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History 2017: Massillon 42, Youngstown Ursuline 13
Tigers air it out for third consecutive win
Chris Easterling – The Independent
Sep 15, 2017 10:32 PM
MASSILLON – Massillon had won behind a punishing running game over a modest two-game winning streak. To make it a three-game win streak, the Tigers decided to show they could throw the ball as well.
Sophomore quarterback Aidan Longwell looked anything but like a sophomore has he lit up the Ursuline defense to the tune of 324 yards and five touchdowns as Massillon rolled to a 42-13 win Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
“Aidan had a great game,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said after his team improved to 3-1. “You have to give credit to Ursuline; they did a great job up front. Their defense gave us tough sledding running the football, which is what we had been good at. We needed to go to the air, and Aidan threw great balls and made great decisions; our receivers caught the ball well. That was really the difference for us.”
If there was a black cloud to come over the night, it came late in the third quarter when Longwell was hurt on a second-down play. Longwell, who was 11-of-17 passing for the game, was walking without an apparent limp during the postgame handshake line, but Moore wouldn’t state for certain the true extent without speaking to the trainer.
The tone of the night was set early by the Tiger quarterback, who was making just his fourth career start. After sandwiching two incompletions around a 10-yard completition to start, he would complete nine of his next 13 passes – four of which went for touchdowns – for 283 yards to help Massillon open up a 28-7 halftime lead.
Longwell was 10-of-16 for 293 yards with the four scores in the first half alone. To put that in perspective, in the Week 3 win at Warren Harding, he was 8-of-11 for 120 yards and two touchdowns for the whole game.
By the end of the first quarter against Ursuline, Longwell had completed 7-of-11 passes for 156 yards and two scores, both to Austin Kutscher. Kutscher had a 39-yard scoring catch on a second-and-25 play to give Massillon a 7-0 lead on its opening drive, then caught a 34-yarder from Longwell on third-and-8 on the second possession for a 14-0 lead.
“He throws a wonderful ball,” Ursuline coach Larry Kempe said of Longwell. “He throws a good ball. He’s smart enough to get rid of the ball very quick. I think he’s going to be a real, real nice player.”
Longwell and Kutscher would hook up against on Massillon’s first play after stopping Ursuline on downs at the Tiger 31. The 69-yard strike marked the seventh time this season the two had connected for scores, this time giving the Tigers a 21-7 lead just under three minutes into the second quarter.
Kutscher finished with 198 receiving yards on seven catches. He added a 31-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter which made it 35-7.
“He’s a great player,” Moore said of Kutscher. “He’s one of our captains tonight. Nobody works harder than Austin. He’s very skilled, very savvy as a receiver.”
Aydrik Ford became the first Massillon player to catch a touchdown pass other than Kutscher when he brought in a 47-yard pass from Longwell on third-and-9. The play made it 28-7 with 3:01 left in the half.
All of the passing proved to be somewhat necessary, as Ursuline was doing its part to not allow Massillon to go to its bread-and-butter, the power running game. Jamir Thomas’ 10-yard run on the fourth play of the Tigers’ second second-quarter possession alone proved to more than double the team’s first-half rushing totals.
Massillon went into halftime with just 19 net rushing yards on 13 attempts, a number only slightly skewed by a pair of kneel-downs to end the half. The Tigers would finish with 117 rushing yards, 71 by Zion Phifer who scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter to make it 42-13.
“On film, we saw what they were trying to do with the running game,” Kempe said. “We had three different plans of attack that worked very well for us. Truth be told, for the first time in four weeks, played with great passion.”
Ursuline, meanwhile, was moving the ball consistently on the ground. The Irish, though, struggled to finish off drives.
The first-half drives for Ursuline all reached at least the Tiger 37. However, only the Irish’s second possession reached the end zone, on Joe Floyd’s 7-yard run to pull them within 14-7 with 2:55 left in the first quarter.
Ursuline punted from the Tigers 40 and 39, while being stopped on downs at the Massillon 29 and 16 in the first half. The Irish also had second-half drives reach the Tiger 1 and 34 without scoring.
The Irish, who had 215 rushing yards in the first half, finished with 269 on the ground. They would add a 4-yard touchdown run by Floyd to make it 35-13 with 7:10 remaining.
Floyd rushed for 132 yards on 35 carries for Ursuline. Quarterback Jared Fabry added 113 yards on 17 attempts.
GAME STATS
History 2017: Massillon 31, Warren Harding 21
Massillon runs past Warren Harding for second win
Chris Easterling – The Independent
Sep 08, 2017 10:11 PM
WARREN Massillon and Warren Harding have engaged in more than their share of shootouts over the last two or three seasons. While the faces may have changed, that trend didn’t change on Friday night as they renewed acquaintances at Mollenkopf Stadium.
There were no Austin Jasinskis or Lynn Bowdens on the field. However, players such as Jamir Thomas and Kayron Adams were, both of whom had a hand in what ultimately became a 31-21 Massillon win on “Throwback Night” in Warren.
“First off, (Warren’s) a good football team with some good running backs,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose team is 2-1 heading into Week 4’s home game with Ursuline. “We had a hard time tackling those guys, plain and simple. You just swing harder. You just swing hard and keep playing hard.”
The biggest hammer the Tigers were able to swing was Thomas, who rushed for 148 yards and a score – which gave Massillon a 14-7 first-quarter lead – on 27 carries. He helped Massillon rush for 209 yards on 45 carries as a team, with Zion Phifer adding 61 yards on 14 carries.
Those rushing numbers helped the Tigers offset a Warren offense which gained 276 yards of its own on the ground in the game.
Of those, 202 yards and all three touchdowns came from Kayron Adams. However, 66 yards came on the Raiders’ lone second-half score, a third-quarter touchdown that cut it to 28-21 with 3:50 remaining in the quarter.
“We were vastly improved from Week 1,” said Warren coach Steve Arnold, whose team – which was paying tribute to the old Warren G. Harding Panther teams – falls to 0-2. “We threw the ball better. We’re going to be able to run the ball all year; I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”
For Massillon, it was a case of never having to play from behind. That meant from the opening seconds of the game.
Anthony Ballard drew up the perfect start to the game for Massillon. Ballard took the opening kickoff at his own 16, found a crease in the blocking and raced virtually untouched to the end zone for a touchdown just 12 seconds into the game.
“We wanted to kick the ball down the numbers and we kicked the ball down the middle,” Arnold said. “That’s not what we practiced all week. So, consequently, you kick it down the middle on a shift, we have an overload on one side.”
Almost like a starter’s gun at a track meet, Ballard’s kickoff signaled the start of an early shootout between the two long-time rivals. Four consecutive combined possessions between the teams would result in four combined touchdowns, the last of which was a 15-yard pass from Aidan Longwell to Austin Kutscher with 7:46 remaining in the first half to give Massillon a 21-14 lead.
The two would also hook up for a 37-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter which made it 28-14 Tigers. Longwell finished 8-of-11 for 120 yards, while Kutscher had four catches for 82 yards.
Adams had both first-half touchdowns for Warren: a 7-yard run to tie it at 7-7 and a 15-yard run to even things up at 14-14. The last came with 8:52 remaining in the half.
Adams added a 66-yard touchdown run one play after the second Longwell-to-Kutscher touchdown pass, cutting the Massillon lead to 28-21. Warren would get inside the Tiger 20 only once more after that, while Massillon would tack on a 21-yard Klay Moll field goal with 6:03 remaining.
Massillon had a hand in both Raider first-half scoring drives thanks to what has been an early-season issue: penalties. The Tigers had back-to-back flags on the first – a late hit and a pass interference – to move the ball from their own 33 to the 9.
The second drive was aided by a iffy pass-interference call in the end zone on a 50-50 ball on fourth-and-12 from the Massillon 30. The next play, Adams scored his second touchdown of the night.
The Tigers were flagged eight times for 83 yards in the game. That includes six flags for 69 yards in the first half.
“We have to get back to the drawing board and watch the film and get things corrected,” said Moore, whose team has been flagged 39 times in three games. “It’s a continuous process of getting better every week. That’s just part of it.”
One other early-season trend helped Massillon come up with the game’s first defensive stop. Dyson Berry intercepted a pass in the end zone on third-and-31 for Warren with 3:28 remaining in the half. It was the third pick in as many games for Berry.
GAME STATS
History 2017: Massillon 24, Canton Glenoak 10
Massillon Keeps Ball, Win Away From GlenOak
Chris Easterling – The Independent
Sep 01, 2017 10:45 PM
Massillon played a game of keep-away on Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
The Tigers spent much of the game keeping the ball away from GlenOak. That led directly to Massillon keeping the win away from the Golden Eagles as well, as it emerged with a 24-10 victory to even its record at 1-1.
Aided by a 33-carry, 107-yard effort from Jamir Thomas, Massillon was able to run 80 plays in the game to just 43 for GlenOak, which is 0-2 for the first time since 1998. The Tigers finished with 356 total yards, while the Golden Eagles’ 188.
“There’s no doubt about it he was a part of it,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said of Thomas, who had missed the season-opening loss to Mentor due to disciplinary reasons. “But great performance by our offense and a great performance by our defense, especially in the first half. I’m proud of those guys.”
The tone of the game was set in the first half. Massillon’s first two drives took 19 and 21 plays, respectively.
Even more importantly, they both resulted in points. Klay Moll ended the first one with a 23-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead; Thomas ended the second one with a 1-yard plunge to give the Tigers a 10-3 lead.
By halftime, Massillon had already run 45 plays for 166 yards to just 16 plays for GlenOak for 61 yards. Of those, nine plays and 30 yards came on the Golden Eagles’ first drive, which ended in a Dean Sarris 20-yard field goal to tie the game at 3-3.
“The first half, obviously, we just couldn’t get off the field defensively,” GlenOak coach Scott Garcia said. “They ran the ball right down our throats. I think it was 45 plays for them in the first half to 16 for us. You’re not going to win games like that.”
The running game certainly was the backbone of the Tiger win. Massillon ran for 157 net yards on 55 carries – including 28 yards on 12 carries on a 15-play, game-sealing fourth-quarter scoring drive that ended on an Aidan Longwell 1-yard run with 2:33 remaining.
However, two pass plays may have been the ultimate difference. The first was a 33-yard Longwell-to-Austin Kutscher touchdown pass immediately after a Dyson Berry interception in the third quarter to put the Tigers in front 17-3.
The second, maybe bigger, one came on the final scoring drive. Facing a second-and-21 from the GlenOak 38, Longwell hit Dean Clark on a wheel route for 36 yards to the Eagle 2.
Three plays later, Longwell powered in from the 1 for a 24-10 Tiger lead. GlenOak would go four-and-out on its next possession to squelch any further threat.
“It was a great throw,” Moore said of the Longwell-to-Clark pass. “It was sort of a back-shoulder throw. Great call by our offensive coaching staff. The kids executed, and that’s what it takes to win big games.”
Longwell, in his second start, was 15-of-25 for 209 yards with the one touchdown pass.
Meanwhile, GlenOak quarterback Tate Rhoads was never able to get the one part of his game that had Tiger defensive coaches most concerned in the week leading to the game. That would be his rushing ability.
Rhoads, who had 78 yards on six first-half carries before leaving with a broken collarbone in the teams’ 2016 meeting, was held to just six rushing yards on four carries.
“He missed a couple of reads that he should’ve given the ball,” Garcia said. “He just didn’t do it. He didn’t play very well and he knows it, and we’re going to move on.”
Rhoads was 16-of-24 for 145 yards with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chris Armstead with 8:01 remaining to cut Massillon’s lead to 17-10. He also had the interception, which Berry made on a diving catch after the ball deflected off of the receiver.
Click Here for: Game Statisitics
History 2017: Massillon 14, Mentor 49
Momentum Shift Buries Massillon In Opener
Chris Easterling
The Independent
Aug 25, 2017 10:48 PM
MASSILLON Things were going just fine for Massillon for a quarter in its season opener against Mentor at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. The Tigers held the lead and were keeping the high-flying Cardinals out of the end zone.
Then, on Massillon’s second play of the second quarter, a tipped deep ball was intercepted by Mentor’s Billy Gorka – with Gorka lying on his back.
Almost like it was an omen, that play changed everything.
The Cardinals would score on their next seven possessions, turning a seven-point Tiger lead into a 49-14 Mentor opening-night rout.
“They played well,” a subdued Massillon coach Nate Moore said afterwards. “They’re really good offensively.”
After being held to just 40 yards on 11 first-quarter plays, which ended with Massillon in front 7-0, the Cardinals would gain 413 over 29 plays in the next two quarters alone. They would lead 42-14 after three quarters, then make it 49-14 three plays into the fourth quarters.
Mentor finished the game with 501 yards. Massillon, which had 96 yards in the first quarter, ended things with 249 total yards.
Of those 249 yards, 66 came on a touchdown pass from Aidan Longwell to Austin Kutscher in the third quarter. That made it briefly 28-14.
“We just needed to settle in,” Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno said. “They were really geared up, and probably too much. I tried to crack a joke, but it didn’t work. After that, we were a really good football team.”
The ending was such a far cry from the beginning, especially for the Tigers.
Massillon couldn’t have scripted a better start to the football season. A three-and-out by the Tiger defense on the first Cardinals possession led to great starting field position, at the Mentor 42.
A bad snap on first down, though, was followed by a 23-yard pass from Aidan Longwell to Austin Kutscher. The very next play, Marcellus Blake raced virtually untouched for a 21-yard touchdown run to give Massillon a 7-0 lead 94 seconds into the season.
“It was a good start,” Moore said.
Blake, who finished with 10 yards on 47 carries, found himself in a featured role due to the absence of a pair of Tigers, Jamir Thomas and Louis Partridge. Both players did not play, according to Moore, due to internal matters he wouldn’t discuss further.
Compounding things, Blake left the game early in the third quarter with an injury on a punt coverage. His status for the Week 2 home game against GlenOak is unknown.
Mentor’s offense began to get going on the next two first-quarter drives, reaching Massillon’s 25 and 34, respectively. The first one, though, ended on a diving interception by Dyson Berry, while the second one was halted on a fourth-down incomplete pass in the end zone on the first play of the second quarter.
Gorka’s interception may have been the play that stood out the most as the momentum-changer, but it wasn’t the only one. Massillon’s second possession reached the Mentor 16, but the Tigers fumbled the ball away on first down.
“Not punching it in for a second touchdown also hurt,” Moore said. “If we stick that in, we go up 14-0. Obviously, that puts us in a much better position.”
That’s when the Mentor offense, which had been tuning up in the first quarter, hit the gear for which it’s become known. Three second-quarter possessions led to three second-quarter touchdowns for the Cardinals, who took a 21-7 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Outside of a Tiger personal foul flag on the first play of the first second-quarter possession and a Massillon offsides flag on the sixth play of the third, the three drives were textbook displays of crisp offensive football. A combined 23 plays over those three drives: 15 rushing plays for 103 yards, while 7-of-8 for 59 yards passing for quarterback Tadas Tatarunas.
All three scores were rushing for Mentor: 3-yard game-tying run by Chris Edmond; a 12-yard Tatarunas scamper for a 14-7 lead; and a 1-yard Nick Saginario plunge for a 21-7 lead.
Edmond finished with 111 yards, including a 56-yard touchdown run to make it 28-7 Mentor. Tatarunas rushed for 66 yards while completing 17-of-25 passes for 188 yards and two third-quarter touchdowns.
Booster Club 2017 Massillon Tiger Football Kickoff Rally
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
6:30 Tiger Growl
7:00 Rally
Duncan Plaza
Kick off the 2017 Massillon Tiger Football Season with us tonight at Duncan Plaza.
Meet the 2017 Massillon Tiger Football Team and Coaches
See the Massillon Tiger Swing Band and Cheerleaders
Head to the Massillon Museum afterwards for Tiger Stripe Ice Cream
Don’t forget the Massillon Museum has opened a new Paul Brown Exhibit.
Massillon Museum Paul Brown Exhibit
Go Tigers! #TIG
Sponsored by : Downtown Massillon Association and The Independent
Sponsor/Advertiser THANK YOU: 2017 Sponsors
The Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club would like to thank the following sponsors/advertisers for their commitment and support of the Massillon Tiger Football program.
The Independent
www.indeonline.com
Massillon Cable TV (MCTV)
www.mctvohio.com
Aultman
www.aultman.org
Midwestern Industries, Inc.
www.midwesternind.com
Cicchini Enterprises
Wherever you are, we are
Booster Club FUNDRAISER: Sideliners Steak Dinner and Reverse Raffle
WHEN: August 17th, 2017
WHERE: Eagles 190 – www.eagles190.com
TIME: 6:00 P.M.
HOW MUCH?: $250/ticket – includes steak dinner and entry to raffle.
HOW DO I GET TICKETS?: contact Mark Fair (markfair@hotmail.com) or Anthony Repp (repp.anthony@gmail.com) – Also available at Keller’s Office Furniture – 47 Lincoln Way W.
The Sideliners will be hosting their annual fundraiser. This reverse raffle fundraiser is used to offset the costs of feeding our Massillon Tigers each week prior to the weekly game. Included with your ticket will be a steak dinner and the main event is a reverse raffle with $13,000 in payouts. The ticket price is $250.
Read below about the Sideliners program
http://massillontigers.com/booster-club/sideliners/
Important Sideliner dates:
August 19th 1:00 p.m. – Team picnic at Stadium Park. Meet your player. Bring chairs and a covered dish.
August 23rd time T.B.D. – Rally downtown.
August 24th 6:00 p.m. – 1st team dinner at Knights of Columbus.
If you are interested in becoming a sideliner, please contact Mark Fair (markfair@hotmail.com) or Anthony Repp (repp.anthony@gmail.com).
Thanks, Mark Fair & Anthony Repp (co-chairmen of Sideliners)
Booster Club TRADITION: Miniature Footballs to Newborns
If you mention to stranger that you are from Massillon, they often connect our town to football. The second question you receive is: “Isn’t that the place where they present a miniature football to newborns?”
The practice of presenting miniature footballs to baby boys started in 1958 at what was then Massillon Hospital. There is however a short cut from the film “Touchdown Town” that was released in 1953. It shows a newborn arriving home with his parents. Mom is proudly carrying the young Tiger and dad is following with a full sized football that was presented to the family by the Football Booster Club.
In recent years this practice has taken a different path. In a cost cutting move the Affinity Medical Center in Massillon was forced to close the local OB-GYN unit and local births now take place in other hospitals out of town. Because the hospital staff doesn’t have the Massillon loyalty the presentation has become somewhat hit and miss.
If you are a Tiger fan and have a newborn in your family and you did not receive a miniature football, the Booster Club would be glad to make sure your newborn gets an official Tiger Football.
Your newborn can receive a football from the Booster Club by contacting this year’s President, Ben Lieberman, at 330-564-6265. Or you can email him at benxrow2002@yahoo.com. He will see that you get a football from the Booster Club.
Proud of our Traditions! Go Tigers!
Booster Club 2017 Touchdown Club Information
The first Touchdown Club meeting will be held on Tuesday August 22nd, 2017 at the Eagles F.O.E. 190 in downtown Massillon. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. and the meeting will take place at 12:00 p.m.
Membership dues are $25.00 for the season and meals are $8.00 per week with exception to McKinley week which is $12.00.
Please contact Matt Keller for more information or an application letter.
Go Tigers!
Matt Keller
330-327-6290