when you running back is a plus-one,” Moore said. “A lot of times, he can account for somebody himself. Terrance is that kind of back, and he did a good job tonight.”

It was Keyes’ five scoring runs which helped the Tigers first rally from behind before pulling well ahead. He gave Massillon the lead for good with his first score, a 7-yarder with 6:46 left in the second quarter to make ti 14-9.

His second, an 8-yarder, made it 21-9 Tigers with 3:34 left in the half. Barberton, though, would come up with its own big play to stay within striking distance.

After giving the ball up to Massillon on an interception, the very next play Charlie Hornacek stepped in front of a Tiger pass and picked it off at his own 48. He would race 52 yards for the touchdown to pull Barberton within 21-16 with 2:03 remaining.

“As a sophomore, Charlie led us in interception,” said Barberton coach Tony Gotto, who 5-3 team led 9-7 on Ryan Watkins’ 60-yard touchdown catch from Chase Haywood with 9:21 left in the first half. “He’s a playmaker. That was huge. I don’t know what the score was at the time, but it put us right back there.”

The problem for Barberton was that it left Massillon plenty of time to regain control before the half. That’s exactly what the Tigers did, as Keyes capped a seven-play, 66-yard possession with a 1-yard run to make it 28-16 with 46 seconds left in the half.

Keyes would make it 35-16 when he capped Massillon’s first possession of the second half with another 1-yard run at the 7:24 mark of the third quarter. Barberton would take virtually the remainder of the quarter to reach the Tiger 2, but Caiden Woullard came up with an interception in the end zone on fourth down to turn away the threat.

Four plays after that pick, Keyes would get free on the fifth and final scoring run of the night to turn it into a 36-point Tiger advantage. It marked the seventh time in eight games Massillon has had a running clock at some point in the game.

“That’s a freaking good football team,” said Gotto, whose team was outgained 409-309 by Massillon. “They have athletes everywhere. They have size.”

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 48, Monroeville Gateway (PA) 12

Turnovers turn into touchdowns as Massillon rolls Gateway
Chris Easterling
Oct 11, 2019 11:30 PM

MASSILLON It’s all about the opportunities provided for a football team. More importantly, it’s all about taking advantage those opportunities when they’re presented.

That’s what Massillon did when it faced Gateway (Pa.) on Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The Tigers turned a blocked punt and three first-half Gator turnovers into 17 points, helping to kick-start them to a 48-12 victory.

“It’s taking advantage of mistakes,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose 7-0 team heads to Barberton next Friday. “That’s really what turnovers are. We came up with a couple and were able to capitalize on them.”

Massillon would end the game with 21 points off four Gateway turnovers in improving to 7-0 on the season. The Tigers recovered two fumbles, while T.J. Williams and Luke Murphy came up with interceptions.

Those turnovers turned into touchdowns turned what was expected to be a tight battle into Massillon’s sixth running-clock game in seven wins. The Tigers had won its first six games each by at least 21 points, while the Gators had outscored their opponents 213-7 over their five-game win streak since their loss to Penn-Trafford on Aug. 30.

Penn-Trafford’s only loss was Massillon’s Week 4 conquest, which is also its closest game of the season at 42-21.

“Going into practice this week, we practiced like any other week,” said Tiger senior linebacker Ben Krichbaum, who had a fumble recovery along with four solo and five assisted tackles. “We don’t really look at the offers guys have. We don’t really care about that type of stuff. We just go into each practice going hard and we carry that out to the game.”

After trading punts to open the game, the Tigers would start to see their chances appear. For Massillon, that first opportunity came on Gateway’s second possession, as it blocked the punt at the Gator 25.

The Tigers would turn their fourth blocked punt in the last three games into their first field goal of the season. Alex Bauer would connect from 25 yards out for a 3-0 Massillon lead with 5:01 left in the first quarter.

Bauer would add a 31-yard field goal to make it 20-0 Massillon with 2:19 remaining in the first half.

Massillon would open up a 17-0 lead in the second quarter thanks to two fumble recoveries on botched Gateway handoffs. The first, recovered at the Gator 35, ended with Terrance Keyes Jr.’s 10-yard touchdown run on the third play of the second quarter.

Keyes would finish with 142 yards on 24 carries. His third touchdown run, a 1-yarder, made it 41-6 with 5:25 remaining.

The second opportunity came up as Gateway was itself trying to capitalize on a Massillon fumble. On a first-and-goal play from the Tiger 2, Krichbaum fell on another missed handoff at the Massillon 4.

Two plays later, the Tigers turned that turnover into an historic touchdown. Aidan Longwell hit a wide-open Jayden Ballard down the right sideline, and Ballard raced for a 95-yard score with 6:16 remaining in the half.

The hookup was the longest pass play in Massillon history. The previous mark was a pair of 89-yard plays, by Jason Stafford (Lee Hurst) against Austintown Fitch in 1988 and Austin Jasinski (from Seth Blankenship) against Dublin Scioto in 2016.

“It was good protection,” Moore said. “A great throw. Aidan trusted it and Jayden did a good job of tracking the ball and made a good catch for us.”

Ballard finished with 145 receiving yards on five catches. Longwell would finish 10-of-21 with 223 yards and two touchdowns, as he added a 59-yard scoring strike to Andrew Wilson-Lamp to make it 34-6 Tigers in the fourth quarter.

The Wilson-Lamp touchdown catch was the third Massillon touchdown off of a Gator turnover. That was after Murphy’s interception.

Gateway would get on the board on the final play of the first half, cutting the deficit to 20-6. Derrick Davis went up and over the pile for a 1-yard scoring run, but the point-after kick was missed.

Davis added a 98-yard touchdown run with four minutes left to make it 41-12 Massillon. That run accounted for 85 percent of the highly-touted junior’s 115 rushing yards on the night.

“We bottled him up pretty good,” Moore said of his defense, which allowed Gateway 288 total yards on 67 plays. “A good job by our guys.”

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 55, Austintown Fitch 7

Keyes keys yet another Massillon runaway at Fitch

Oct 04, 2019 9:34 PM

AUSTINTOWN Attention has been paid through most of the first half of the season to the way Massillon’s offense can throw the football. A record-setting receiving performance on the opening night and a quarterback rewriting career marks virtually every time out can bring such notoriety.

On Friday night against Austintown Fitch, the Tigers showed they aren’t too bad running the football, either. Especially when Terrance Keyes gets his hands on the football.

With Keyes running wild through the first half, Massillon ran roughshod over the Falcons in a 55-7 victory at Greenwood Chevrolet Falcon Stadium to improve to 6-0 on the season.

“We’ve got a great passing game,” Keyes said. “We just have weapons all over. I just feel like (quarterback) Aidan (Longwell), with him having all the success he’s having in the passing game, I feel like it opens it up a lot for me. The running game, it’s just there. I was rolling today.”

Keyes carried the ball 16 times in the first half for 185 yards, scoring four touchdowns. That included a stretch of 14 plays where the 5-foot-9, 190-pound senior carried it 12 times, the 12th of those a 15-yard run in which he leaped over a Fitch defender at the Falcon 4 on his way to his third score of the night.

Keyes’ fourth touchdown run of the night, a 5-yarder with 2:01 remaining in the first half, gave Massillon a 48-7 lead. It marked the third time the Tigers have hit the 40-point mark in the first half, and the fifth time they played with a running clock in the second half.

“They were staying two high (with the safeties),” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose team finished with 264 rushing yards and 423 total yards on the night. “They were giving us great run looks. Our offensive line played really, really well.”

Massillon, which ascended to No. 1 in the Division II state poll this week, will return home next Friday to meet Pennsylvania visitor Gateway. The Gators went into this week’s game against Franklin Regional (Pa.) with its only loss having come in their second game of the season against Penn-Trafford, the team the Tigers beat in Week 4.

Massillon’s starters will go into the Gateway game having spent another second half on the sidelines as its backups played from the start of the third quarter. Of course, it was the starters’ performance which gave them the opportunity to get some more rest.

“I was real pleased with the effort,” Moore said.

It wasn’t just the running game which did it for the Tigers, either. They made plays in seemingly all three phases.

Caiden Woullard’s punt block started Massillon’s first possession at the Fitch 42. The very next play, Aidan Longwell hit Jayden Ballard for a touchdown to make it 7-0 with 9:10 remaining in the first quarter.

Longwell, who was 5-of-7 for 99 yards in the game, also connected on a 10-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Wilson-Lamp to make it 34-7 Tiger with 6:52 left in the second quarter. The senior now has 6,155 yards and 68 passing touchdowns in his career, extending both marks.

That was one of two blocked punts the Tigers came up with in the first half. Austin Brawley blocked one which Isaiah Clark picked up inside the Fitch 5 and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown to make it 41-7 with 4:45 remaining in the half.

Fitch’s lone score, a 2-yard Devin Sherwood run to make it 14-7 late in the first quarter, was was partially set up by one of the few first-half miscues by Massillon. The Tigers were called for a personal foul after making a tackle out of bounds after a third-down stop around the Massillon 40 to keep the drive alive.

The Falcons would finish with 167 yards of offense. Of those yards, 123 came on the ground.

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 56, Akron Firestone 0

Longwell sets Massillon’s passing mark in rout of Firestone
Chris Easterling
Sep 27, 2019 11:15 PM

MASSILLON With one flick of his left wrist, Aidan Longwell removed any doubt that existed in Massillon’s game Friday night against winless Firestone.

On the Tigers’ first play from scrimmage, Longwell dropped back and hit Jayden Ballard for a 40-yard touchdown pass. That pass, just 1:59 into the game, gave the Massillon senior quarterback the school’s all-time record for passing yards.

“It’s special,” Longwell said after passing Kyle Kempt as the Tigers’ career passing leader in the 56-0 victory over the Falcons. “I can’t put it into words. Just everything that’s happened at Massillon, all the history behind this program, it’s special to be a part of that.”

Longwell came into the game needing just 31 yards to pass the 6,034 career yards Kempt had compiled from 2010-12. He needed just one throw to pass that mark, the second career record he set in as many weeks after breaking the passing touchdowns mark in Week 4.

That one record-setting throw would be half of Longwell’s output on the night, as he only threw the ball twice – completing both – for 53 yards. His career total now stands at 6,056 yards with still plenty of football to be potentially be played.

“I think it takes a little pressure off,” Longwell said. “Not really for me, I wasn’t really thinking about that stuff. Everybody talking about it, it can be over now.”

There wasn’t much football for Longwell, or any of Massillon’s first-unit players, to play on Friday night against a completely over-matched Firestone team. The Tigers ran just five plays and had the football for just 52 seconds in the first quarter, yet still took a 35-0 lead in that time.

Of Massillon’s five first-quarter plays, three went for touchdowns. Beyond the Longwell-to-Ballard scoring strike, Terrence Keyes and Zion Phifer would each run for scores.

The Tiger special teams would get into the act to help with that lead. Preston Hodges would block and punt and recover it in the end zone for a touchdown to make it 14-0.

Hodges also had an interception to set up the Tigers’ third touchdown, a 10-yard run by Keyes. It’s the team-high third pick for the senior outside linebacker.

“We want to come out and get better every week,” said Hodges, who was part of a defensive performance which limited Firestone to 45 net yards and three first downs on 28 plays. “We just come out and do our jobs. We play the way we were taught.”

Ballard would add a 87-yard punt return for a touchdown as well to make it 28-0 Tigers. It’s the second time this season Ballard returned a kick or punt for a score, having brought back a kickoff for a touchdown against St. Vincent-St. Mary.

The final two quarters were shortened to just eight minutes after the Tigers took a 49-0 halftime lead. The teams played the final three quarters under a running clock, with the coaches agreeing to start it a quarter earlier than it is required to be implemented.

“They did a good job” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose team will take a 5-0 record and a 16-game regular-season win streak into next Friday’s road game at Austintown Fitch. “They came out and took care of business. They played well, executed.”

Phifer and Raekwon Venson added first-half rushing touchdowns for Massillon, which had 158 of its 293 total yards in the first half. Tanner Pierce threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Daymiere Adams in the third quarter.

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 42, Penn-Trafford, PA 21

Record-setting night by Aidan Longwell helps Massillon top Penn-Trafford
Chris Easterling
Sep 20, 2019 11:00 PM

MASSILLON There was only record Aidan Longwell cared about as he walked off the Paul Brown Tiger Stadium turf on Friday night. That would be Massillon’s 4-0 record.

The Tigers, though, earned that record in part because of Longwell’s ability to set a new school career passing touchdown mark in their 42-21 victory over previously-undefeated Pennsylvania visitor Penn-Trafford.

“I think a lot of people are trying to pressure us into things this year,” the Massillon senior quarterback said. “We’re overcoming it. We’re just taking it one game at a time and we’re doing a great job of it right now.”

Longwell threw four touchdown passes in the victory, giving him 65 for his career. He broke the old mark of 63 set by Justin Zwick in 2000-01.

His record-tying 63rd career scoring pass, a 54-yard strike to Andrew Wilson-Lamp, gave Massillon a 28-14 lead with 4:10 remaining in the first half. His record-setting strike, an 8-yarder to Jayden Ballard in the front left corner of the end zone as time expired in the half, gave the Tigers a 35-21 halftime lead.

For the game, Longwell was 14-of-15 for 225 yards. He goes into next Friday’s home game against Firestone needing just 31 yards to break Kyle Kempt’s career passing record of 6,034 yards set from 2010-12.

“It’s special, especially at Massillon,” Longwell said of the record. “The quarterbacks and great players who have played here. I just have to give a great shout-out to my offensive line, present and past, and my receivers. Everybody’s kind of balled for me as part of this.”

Penn-Trafford was impressive in turning the game’s first drive into a methodical 17-play, 82-yard scoring drive that took the initial 9:38 off the clock. The Warriors converted all five third downs on the possession, including a 6-yard run by quarterback Gabe Dunlap to give them a 7-0 lead.

Dunlap would prove to be a handful all evening, gaining 90 of the Warriors’ 110 rushing yards, while throwing for 257 yards and two scores. He ran for two touchdowns and threw for another.

“He’s a field general,” said Penn-Trafford coach John Ruane, whose team falls to 4-1. “He’s an underrated football player. He continually makes plays for us in the passing game, and more importantly, in the run game sometimes. There’s a lot of times where it’s tough to get him down on the sack with one guy, and he kind of showed that tonight.”

The Warriors’ opening possession would be, by far, the longest scoring drive by either team over the duration of the first half. That is, until Massillon put together its half-ending 13-play, 74-yard drive to go up 35-21 at the break.

In between, the Tigers’ other four scoring drives went for a combined 15 plays. Penn-Trafford, meanwhile, scored its other two first-half scores on a combined seven plays.

In the second half, the only scoring drive was Massillon’s 13-play, 49-yard fourth-quarter march which ended with Longwell hitting Anthony Pedro on a 5-yard touchdown pass.

Massillon, which went scoreless in the first quarter for the first time this season, would score the game-tying touchdown on the first play off the second quarter on Zion Phifer’s 3-yard run. Then, one play after stopping the Warriors on a fourth-down play, Longwell and Ballard hooked up for a 30-yard touchdown pass to go in front 14-7 with 9:54 remaining in the first half.

The Tigers would lead 21-7 on Terrence Keyes’ 8-yard touchdown run with 7:32 remaining in the half. They would also open up 14-point first-half leads on Longwell’s record-tying and record-setting scoring passes at 28-14 and 35-21.

Penn-Trafford used a pair of big pass plays to stay within reach. A 64-yard catch-and-run by Ethan Carr on a fourth-down pass from Dunlap cut it to 21-14, while Mason Frye’s 77-yard catch set up Dunlap’s 3-yard run to make it 28-21 Tiger lead with 3:55 remaining in the half.

The Warriors, who had 253 yards at halftime, had just 114 yards in the final two quarters.

“We really did a good job, in a lot of ways, in the first half,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said of his defense. “We just had to make the plays that are there.”

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 49, Warren Harding 7

Start doesn’t slow down Massillon dominance at Warren
Chris Easterling
Sep 13, 2019 9:49 PM

WARREN It’s never about the start. It’s always about the finish.

Or, more importantly, it’s about the final score.

Massillon found itself in its first deficit of the season after Warren Harding turned a literal bad bounce on a punt eventually into a first-quarter touchdown on Friday night at Mollenkopf Stadium. However, by the time the Tigers went into the locker room for halftime, they had once again established control of things.

By the time Massillon got on the buses to head back to Stark County, it had put together its third consecutive win to open the season, this time a 49-7 victory over Warren Harding at Mollenkopf Stadium.

“We’ve been preparing ourselves for adversity since December, since January,” said senior Preston Hodges, whose 48-yard interception return with 39 seconds left in the half gave Massillon a 28-7 lead. “Since when we were in the offseason working out, grinding. We’re prepared for the adversity to hit us at any point. We just knew we had to bounce back.”

The game was called with 3:12 remaining as lightning began to flash around the stadium. At that point, it was all academic for the Tigers, who take a 3-0 record into next Friday’s home game against Penn-Trafford out of Monroeville, Pa.

All three of Massillon’s wins have been running-clock situations in the fourth quarter. Although it took the Tigers a moment to get up and running that way on Friday night.

“We faced some adversity and came through it,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose team faced a 7-0 deficit after Warren turned a punt recovery into a 35-yard touchdown pass from Eliah Taylor to Ty Artis with 10:10 left in the first quarter. “So, I’m proud of the guys staying true to what got us here and to keep working. I thought we played well.”

Even after the quick Warren score, Massillon still needed to get its footing. However, it would turn to the defense first to get a stop to get the ball rolling.

Warren’s defense then forced a three-and-out on the Tigers’ first offensive possession. The Raiders would take the ball on a 14-play, 38-yard journey to the Massillon 33, but turned the ball over on down there.

That’s when the Tigers would catch fire. They would turn their next three possessions into touchdowns – two Zion Phifer runs and a 9-yard Aidan Longwell-to-Jayden Ballard pass – and a 21-7 lead, while their fourth would reach the Warren 20 before a sack and an incomplete pass on fourth down halted the march.

That proved to be no real problem for Massillon, as Hodges stepped in front of a Warren pass at the Raider 48 and raced all the way to the end zone for a Tiger touchdowns. The point-after kick made it 28-7 Massillon with 39 seconds remaining in the half.

Hodges was part of a Tiger defense which limited Warren to just 27 yards on its final 15 first-half plays. The Raiders would finish the game with 160 yards on 49 plays.

“I’m really proud of the guys,” Moore said of the defense. “I thought all three levels played well. Obviously, we’ll get in there and watch the film and all that stuff, but we feel really proud of the guys and their effort.”

The Tiger offense, meanwhile, found its groove both through the air and on the ground after the initial three-and-out. By the half, Longwell had completed 11-of-18 passes for 162 yards and the one score.

Longwell would finish the game 15-of-20 for 200 yards and two touchdowns, moving him within two scoring passes of the career record. He hit Ballard for a 19-yard touchdown strike to make it 35-7 with 3:31 left in the third quarter.

Ballard had seven catches for 94 yards and two scores.

Meanwhile, after netting one yard on its first two runs, Massillon gained 46 yards on its final 12 carries of the half. Both Phifer, who scored on two of his five first-half carries, and Terrence Keyes shared the duties.

Keyes would gain 63 of his 96 yards on his third-quarter touchdown run which gave Massillon a 42-7 lead. Hodges added 50 yards on just five carries, while Phifer finished with 32 yards on six totes.

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Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 55, Canton Glenoak 13

Dominant first half carries Massillon past GlenOak
Chris Easterling
Sep 06, 2019 11:46 PM

MASSILLON Darien Williams took the kickoff and, following his blockers, raced to the left and then down the field to the GlenOak 42.

The only problem, however, was a yellow flag sitting back inside Massillon’s 40. That holding flag negated what would have been a big return, plus extra yards tacked on for a horse-collar tackle.

That would be about the only thing to go wrong for Massillon in the first half of a dominant 55-13 victory over visiting GlenOak on Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

Once the Tigers were able to snap the ball – following a re-kick and then a GlenOak offsides penalty before the first play – they wasted no time laying waste to any hopes the Golden Eagles had of pulling off an upset. Massillon scored on its first six possessions, along with an interception return for a score by Preston Hodges, to jump out to a 48-0 lead just over 13 minutes into the game.

“We treat this like any other week,” Hodges said. “We come out looking to get as good as we can. We’re just looking to better ourselves as the season goes on.”

That was just the start, however. By the time the teams went to the locker room for halftime, the Tigers had already scored more points than GlenOak had given up in more than two decades, as they held a 55-6 lead.

Then only score of the half for the Golden Eagles came on a 91-yard Leeshawn Johnson kickoff return with 10:37 remaining in the second quarter. That trimmed the Massillon lead to 48-6.

GlenOak would have one other chance in Tiger territory over the first 24 minutes of the game. Jamiel Randle intercepted a Massillon pass on the Tigers’ seventh possession and returned it to the Tiger 13.

Four plays later, however, Massillon would get the ball back by stopping the Golden Eagles at the Tiger 9. Nine plays after that, Massillon would tack on its ninth touchdown of the half when Austin Brawley took a quick pass at the line of scrimmage from backup quarterback Zach Catrone and raced 35 yards for the touchdown with 3:39 remaining in the half.

If the scoreboard didn’t show the dominance of the first half, the statistics did. Massillon held a 401-21 edge in total yards, including 211-10 in rushing yards.

The Tigers also forced three turnovers in the first half. Besides Hodges’ pick-six, Robbie Page set up Massillon’s third touchdown of the night on a diving, juggling interception at the GlenOak 30. There was also a recovery by Isaiah Clark of an uncovered kickoff.

GlenOak did not pick up a first down until the 2:45 mark of the third quarter on a 29-yard run by Johnson to the Tiger 38. By that point, Massillon held an 18-1 edge in that stat.

Johnson would score GlenOak’s other touchdown as well on a 9-yard run with 4:54 remaining.

“We’re real young offensively right now,” said GlenOak coach Beau Balderson, whose team was out-gained 466-115 in total yards, and out-first-downed 21-4. “We’re taking our lumps. We’re going to continue to get better and they’re going to continue to fight and not point fingers at each other. We’re going to build from the positives of tonight and move on.”

All of that was done with the Tiger starters essentially calling it a night after Hodges ripped off a 16-yard scoring run to put Massillon ahead 48-0 with 10:53 remaining in the half. That was on the first play after Clark’s kickoff recovery.

Those starters, however, did the most with the little opportunity. Aidan Longwell was 5-of-6 passing for 155 yards and three touchdowns, completing his final five pass attempts.

Jayden Ballard, meanwhile, turned both of his catches into touchdowns for a total of 109 receiving yards. Andrew Wilson-Lamp added two catches for 38 yards, including a 30-yard touchdown catch.

All of that passing came after Massillon ran the ball on 11 of its first 12 plays, for 117 yards. Terrence Keyes would gain 79 of his 83 rushing yards on seven of those plays, while Zion Phifer added 29 of his 47 yards on four carries.

“We weren’t trying to establish the run,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said. “We were just calling the plays we thought would be successful. The kids executed.”

Both would score on 2-yard touchdown runs for a 14-0 Massillon lead with 6:25 left in the first quarter.

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2019: Massillon 44, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary 14

Record-setting night by Wilson-Lamp keys Massillon win
By Chris Easterling
Independent sports editor
Aug 30, 2019 10:30 PM

MASSILLON It must be something about season openers that brings out the best in Massillon receivers.

Junior Andrew Wilson-Lamp set a single-game school record with 232 receiving yards on 11 catches, helping the Tigers to a season-opening 44-14 win over St. Vincent-St. Mary on Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. It breaks the old record of 222 yards, set by Austin Jasinski in the 2016 opener at Mentor.

“I just came out ready to play,” Wilson-Lamp said after his record-setting performance. “I wasn’t expecting to break anything.”

It didn’t take long for Wilson-Lamp to get into the groove, as he hauled in a 51-yard catch on Massillon’s third play to set up its first touchdown, 13-yard Terrence Keyes touchdown with 7:15 remaining in the first quarter. By halftime, he would have six catches for 163 yards and a score, a 45-yard catch to give the Tigers a 21-0 lead.

In between that catch and his record-setting 17-yard catch-and-run late in the third quarter, his final catch of the game, however, Massillon would go from on its way to a rout to a close game back to a rout. The Irish would score two touchdown in the final 56 seconds of the first half to cut it to a 21-14 halftime deficit.

“The first post I caught, I was like, ‘This is going to be a good game,'” Wilson-Lamp said.

The Tigers, though, would come out of the locker room by scoring 16 points in the first 4:45 of the third quarter to open up a 37-14 lead. They would get a opening-drive Preston Hodges touchdown run, as well as a safety on a bad punt snap by St. Vincent-St. Mary.

On the subsequent free kick, Jayden Ballard return it 66 yards for a touchdown with 7:15 remaining in the third. Ballard, who had 63 yards on five catches on the night, added a 33-yard touchdown catch on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“We just coached them up,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said of the halftime talk. “The coaches just got together, made the adjustments we needed to make, tried to take care of it. We just came out and played better.”

Or, essentially, play much like the Tigers did to start the game.

Massillon couldn’t have scripted a better opening 20 minutes. It had the football for four possessions and had found the end zone three times for a 21-0 lead with 4:18 remaining in the half.

Not only that, but the Tigers were doing just about what they wanted on offense, especially in the passing game. Aidan Longwell connected on 12 of his first 13 passes for 215 yards, including the 45-yard touchdown pass to Wilson-Lamp to give Massillon a three-score lead.

Included in Longwell’s start was a run of eight consecutive passes to open the second quarter, all but one of them to either Wilson-Lamp or Jayden Ballard. Longwel was 20-of-23 for 322 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

Beyond the passing, Keyes was making the most of his Massillon debut. Playing against the team for which he played his first three seasons, Keyes had a the Tigers’ initial two touchdowns on runs of 13 and one yard.

Keyes would finish with 58 yards on 14 carries.

“I really like how we spread the ball around,” Moore said. “We take pride in getting the ball to all of our athletes.”

St. Vincent-St. Mary, however, would find life in the final 56 seconds of the first half. Enough life to turn what appeared to be heading to a halftime blowout into a one-score game.

The Irish cracked the scoreboard with a 10-yard Luke Lindsay-to-Josh Nickerson touchdown with 56 seconds left in the half to make it 21-7. Then, after Quinn Knox came up with an interception for St. V-St. M at the Irish 49, Lindsay hit Darrian Lewis for a 27-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-14 with 21 seconds left.

“We showed a lot of resiliency,” said Irish coach Bobby Nickol, whose team finished with 179 total yards. “We could have fell behind 28-0 at halftime and hung our heads. We made a few plays there at the end of the half.”

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Letter Logo Booster Club

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Banquet – Award Winners

The following is a list of the awards given out at the 2018 Massillon Tiger Football Banquet.

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Team MVP: Jamir Thomas

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Special Teams Player of the Year: Seth Jefferson

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Tom Harp Coaches Award: Tyree Broyles (Presented by Tom Harp)

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Scout Team Player of the Year (Defense): Corey Campbell

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Scout Team Player of the Year (Offense): Jerron Hodges

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Lifter of the Year: Hunter Wantz

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Offensive Player of the Year: Aidan Longwell

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Defensive Player of the Year: Dean Clark

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Paul David Memorial Academic Award: Cameron Sunkle

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Captains Award: Jamir Thomas, Aidan Longwell, Tre’Von Morgan, Justin Gaddis, Dean Clark, Deon Williams

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Ducky Schroeder Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award: Deon Williams

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Coach Lee Tressel Citizenship Award: Aydan Burgess

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Bob Smith/Bill Snyder Sportsmanship Award: Brock Orr

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Thayer Munford A.C.T. Award: Jamir Thomas

 

Massillon football celebrates special season one more time
Jan 17, 2019 9:51 PM
By Alex Tichenor Independent sports writer

MASSILLON The state championship game is still fresh in the minds of Massillon football players.

And it probably will be for a long time. But not necessarily in a bad way.

“There’s a lot of things I would go back and change, but it’s already happened, so I can’t go back and change it,” senior wide receiver Tre’Von Morgan said. “You have to think about it and cherish all the (good) moments we had in that game. … It was fun. We’re kids. We gotta have fun.”

They remember the comeback. How McKinley’s home, Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, turned into a version of Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for a night. How pandemonium ensued when Aydrik Ford took Aidan Longwell’s pass 67 yards to the house to bring the Tigers within six points after trailing by four touchdowns at halftime.

The teenagers sitting in banquet hall of the Massillon Knights of Columbus accomplished something few Massillon teams of recent memory have. Not all end-of-the-season banquets are created equal, but the Tigers certainly had reason to celebrate like no other team in Stark County this season. And they did just that, once more as a team.

Of course, there was much more to reminisce on that the state championship game for the Tigers. Head coach Nate Moore detailed almost every one of Massillon’s 14 wins from the podium as players, coaches, parents and fans polished off their ice cream.

There was the 46-40 win over East St. Louis, the closest anyone came to ruining Massillon’s perfect regular season. And the 101-point game against Sun Valley the very next week, the furthest anyone came to ruining Massillon’s perfect season.

“Apparently there were some people around the country who weren’t happy about that,” Moore said of the 101-6 win. “And when that last touchdown happened, I cringed, but I’m never gonna tell a kid to not play his tail off.”

And of course, the McKinley game. Most players in the room had never lost to McKinley as varsity lettermen. In fact, Jamir Thomas was the only player who lettered on the 2015 team, the last one to lose to the Bulldogs.

As often as the Tigers’ state title game run came up, beating McKinley followed.

“(Beating McKinley) is one of the best feelings you can feel in high school football,” senior linebacker Cameron Sunkle said.

But what set this Massillon team apart from many of the teams of decade’s past was the run to Canton. These Tigers were the fourth team to make it all the way to the state championship game since, joining the 1980,1982 and 2005 Tigers.

It was a run that brought hundreds of Tigers fans out to Lincoln Way whenever they traveled home from playoff games.

“Coming home from a playoff game was pretty much the best feeling you could ever have,” junior running back Zion Phifer said. “It doesn’t get better than Massillon.”

It was a run that spawned unlikely heroes, like Zach Catrone’s three-touchdown performance off the bench when the starting QB Longwell went down, and grew the stars of Division I college recruits like Thomas and Morgan.

And it was a run that ultimately came up short, but still ended in a thrilling main event against Akron Archbishop Hoban, bringing out 16,213 fans to Benson Stadium on a rainy November Thursday night.

Even though Hoban ended the night as the state champion, everybody on the Massillon sideline will remember the explosion when Ford scored to make it a one-score game early in the fourth quarter first.

“It was crazy,” senior linebacker Kyshad Mack said. “I thought we were gonna win it right there. … It’s something I’ll probably never forget in my life.”

And even those most devastated by the loss can take heart in one thing: they left the program in better shape than when they entered it.

“I feel like we laid the groundwork for the younger guys,” senior safety Dean Clark said. “We showed them how to win, how to do things right and how to get to that level. If anything, we laid that down for them. But it still would have been nice to win.”

Reach Alex at 330-775-1129 or alex.tichenor@indeonline.com

On Twitter: @atichenorINDE

History

2018: Massillon 41, Cincinnati Winton Woods 20

Massillon tops Winton Woods, heading to Division II title game

Nov 23, 2018 10:54 PM

GAHANNA Massillon faced an early deficit. It faced a second-half comeback. It faced injury to one of its best players.

Now, the Tigers will face three-time state champion Archbishop Hoban for the Division II state championship.

Massillon earned its first trip to the title game since 2005 thanks to a 41-20 victory over Winton Woods on Friday night at Gahanna’s Wilbur C. Strait Stadium. It is the Tigers’ fourth title-game appearance, and first in Division II.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose team scored 26 straight points in the second and third quarters to rally from a 10-0 deficit and improved to 14-0 while setting a school record for wins in a season. “They played a whale of a ballgame against a great football team. I’m really proud of them.

The Tigers will lock horns against the 14-0 Knights on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. To get there though, Massillon had to exert a bit of revenge on a nemesis from its recent past.

A year ago, Winton Woods overcame a 21-0 Tiger lead in the first half scored the final 56 points to win going away. A year later, the Warriors were the ones who were in possession of the early lead, only to see Massillon roar from behind.

“We’ve been waiting for them all season,” said cornerback Max Turner, whose 38-yard interception return for a touchdown with 21 seconds left in the first half capped a 19-0 Tiger second-quarter run. “I’m talking in the weight room, off-season, 15-for-15 was all for Winton Woods. We knew what it is.”

That didn’t mean Massillon wasn’t in for a little bit of early adversity.

Winton Woods led 10-0 after the first quarter thanks to a 36-yard Yeri Velasquez field goal and a 3-yard Miyan Williams rushing touchdown. The Tigers, meanwhile, had just two first downs and 39 total yards of offense in that same time.

“Just keep playing ball,” Moore said of his message to the team. “Just keep playing football. Keep playing football.”

Jamir Thomas would put Massillon on the board with a 15-yard touchdown run two minutes into the second quarter at 10-7. He would added a 1-yard run with 40 seconds left in the half to give the Tigers the lead for good at 13-10.

Thomas, who would leave the game late in the third quarter with an injury, ran for 83 yards on 12 carries.

Massillon would turn momentum totally on its side just 19 seconds later, when Turner’s pick-six provided it a 19-10 halftime lead. That lead would grow to 26-10 less than a minute into the third quarter when Aidan Longwell hit Tre’Von Morgan for a 58-yard touchdown.

Longwell finished 14-of-27 for 210 yards with one touchdown and one interception. That interception, with Massillon leading 26-13 in the third quarter, was the only crack Winton Woods could find to attempt to get back in the game.

After the pick, the Warriors faced a 3rd-and-29 from their own 24. MiChale Wingfield hit Williams on a screen pass for 75 yard to the Massillon 1.

On the next play, Williams scored his second touchdown of the night to pull Winton Woods within 26-20. Williams, who rushed for 2,742 yards over the first 13 games, finished with 82 rushing yards on 20 carries.

“I thought they did a great job,” Massillon defensive coordinator Craig McConnell said of the defense against Williams. “Honestly, our plan was, if we stop 28 (Williams), we win. I wouldn’t use the words that we stopped him, but limited him. He’s going to make his plays. He’s a great football player.”

With the Tigers’ own All-Ohio running back, Thomas, sidelined for the final quarter, the ball went to junior Zion Phifer. Phifer didn’t disappoint.

“I did it for the seniors,” said Phifer, who gained 76 of his 82 yards on 15 fourth-quarter carries. “When Jamir went down, we had no one else to come up but me. So I did it for me team.”

Phifer’s 13-yard run on the second play of the fourth quarter gave Massillon a two-score lead again at 34-20 after Longwell hit Dean Clark for a two-point conversion. His 1-yard run with 1:34 remaining in the game gave the Tigers a 41-20 lead.

A 21-point lead which Massillon rode into the Division II state championship game.

GAME STATS

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE