Category: <span>History</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2015: Massillon 41, Warren Harding 48

Stopped Short

Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

WARREN Three games into the season, Massillon coach Nate Moore is still waiting for a full four-quarter football game from his team.

The latest example came Friday night at Mollenkopf Stadium. Despite falling into multiple two-score deficits, the Tigers continued to fight back to take a lead at one point. They were also tied two other times in the second half.

The problem for Massillon was that the final counterpunch belonged to Warren Harding, which emerged with a 48-41 win to drop the Tigers to 1-2 on the season.

“We need to put a complete game together,” Moore said after his team saw a last-ditch attempt intercepted in the end zone by Warren with 45 seconds left. “You’ve got to tip your hat to Harding; they’re a good football team. They were the better football team tonight, the scoreboard shows that.”

The scoreboard showed that because Raider quarterback Lynn Bowden almost single-handily put his team on his shoulders in the second half. It was his 20-yard touchdown run with 3:04 remaining that broke a 41-41 tie.

Bowden, who rushed for 212 yards on 13 carries, scored all three Raider second-half touchdowns. One came on a 90-yard kickoff return 14 seconds after the Tigers had forged a 34-34 tie on a Seth Blankenship-to-Todd Fichter touchdown pass with about eight minutes left.

The transfer from Liberty finished with four touchdowns on the night, three rushing. He also threw a 31-yard scoring strike to Juwan Pringle to give Warren a 26-13 halftime lead.

“I would put him in the category of Mario (Manningham) and (Maurice Clarett),” said Warren coach Steve Arnold, whose team is now 3-0. “People who make plays and electrify the crowd.

Whatever adjective you want to use, he’s that. – He’s a fierce, fierce competitor.”

Twice Bowden hurt the Tiger defense by turning a broken play or a cutback into a long touchdown run. His 62-yard run that opened the game’s scoring in the first quarter came on a broken tackle, then a cutback against the grain.

His 63-yard run in the third quarter that gave Warren a 34-27 lead just over a minute after the Tigers had taken a one-point lead came on a broken play where he reversed field in the backfield and outran the defense.

“We knew what we were getting into going in,” Moore said. “He’s a very good player. He hurts us on a lot of broken plays.”

Bowden’s big night overshadowed Keyshawn Watson’s breakout performance at running back for the Tigers. Watson, who had lined up at receiver in the first two games, started at running back and finished with 239 yards on 37 carries.

Watson scored twice. His 1-yard run – plus Brian Corbin’s point-after kick- put Massillon ahead 27-26; his 2-yard run plus the PAT tied the game at 34.

“We thought he was a dynamic player and we needed to put him in the backfield where we could get him more touches on the football,” Moore said.

Massillon had plenty of chances in the game, reaching Warren territory on 11 of 13 possessions. However, only six of those results in scores.

The Tigers also turned the football over four times – including three interceptions – with two of those being turned into Warren touchdowns.

“We had opportunities,” said Moore, whose team travels to meet unbeaten Steubenville next week. “We just have to put a game together. That’s it.”

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2015: Massillon 21, Canton Glenoak 37

HARSH LESSON
Tiger errors add up to Game 2 loss to Eagles

MASSILLON Nate Moore hoped his team had learned its lesson in Massillon’s season-opening win over Perry. He hoped his team had managed to figure out it couldn’t just show up and expect to win without having to suffer a loss to hammer the point home.

Unfortunately for Moore and the Tigers, they couldn’t dodge lightning twice. This time, the errors that Massillon had gotten away with in Week 1 came back to hurt in Week 2, as it suffered a 37-21 loss to GlenOak on Thursday night at Paul Brown “Obviously, we weren’t prepared today,” Moore said after his team fell to 1-1. “Our kids weren’t ready to play. You have to give credit to (GlenOak coach Scott) Garcia and his staff and their kids, because they played a great game. This is 100 percent on me; I have to get our kids better prepared. Tonight’s unacceptable.”

For the second week in a row, Massillon gave up more than 430 yards, and surrendered 37 points in consecutive games. Last week, it was a 432-yard performance by Perry; on Thursday, it was a 494 yard effort by GlenOak.

As was the case against Perry also, the Tigers surrendered a pair of 100-plus-yard rushers.

Golden Eagle quarterback Brennon Tibbs rushed for 154 yards and two scores, including a 70-yard run with 13 seconds left in the third quarter that made it 30-21.

“That was big,” Garcia said of the 70-yard run. “Brennon made a big play. That’s what a senior leader is supposed to do.”

C.C. Cubilla added 131 yards and a game-clinching 11-yard run with 1:09 left. Beyond that, the Tigers also killed themselves with ill-timed turnovers despite accumulating 409 total yards.

They gave the ball up four times, two times on fumbles and twice on interceptions.

Massillon turned the ball over twice on its final two drives of the first half. Both came inside the GlenOak 30, including a fumble as the running back appeared to have a clear path to the end zone.

“We’ve got to find the weaknesses and mistakes we have in the game and we have to find a way to get those applied in practice and get those fixed,” said Moore, whose team travels to Warren Harding next week ‘We can’t continue to do this.”

Adding injury to insult was another injury to senior quarterback Lee Hurst, who left the game with an arm injury just as he was establishing a rhythm running the football. Hurst, who was injured on a 13-yard run that gave Massillon a first down at the GlenOak 17 early in the fourth quarter, rushed for 202 yards on 20 carries in the game. The senior quarterback had two touchdowns also: an 11yard run that tied the game at 7-7 midway through the first quarter and a 13-yard run that pulled Massillon to within 20-14 with 6:21 left in the third quarter.

“I’m worried about Lee; we’ve got to find out what’s going on,” Moore said. “I heard he was on his way to the hospital, but other than that, I don’t know. He was making plays for us with his legs. It’s a huge loss.”

GlenOak stunned Massillon from the start by being the team that established the fast pace on offense. It took the Golden Eagles just 3:22 to travel 65 yards in nine plays to take a 7-0 lead on the opening drive thanks got a Tibbs’ run.

After the Tigers tied the game at 7-7 on their first drive, GlenOak came right back with a sixplay, 65-yard drive that took just 2:02 of clock time to take a 13-7 lead on the first of two Robert Peterson touchdown runs. Peterson would add a second scoring run for a 20-7 Golden Eagle lead with 10:54 remaining in the half.

“Our offensive line came off the ball,” said Garcia after his team improved to 1-1. “They dominated the line of scrimmage. That’s what we asked them to do and they got it done.”

That scoring drive took just 56 seconds to go 90 yards. It was one of four sub-three minute scoring drives for GlenOak on the night.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2015: Massillon 41,  Massillon Perry 37

NINE LIVES
Tigers survive after Panthers storms back in wild second half

By Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

MASSILLON Nate Moore had the look of a football coach who had been through a half-dozen games Thursday night. For the Massillon coach, his debut was only one game.

Even if in the course of the Tigers’ 41-37 come-from-ahead-and-then-from-behind win over neighboring rival Perry at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium had the feel of two games in one.

Just more than 13 minutes into the season, Massillon was the owner of a 27-0 lead after Mike White’s 3-yard scoring run. With 5:17 remaining in the game, Perry found itself in possession of a 37-34 lead thanks to Drew Waggoner’s 21-yard field goal.

Dakota Dunwiddie, who scored the first touchdown of the game, also scored its final one. His 2-yard run with 3:34 remaining pushed the Tigers in front for good.
“What a ballgame; we played a great team,” Moore said after his first win as Massillon’s coach and the program’s 850th win. “Hats off to them. A lot of teams could’ve folded there at halftime, and they came out and they put it to us. You’ve got to give them credit.”

The Tigers came out firing on all cylinders. Three first-quarter drives all ended in three first quarter touchdowns, giving them a 20-0 lead after 12 minutes.

Dunwiddie capped the first march with a 6-yard plunge 2:17 into the game. Lee Hurst II ran for a 16-yard score to end the second one with 6:01 left in the quarter. Seth Blankenship then hit Keyshawn Watson for a 52-yard scoring strike with 33 seconds left in the quarter.

Blankenship and Hurst alternated possessions at quarterback throughout the game. Hurst rushed for a team-high 109 yards on 15 carries; Blankenship threw for a game-high 188 yards on 15-of-20 passing with two scores.

“Quarterback is no different than most positions as far as who’s going to play,” said Moore, whose offense gained 407 total yards. “That’s a position where there’s a lot of competition between two players. Going into this week, that’s what we thought gave us the best chance to win.”

What gave Perry its best chance to win was a steady dose of Keishaun Sims and Tevion Cleveland. That was especially true in the third quarter, which was when the game went from a Tiger rout into a incredible Panther comeback story.

After Massillon went ahead 34-6 after turning a recovered squib kick into a Blankenship-to Austin Jasinski touchdown, Perry came to life. Sims, in particular, led the way.

The senior running back gained 136 of his game-high 229 yards in the third quarter. He scored three rushing touchdowns in those 12 minutes, including a 45-yarder with 1:42 remaining in the third to tie the game at 34-34 after Drew Waggoner’s point-after.

Of Perry’s 432 total yards, 219 came in the third quarter.

“It was a tale of two halves,” Moore said. “We played great defense and everyone’s fitting where they’re supposed to and things are happening the way we want them to happen. Then all of the sudden, we get a little success, we lose our mind; one guy makes a mistake and everybody starts to overcompensate.”

Sims also had a fourth touchdown in the quarter when he intercepted a pass and returned it 34 yards for a score.

Meanwhile, Cleveland – who scored Perry’s first touchdown on a 39-yard reception from Max Baker in the second quarter – provided just the right counter to Sims.
Of his 124 rushing yards, 73 came in the third quarter.

However, after Sims’ 31-yard burst on Perry’s opening drive of the fourth quarter, the Panthers didn’t have rushing plays more than 10 yards. The only other run for 10 yards or longer was on their next-to-last play, when Sims gained 10 to set up fourth-and-7 from the Perry 35 with less than 2:30 remaining.

The Tigers got a sack on the next play to essentially seal the win.

“We have to finish,” Perry coach Keith Wakefield said. “That’s what it’s all about. That’s what you have to do and we couldn’t do it.”

GAME STATS

2014: Massillon 7, Perrysburg 56

Perrysburg crushes Massillon in DII quarterfinal

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

PERRYSBURG The start was about as bad as it could get for Massillon. The finish was worse.

The Tigers fell into an early hole against the top-ranked Division II team in the state, Perrysburg, in a Division II Region 4 quarterfinal. Like quicksand, though, it would swallow up Massillon in a 56-7 loss to the Yellow Jackets in front of a crowd of nearly 6,000 inside Steinecker Stadium.

“Nothing went right,” said Massillon coach Jason Hall, whose team ends its season at 7-4. “You have to tip your hat to them. No. 10 (Perrysburg quarterback Gus Dimmerling) is special. … We really just couldn’t get into a rhythm on either side of the ball.”

A 21-0 first-half deficit would eventual result in the first time Massillon had been on the wrong side of a running clock in the second half, when Dimmerling’s fourth touchdown – a 75-yard run with 1:38 left in the third – made it 42-7 Yellow Jackets. By the time it was over, Perrysburg had handed the Tigers their worst loss since 1931.

As the fireworks exploded over Steinecker Stadium, Perrysburg celebrated a win in its first home playoff game as it improved to 11-0. It will meet Nordonia, also 11-0, in a regional semifinal next week.

“These guys come out and get after it,” Perrysburg coach Matt Kregel said. “They flip the switch and they’re ready to go. The taunting and the ‘we’re-better-than-you’ attitude, we were ready.”

Perrysburg scored on its first two possession – needing nine plays and 13 plays – to take a 14-0 lead with 43 seconds left in the first quarter. The first score came on a Trevor Hafner-to-Quinn Thomas scoring pass; the second on a 25-yard Dimmerling run.

Dimmerling finished the night with 302 rushing yards on 21 carries. He also completed 13-of-18 passes for 112 yards, while catching two passes for 21 yards.

“The momentum was huge,” said Dimmerling, whose 5-yard run with 4:13 left in the half gave Perrysburg a 21-0 lead. “It really got the crowd into. Everybody was just real pumped up and it just got us going.”

Massillon, on the other hand, never could get its offense consistently going. The only score came with 35 seconds left in the half, on J.D. Crabtree’s 1-yard run.

The run by Crabtree – who rushed for 107 yards on 21 carries – made it 21-7 at halftime.

The Tigers, though, had other opportunities to put more points on the board.

Their first drive of the game, after the Yellow Jackets had scored, got all the way down to the Perrysburg 2. But on fourth-and-goal, the defense stuffed a run for a 5-yard loss, turning it away.

“We had our opportunities, especially early,” said Hall, whose team finished with 280 total yards to Perrysburg’s 497. “We just couldn’t get into a rhythm.”

Massillon would also be turned away on fourth-and-20 from the Perrysburg 25 in the third quarter. By that time, the Tigers were down 35-7.

They also reached inside the Yellow Jacket 5 early in the fourth quarter. But a fumble at the goal line was picked up and returned 99 yards – the last 20 by Seth Durham following a lateral from Hafner, who had picked up the loose ball – to make it 42-7.

Perrysburg also had an interception return for a touchdown by Zach Honsberger, which made it 29-7 after a two-point conversion with 6:34 left in the third.

Massillon turned the ball over four times.

GAME STATS

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large)

2014: Massillon 31, Canton McKinley 21

NICE RING TO IT
Victoery Bell chimes For Tigers after 125th meeting with archrival

By Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

MASSILLON It was familiar territory for Massillon at halftime of the 125th game against McKinley on Saturday afternoon at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. The Tigers were sitting with a lead – a 10-point one, in this case – with a chance to secure the win.

Twice before, though, that halftime lead dissolved into losses. The memory of those games was a big reason why Massillon’s seniors were doing something they had done before at the end of the game as well: ringing the Victory Bell after beating the Bulldogs.

“We had yet to play a strong four quarters of football,” senior running back J.D. Crabtree said after Massillon’s 31-21 win over McKinley. “We really stressed that this week. We stressed that in the locker room at halftime that we can’t come out flat. We’ve been in this situation before; we’ve been up. We have to come out and do our jobs. We came out fired up, and we did what we were supposed to.”

What Massillon did was post its fourth consecutive win in the series against the Bulldogs, including its third straight regular-season win. The win improved the Tigers to 7-3 and sent them packing for Perrysburg to meet the 10-0 Yellow Jackets in a Division II Region 4 quarterfinal Friday night.

While the playoff berth was secured long before kickoff – only the opponent, – Perrysburg or Nordonia was up in the air – Massillon came out looking like a team trying to pull out all the stops on its rivals. The Tigers recovered an onside kick to start the game, although that ended up in a missed 51-yard field goal.

That proved to be the only time Massillon would get inside the McKinley 40 and not put points on the board. The Tigers’ second possession ended with Crabtree scoring the first of his four touchdowns on the day, a 5-yard run with 6:56 left in the first quarter.

McKinley pulled even with Massillon only once after that point. The Bulldogs tied the game at 7-7 on a 3-yard Eric Glover-Williams run with 9:06 left in the half.

Massillon scored on two of its final three possessions of the half, though, to take a 17-7 halftime lead. Crabtree’s 1-yard plunge and Andrew David’s 41-yard field goal with 1 second left in the half provided the Tiger margin.

“We just needed to play our game,” senior running back/linebacker Danny Robinson, whose fourth-down run with less than 40 seconds left picked up the game-clinching first down. “We came in at halftime and everybody knew we were the better team in that locker room. We just needed come out and execute and stop them.”

Massillon grabbed a 24-7 lead on Crabtree’s third score, a 16-yard run just 2:15 into the second half. It was part of the senior’s 34-carry, 131-yard performance.

“The Massillon people would say that’s the J.D. Crabtree they know,” Tigers coach Jason Hall said.

McKinley, though, had a little life left in it. A Lee Hurst-to-Bryce Short touchdown pass in the third quarter, followed by a Hurst quarterback plunge pulled the Bulldogs within 24-21 – after a Glover-Williams-to-Short two-point conversion – with 10:43 remaining.

Both were set up by special-teams plays. A 22-yard fake-punt run by Devion Jenkins helped keep the former scoring drive alive, while the latter was set up by a muffed punt by Massillon at its own 30.

Massillon, though, wouldn’t let another double-digit lead slip by it as it did against Austintown Fitch in Week 6. With a little help from a pair of McKinley penalties, the Tigers marched down the field on their next possession to punch in the insurance score on Crabtree’s fourth score of the day with 9:35 remaining.

“I think we’ve learned from (Fitch) when we had that lead and we lost it,” Tiger senior tackle Devin Williams said. “There’s no point in the game where you should be flustered. … No matter what the score is, whether we’re up, down, it’s always the same.”

Which is why Massillon’s seniors got the oh-so-familiar experience of ringing the Victory Bell again Saturday afternoon.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2014: Massillon 20, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary 28

IRISH TRIP UP TIGERS
Massillon’s playoff hopes Shaken following defeat

Chris Easterling
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON – Massillon’s playoff hopes might not hinge completely on next Saturday’s regular-season finale against McKinley. At this point, though, the Tigers don’t have any other option than to treat it that way.

For the second year in a row, St. Vincent-St. Mary put Massillon in a bind entering its annual grudge match with the Bulldogs. This time, it was a 28-20 win by the Irish on Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The loss drops Massillon to 6-3 on the season. The Tigers came into the game ranked No. 5 in Division II Region 4, and had a number of games involving level-two points for them or teams behind them in the rankings break their way.

That said, Massillon Coach Jason Hall doesn’t want to hear about anything other than what his team can control. That would be next Saturday afternoon’s home game against McKinley, which is 3-6 after losing to Boardman Friday night.

“Right now, our attention has got to go to McKinley,” Hall said. “That’s the only option we have. … For our kids, it’s McKinley Week.”

Massillon found itself in that predicament because St. Vincent-St. Mary made the playsit couldn’t on Friday night. The Irish outgained the Tigers 473-318 overall, rushed for 208 yards to the Tigers’ 162 and didn’t turn the ball over while Massillon gave it up once.

All of that added up to a second consecutive victory in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium over Massillon for the Irish, who are now 7-2 and firmly in control of a path back to the playoffs after consecutive Division III state titles.

“I thought we did a nice job shutting down their big receiver (Reggie Rogers), too,” Irish coach Dan Boarman said. “We slowed down (Massillon’s 1,000-yard rusher J.D.) Crabtree. I don’t think we stopped him.”

Crabtree rushed for 97 yards on 18 carries, the first time he was held under 100 yards in a game he played four quarters in. He scored a touchdown to pull Massillon within 14-7 in the second quarter.

Rogers, meanwhile, caught an 18-yard touchdown to pull Massillon to 28-20 with 1:09 remaining. The Irish, though, blocked the extra point and then recovered the onside kick to essentially remove all doubt.

Rogers finished with seven catches for 94 yards for the Tigers. They completed 15 of 22 passes for 156 yards in the air.

“We just have to play consistent,” Hall said. “In the second half, we didn’t do a good job with our inside zone. We didn’t do a good job in our short passing game. We’ve got to be more consistent with things. If you don’t have a balanced attack and you’re not consistent and you give up big plays, us coaches have to do a better job. It’s not just the kids.”

The Irish were the big-play offense Friday night. Twice, that is, and those big plays were killers for Massillon.

St. Vincent-St. Mary scored on an 83-yard Dom Davis-to-Tyrece Speaight pass with 3:53 left in the first quarter. On the play, a Massillon defender tried to get the interception, missed, and gave Speaight a clear path to the end zone.

A similar thing happened in the fourth quarter, as Markus Hurd capitalized on an overaggressive Tiger defense trying to get an interception. This time, it was a 55-yard scoring catch and run to make it 28-14 Irish with 7:14 remaining.

That was one of three two-touchdown deficits Massillon faced during the game. It trailed 14-0 after one quarter, 21-7 in the second quarter and then 28-14 in the fourth quarter.

“We gave up big plays,” said Hall, whose team trailed 21-14 at halftime. “You can’t give up big plays. We didn’t start off good in the first quarter, and we have to make plays on offense. We just have to put a complete game together.”

That complete game, the Tigers hope, comes next week against McKinley. In fact, their season may depend on it happening.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2014: Massillon 38, Akron Garfield 0

Massillon ends two-game losing streak, routs Garfield

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

MASSILLON Some good news on the scoreboard was what Massillon needed. That good news is what it received on Friday night.

Facing an overmatched Garfield team, the Tigers came out and took control early and rolled to a 38-0 win at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. The win snapped Massillon’s longest losing streak – two games – since 2011, and improved its record to 6-2 on the season.

It was the elixir the Tigers needed to not just calm the waters around town, but also get them in the right direction heading into a huge final two regular-season games. That starts with next week’s home game against St. Vincent-St. Mary, followed by the finale against resurgent McKinley.

“It’s nice to see our kids smile,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “We have a couple big ones coming, and a huge one definitely here in seven days. … We regroup now and move on.”

Massillon took control of the game in the first half, and unlike the previous two weeks against Austintown Fitch and Ursuline, didn’t let a halftime lead disappear. The Tigers, following an opening-drive turnover, turned their last two first-quarter possessions into scores for a 14-0 lead.

They wouldn’t stop scoring, either. A 21-0 halftime lead turned into a 31-0 edge after three quarter, with the entire fourth quarter spent playing under a running clock.

The first score was set up by Jeff Koch’s second interception in as many games, and third turnover picked up by the junior cornerback. Ten plays later, J.D. Crabtree was in the end zone with a 2-yard run and a Massillon lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Mike White, one of three running backs the Tigers used in the first quarter alone, made it 14-0 when he took a swing pass and raced 66 yards for a touchdown on their next possession. Despite a penalty flag that the officials ultimately picked up, Massillon was up 14-0.

White would add a pair of second-half scoring runs, a 12-yarder in the third quarter and a 55-yarder in the fourth.
Crabtree’s second short scoring run – a 3-yarder – made it 21-0 Massillon midway through the second quarter. The Tiger senior became the fifth running back in the last seven years to top the 1,000-yard rushing mark with a 55-yard scamper on that scoring drive.

“Being a 1,000-yard rusher, it’s always what I dreamed of,” Crabtree said. “I tried at it last year, but I came up 300, 400 short. (Running backs coach Joe) Pierce, I know he’s going to be proud of me. He works me hard.”

Crabtree finished Friday night with 173 yards, 124 in the first half. He now has 1,120 on the season.

One key to the Massillon win was its ability to not be its own worst enemy, as had been the case in the previous two games. That’s not to say the Tigers didn’t have miscues – their first drives of both the first and second quarters ended in turnovers – but they were significantly lessened overall compared to previous weeks.

After 19 combined flags against Massillon in the two losses, it was flagged five times against Garfield. That’s more in line with the first five games of the season, when the Tigers had just 14 penalties combined.

“I thought our kids were focused,” said Hall, whose team also got a 51-yard field goal by Andrew David. “They didn’t get worked up. They handled the turnovers. We made them have to drive the field and the things we want to do. I thought we did a good job.”

Which is why Massillon was able to get a whole lot of good news on the scoreboard.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2014: Massillon 14, Youngstown Ursuline 23

Ursuline uses strong running game to stop Massillon

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

YOUNGSTOWN The more physical team always was expected to be the team to emerge from Friday night’s showdown between Massillon and Ursuline with the win.

The Irish were the more physical of the two teams on this night inside Youngstown State University’s Stambaugh Stadium. That fact was reflected on the scoreboard, which read Ursuline 23, Massillon 14.

And no one was disputing that fact less than Tiger head coach Jason Hall, whose team dropped its second consecutive game – both to Youngstown area teams – to fall to 5-2.

“We got beat physically,” Hall said. “It is what it is. Their defense beat us up physically. There you go. We all got to look in the mirror.”

Massillon’s only two scores were set up by short fields. One came after a shanked punt set up their first possession at the Irish 26; the other after Jeff Koch’s interception started their final possession of the first half at the Ursuline 37.

Both ended with J.D. Crabtree touchdown runs. The first put Massillon ahead 7-0; the second gave the Tigers a 14-13 halftime lead.

Other than that, Massillon found next-to-nothing consistently go right for it against a stout Irish defense. The Tigers had their first drive of the second half end with a blocked 22-yard field goal, and their final drive of the game end with a 41-yard field goal go wide right.

Massillon’s running game was limited to a net of 77 yards, although Crabtree did run for 105 yards on 18 carries. The Tigers put the ball up 37 times, completing 14, for 223 yards.

“They got movement,” said Hall, whose team also was hurt by eight penalties. “They were able to get some penetration. It really cut off our cut-backs and our seams.”

The Tigers did have two other drives reach Ursuline territory, one to the Irish 39 and the other to the Irish 37. The first ended in a punt after the drive was short-circuited by a first-down sack in the second quarter; the latter saw the Tigers lose 31 yards on a bad punt snap to put the Irish in business at the Massillon 27 late in the third quarter.

The second one would set up Ursuline’s 26-yard field goal with 10:04 remaining. That gave the Irish the lead for good at 16-14.

“We’re growing up as a football team,” Ursuline head coach Larry Kempe said after his team improved to 5-2. “I’ve always liked our physicality defensively. We’re starting to understand that offensively up front, too.”

That was evident in the Irish’s patience with the running game. Of their 63 offensive plays, 60 were rushes, netting a total of 274 yards.

For the second week in a row, Massillon allowed a pair of 100-yard rushers, with one of those two being the opposing quarterback. This time, it was Irish quarterback Vito Penza leading all rushers with 168 yards on 27 carries and three touchdowns.

Penza’s 32-yard run on the Irish’s second possession pulled them within 7-6 of the Tigers. His 1-yard plunge with 9:05 left in the second quarter gave Ursuline a 13-7 lead after the PAT.

His final score – a 55-yard run with 8:33 remaining – made it a two-score game at 23-14.

“We knew we had to play Ursuline football, Youngstown football,” Penza said. “We played really well as a team.”

Kimauni Johnson also topped 100 yards rushing for Ursuline, gaining 106 yards on 27carries

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2014: Massillon 33, Austintown Fitch 34

Fitch ends Massillon’s unbeaten hopes again

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

MASSILLON It was like deja vu for Massillon. For the second year in a row, Massillon found itself needing a furious last-minute rally to try to knock off Austintown Fitch. For the second year in a row, that comeback fell short for the Tigers, this time in 34-33 loss at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on Friday night.

A year ago at Austintown, the comeback was halted when Fitch picked up a sack with less than five seconds left. On Friday night, the Tigers were thwarted when a 40-yard field goal try went wide right with five seconds remaining.

Either way, it was the second year in a row the Falcons knocked off Massillon when it was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in Division II.

“It came down to a last-second play, but at the end of the day, you can’t make as many mistakes as we did,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after his team fell to 5-1. “Special-teams blunders; we had some uncharacteristic penalties. Good teams don’t win like that. We didn’t play a great game tonight.”

Which was another eerie resemblance to last year’s 30-27 loss in Austintown. In that game, Massillon had miscues on offense, including bad penalties at inopportune times, which put it behind the 8-ball.

This time, the Tigers had a season-high 11 penalties for 96 yards. It was a jaw-dropping total for a team that had just 14 flags on it the first five games combined.

They also had not one, but two bad punt snaps.

One set up Fitch to tie the game at 14-14 late in the first half.

The other, early in the fourth quarter, was salvaged when Andrew David tracked it down at the goal line and boomed a 48-yard punt. Two plays later, the Tigers even found themselves with a 33-27 lead after Jeff Koch – playing in place of the injured Reggie Rogers – returned a fumble 53 yards for a score with 8:49 remaining.

Except that Massillon would botch the subsequent point-after try, leaving it ahead by just six points. Nine plays later, the Tigers would find themselves behind by a point after Fitch marched  down for a 2-yard Antwan Harris touchdown run – and, most importantly, the subsequent PAT kick – with 4:13 remaining.

Harris, the Fitch quarterback, had a second big rushing performance against Massillon. He rushed for 114 yards and two scores Friday, a year after going for 147 yards and three touchdowns in last year’s win.

“Antwan is Antwan,” Fitch coach Phil Annarella said after his team improved to 5-1. “He does this every week for us. He’s just an absolutely fabulous kid, fabulous football player. He’s carried us through six weeks now, and hopefully, we’ll have him for the last four too.”

Harris had help in the form of tailback Tyler Hewlett. Hewlett, filling in for the injured Darrin Hall, rushed for 133 yards and two scores.

Of course, Massillon probably never saw an ending like the one it ended up having 12 minutes into the game. Two drives into the contest, the Tigers had a 14-0 lead, racking up a 12-play, 80-yard march and a 13-play, 96-yard drive.

J.D. Crabtree scored the first Tiger touchdown, one of two scores by him on a night when he rushed for 114 yards. The second score came on a Danny Clark-to-Rogers touchdown pass, part of a 237-yard passing night by the Tiger sophomore.

All of it, ultimately, for naught in the eyes of their head coach.

“I guess it’s always frustrating,” Hall said. “We played well in spurts. We made a lot of mental mistakes.”

That’s why, when all was said and done, Massillon once again needed a furious last-minute rally to try to beat Fitch. It’s also why, once again, the Tigers couldn’t end up beating Fitch.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2014: Massillon 26, Steubenville 13

Massillon gets physical, stays unbeaten with win over Steubenville

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

MASSILLON It’s not how you start, but how you finish. Or, if you were Massillon on Friday night, it’s both how you start and how you finish.

The Tigers jumped out on visiting Steubenville to a two-touchdown first-quarter lead. Then after Big Red had threatened in the second half, Massillon came up with the necessary drives — and points – to keep them at bay in a 26-13 win at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“Everybody knows we both play physical football,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after the state’s No. 1-ranked Division II team improved to 5-0. “You expect momentum shifts in this game. I thought we put a drive together when it counted. … Our kids, when it counts in the fourth quarter, they come through.”

When it counted most, the Tigers hitched their wagon to their running game. Specifically, they hitched it to running back J.D. Crabtree.

Crabtree took over in the fourth quarter, which started with Massillon nursing a 23-13 lead.

That’s when the senior battering ram gained 48 – on 10 carries – of his game-high 127 yards.

It may not have resulted in any touchdown drives, but it took time off the clock.

“Coach Hall came out and said that they said we were the less-physical team here and they were going to come out and be too physical for us,” Crabtree said. “I think we all took that to heart. Our goal was to come out strong in the first quarter and hit them hard.”

Massillon had 90 rushing yards in the fourth quarter, and finished with 201 net yards on the ground. Austin Jasinski also had a big 44-yard run on the Tigers’ next-to-last drive that moved the ball from the Tiger 12 to the Big Red 43.

That drive, the final scoring drive of the game, ended with an Andrew David 26-yard field goal with 2:45 remaining. It was one of two second-half field goals by David, who also hit a 42- yarder with 1:21 left in the third quarter to provide Massillon with a 23-13 advantage.

Those were the Tigers’ only two scores of the second half. They had started it with a 20-7 lead.

“It’s the biggest weapon, if not the country, then the state,” Hall said of David.

Massillon set itself up for a big finish by flying out of the gates with its best start of any of its four games against American competition. After a first-possession three-and-out, the Tigers put the ball in the end zone on both of their next two drives.

The first one was set up by their defense, when Malek Jackson picked off a Steubenville pass and returned it inside the Big Red 15. Three plays later, Danny Robinson caught a 9-yard screen pass from Danny Clark to give Massillon a 7-0 lead with 8:20 left in the first quarter.

A nice punt return by Jasinski – plus a Big Red penalty – put the Tigers in business on their next drive at the Steubenville 16. This time, it took four plays to reach the end zone, with Crabtree scoring from 12 yards out for a 14-0 lead with 5:27 left in the quarter.

Steubenville (4-1) finally cracked the scoreboard when Niko Petrides caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Dimitri Collaros with 8:19 left in the half to cut it to 14-7. It was one of two scoring strikes for Collaros, who finished 17-of-30 with 225 yards.

The other Steubenville score came on the first drive of the second half, a 15-play, 80-yard march that milked 5:17 off the clock. It ended on a 30-yard pass from Collaros to Charles Reeves.

Robinson had Massillon’s other touchdown, a 6-yard run with 5:48 left in the first half. It came on the drive immediately following Steubenville’s first score.

“The one thing about these guys, they like to compete,” Hall said. “They don’t get worked up; I get more worked up than they do. They adjust, they keep working.”

Steubenville did have a couple of chances to add points to its total. Big Red drove to the Tiger 10 – trailing by 10 – early in the fourth quarter, but was stopped on downs.

After Massillon pushed its lead to 13 late in the fourth, Steubenville drove to the Tiger 20. That possession ended on three incomplete passes into the end zone with under 1:50 remaining.

GAME STATS