Category: <span>History</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2010: Massillon 26, Mentor 21

Tigers send message with big victory over Mentor

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

MENTOR, OH — The Massillon Tigers boarded the buses to go to Mentor on Friday carrying a massive chip on their shoulders. They were a team disrespected, in their eyes, and they had ideas of rectifying the situation.

.Everyone picked us to lose, said senior receiver Justin Olack, after Massillon rallied for a 26-21 win over the Cardinals at Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium. .Everybody expected us to lose. Even our fans expected us to lose, and that’s not right. Massillon fans should always expect us to win. We showed them tonight that we were going to win no matter what.

Olack’s 45-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter gave Massillon the lead for good at 20-14. He then threw a 17-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to Tyler Miller on a gadget play for a 26-14 advantage.

For the Tigers, it was a message sent to the critics.

.They prejudged us, that’s what I told our kids,. said Tiger coach Jason Hall after his team improved to 3-1. .We don’t want to be prejudged. We’re Massillon. You better give us a 50-50 shot every time we step on the field. That’s probably what (ticked) us off tonight.

In taking out their frustration Friday night, Massillon dipped into the bag of tricks. Both Olack and Devin Smith threw touchdown passes on the night – Smith’s a 32-yarder to Montel Harrison in the first quarter to give the Tigers a 12-7 lead.

.We work it all the time in practice,. said Smith, who added 127 yards on eight catches. .They tell us to be ready just in case we get to run them in the game. It just worked perfectly. We executed it perfectly. You saw that me and J.O. can throw the ball.

Of course, the guy the Tigers were interested in seeing throw the ball on Friday night was sophomore Kyle Kempt, who made his first start of the season. Kempt handled himself well, completing 16-of-26 passes for 196 yards with a pair of touchdowns – one to Tyler Robinson in the first quarter and the one to Olack in the third quarter.

Kempt, the highly-touted transfer from Oregon, did throw an interception in the end zone in the third quarter. He was also sacked five times, but Hall said he expects his quarterback to get better.

.He made some good plays and he made some bad plays,. Hall said of Kempt. .We have to keep coaching up all our quarterbacks. I think we have to keep working on our consistency, keep looking at reads and we have to get better..

The Tigers have also improved their running game, as evidenced by their 119 yards on 30 carries, many of those draw plays which went for big gains by Jake Reiman. Reiman finished with 122 yards on 16 carries.

We were mixing it up enough to keep them off-balanced,. Hall said.

Mentor’s running game gave the Tigers plenty of headaches, especially over the first 24 minutes of the game. In the first half, quarterback Colton Wallace and Mike Korecz were able to hit the Massillon defense on some big plays, which helped the Cardinals take a 14-12 halftime lead.

Korecz rushed for 89 of his game-high 128 yards in the first half, scoring on a six-yard run in the second quarter before adding a 13-yard burst in the fourth quarter. Wallace, meanwhile, gained 52 of his 84 yards prior to halftime, and gave Mentor a 7-0 lead on its first possession with a 1-yard run.

The Cardinals rushed for 157 yards in the first half. They were held to 87 yards in the second half, when they found themselves faced with a number of second-and third-and-long situations they couldn’t overcome.

We did a good job of that,. said Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno, whose team is now 1-3. Then in the second half, every time we did it we got a holding call and it brought us back. All of a sudden, you’re way back out of the way..

GAME STATS

Massillon 26

Mentor 21

at Jerome T. Osborne Sr. Stadium

Massillon 12 0 8 6 26

Mentor 7 7 7 7 21

SCORING SUMMARY

Men – Wallace 1 run (Klisuric kick)

Mas – T. Robinson 5 pass from Kempt (Kick blocked)

Mas – Harrison 32 pass from Smith (Kick blocked)

Men – Korecz 6 run (Klisuric kick)

Mas – Olack 45 pass from Kempt (Roberson pass from Kempt)

Mas – Miller 17 pass from Olack (Pass failed)

Men – Korecz 13 run (Klisuric kick)

Mas Men

First downs 17 23

Rushes-yards 119 244

Comp-Att-Int 18-28-1 9-15-1

Passing yards 245 113

Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1

Penalties-yards 7-52 7-77

Records 3-1 1-3

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing:

Massillon – Reiman 16-122; Winters 1-20; Roberson 2-19.

Mentor – Korecz 31-128 2 TDs; Wallace 18-84 TD.

Passing:

Massillon – Kempt 16-26-196 2 TDs, INT; Smith 1-1-32 TD; Olack 1-1-17 TD.

Mentor – Trubisky 7-11-89 INT; Wallace 2-4-24.

Receiving:

Massillon – Smith 8-127; Olack 3-47 TD; Reiman 2-9; Roberson 2-8; Harrison 1-32 TD; Miller 1-17 TD; T. Robinson 1-5 TD.

Mentor – Cade 5-58.

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2010: Massillon 27, Stow 10

Massillon not smooth, but stops Stow

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

MASSILLON, OH – It had been a while since the Massillon Tigers could look up and see themselves sitting with a double-digit lead as the scoreboard clock hit triple zeroes. That’s exactly what the Tigers were able to do on Friday night, as they handed Stow a 27-10 loss at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

But for the last three quarters, that double-figure lead felt like anything but one for the Tigers. After jumping out to a 21-0 second-quarter lead, Massillon was beset by choppy play, turnovers and penalties for the remainder of the game – things which were front-and-center on head coach Jason Hall’s mind immediately afterward.

“I told our guys, if we play this way in what we call our big games,” Hall said after his team improved to 2-1 with a big road test at Mentor next Friday, “not putting anything down on Stow, but if you go on the road to Mentor and play like this, we’ve got no shot. We have to execute. We can’t have turnovers, we can’t have sloppy play. We can’t have cheap penalties, and we’ll address that. … We have to play the way we’re capable of playing.”

In winning, the Tigers may have opened the door to a bit of controversy at the quarterback position. Brody Tonn started for the third straight game, and led the Tigers on scoring drives on each of their first two possessions, including a 59-yard touchdown strike to Jacar Roberson.

But on the third Tiger possession, a combination of four bad or mishandled snaps spoiled any chance Massillon may have had to add to what was a 14-0 lead at the time. And on the next possession, highly-touted sophomore Kyle Kempt made his Tiger debut, coming on to throw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Roberson to give Massillon a 21-0 lead with 9:07 remaining in the half.

“We just weren’t able to really get into a good rhythm at the end of the first quarter,” Hall said. “We came out pretty hot. … Missing snaps and we weren’t getting into a rhythm, so I thought it was time to calm Brody down. Kyle’s been practicing well, so it was time to see what he could do.”

Kempt played the remainder of the game, finishing 6-of-11 for 74 yards. Prior to being removed, Tonn was 4-of-5 for 92 yards with the touchdown.

Hall would not commit to a direction with the quarterback position after the game.

Stow, which could get nothing going in the first quarter, managed to cut it to 21-10 at halftime thanks to a pair of scoring possessions. The Bulldogs broke through on the scoreboard when quarterback Mike Greenwell adeptly kept the ball on an option play for a 49-yard scoring run just 17 seconds after the Tigers had built up their three-touchdown lead.

Aaron Quinn’s 30-yard field goal with 14 seconds left in the half cut it to an 11-point margin. Stow had a touchdown pass called back due to a holding penalty – one of four on the drive against the Bulldogs.

In fact, the yellow flags had quite a prominent presence in the second quarter. Stow was flagged for 10 penalties in the quarter for 80 yards, including three straight procedure flags for kicking the ball out of bounds on the subsequent kickoff after the field goal.

Massillon didn’t fare much better in the penalty department, getting hit for seven second-quarter flags for 60 yards. For the game, the Tigers were flagged 13 times for 120 yards, while Stow had 14 penalties for 102 yards.

“It’s embarrassing, that’s the only word I’ve got for those penalties,” Hall said of the penalties. “It’s embarrassing. I’ve never been in a game where we had that many penalties. We played last week and we had seven penalties.”

Lost in all the choppiness of the game was a slow emergence of the Tiger running game, which was held to just an average of 2.2 yards per carry in the first two games. But against Stow, Massillon finished with 168 yards, averaging 4.7 yards a rush.

Jake Reiman was the primary benefactor of that success. Reiman, who came into the game with 74 rushing yards on the season, finished with 141 yards on 19 carries.

Reiman’s 8-yard run in the first quarter gave the Tigers a 14-0 lead. He added a 5-yard run in the third quarter to close out the scoring.

But, much like the game, Hall had a caveat to the rushing night for his team.

“I thought we ran hard and the kids played hard, but at the same time, we weren’t consistent,” Hall said.

GAME STATS

Massillon 27
Stow 10

at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium

Stow 0 10 0 0 10
Massillon 14 7 6 0 27

SCORING SUMMARY

M – Roberson 59 pass from Tonn (McCarthy kick)
M – Reiman 8 run (McCarthy kick)
M – Roberson 29 pass from Kempt (McCarthy kick)
S – Greenwell 49 run (Quinn kick)
S – FG 30 Quinn
M – Reiman 8 run (Kick blocked)

Mas Stow
First downs 14 10
Rushes-yards 36-168 32-99
Comp-Att-Int 10-16-0 12-24-3
Passing yards 166 118
Fumbles-lost 4-2 0-0
Penalties-yards 13-120 14-102
Records 2-1 1-2

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 19-141 2 TDs; Roberson 2-22.
Stow – Greenwell 14-75 TD; Mitchell 14-40.

Passing:
Massillon – Tonn 4-5-92 TD; Kempt 6-11-74 TD.
Stow – Greenwell 12-24-118 3 INTs.

Receiving:
Massillon – Roberson 4-124 2 TDs; Smith 4-36; Olack 1-5; Winters 1-1.
Stow – Herman 5-46; Waggoner 4-34; Garrison 2-35; Gobble 1-3.

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2010: Massillon 28, Canton Glenoak 27

Tigers withstand GlenOak’s Dunn, rally for key win

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

CANTON, OH On a night when GlenOak’s Bri’onte Dunn appeared to be on his way to a magical kind of night, the Massillon Tigers stole the show and put together the kind of win that can jump-start a season.

Despite giving up 320 yards rushing to the Golden Eagles’ talented running back, Massillon rallied in the second half to pull out a 28-27 win at sold-out Bob Commings Field on Thursday night.

We handled adversity, Tiger coach Jason Hall said after his team pulled to 1-1 on the season. They fought and they fought. GlenOak came out of the gates and just smacked us and made some big plays early. … We just kept hanging in there.

Nobody may have better epitomized that hang-in-there attitude than Brody Tonn, the Tigers sophomore quarterback.

After a miserable night in his first varsity start last week against Buchtel, Tonn came back to put up the kind of game that Hall expected from his young quarterback when he gave him the reins of the offense in two-a-days. The sophomore completed 17-of-30 passes for 330 yards and four touchdowns and two interceptions.

I had so much support after that game, Tonn said. Everybody calling me and telling me to keep my head high. It was my first game and I got it under my belt. I just took that all in mind.

Two of his biggest supporters during the week were his two biggest targets Devin Smith and Justin Olack. And those two were there again on Thursday night to give him a lift on the field as well.

It was Smith’s 45-yard touchdown catch on a ball he had to come back to get that gave Massillon its first lead of the night – at 28-27 after Anthony McCarthy’s critical point-after kick – with 11:50 remaining. Smith finished with five catches for 116 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“All week we’ve been working with him,” Smith said. “We’ve been talking to him and keeping his head up. … The most important thing for him being so young, us seniors have to step up and make sure his head is in the game.”

Olack added 150 yards receiving on eight catches, with six of those grabs and 122 of those yards in the first half. His 81-yard touchdown catch late in the first half cut GlenOak’s lead to 21-14 at halftime.

Tyler Allman also caught a 31-yard touchdown pass from Tonn that made it 27-21 GlenOak in the third quarter.

The problem for much of the night for Massillon wasn’t its offense. It was GlenOak’s offense – or, more specifically, Dunn.

The Golden Eagle junior showcased his immense talents for the better part of the night. He had 119 yards on eight carries in the first quarter, including a 78-yard run that gave GlenOak a 14-0 lead.

He put GlenOak up 21-7 early in the second quarter with a 57-yard burst to the end zone. At the half, he had already reached 234 yards on 22 carries.

Dunn’s final scoring run was a 31-yard effort in which he bounced off at least three Tiger defenders to give GlenOak a 27-14 edge with 9:39 remaining in the third quarter. The PAT bounced off the upright to keep the lead at 13.

Through three quarters, Dunn had 295 yards rushing on 31 carries. But the Tigers were able to hold him to just 25 yards on eight fourth-quarter carries, although he did have a big 20-yard reception to convert a third down late.

“We stopped wrong-arming,” Hall said. “The concern was he was bouncing in space and we weren’t tackling. We were trying to keep him inside, and our secondary had to come up and start tackling.”

GlenOak would threaten seriously once in the fourth quarter, getting down to the Tiger 3 after Massillon had pulled in front. But a fumble by the Golden Eagles was recovered by Massillon’s Seth Nalbach, snuffing out the potential threat.

After stopping the Golden Eagles on downs at the Tiger 43 with 2:21 left, Massillon would run out the clock – thanks to a GlenOak offsides penalty with 10 seconds left on a fourth-and-2 situation.

“This brought us together,” Olack said. “Our confidence is up now. We just have to play good every week now. We gained our respect back, too, from the fans.”

GAME STATS

Massillon 28
GlenOak 27

at Bob Commings Field

Massillon 7 7 7 7 28
GlenOak 14 7 6 0 27

SCORING SUMMARY

GO – Butler 45 pass from Meredith (Hayes kick)
GO – Dunn 78 run (Hayes kick)
M – Smith 43 pass from Tonn (McCarthy kick)
GO- Dunn 57 run (Hayes kick)
M – Olack 81 pass from Tonn (McCarthy kick)
GO – Dunn 32 run (Kick failed)
M – Allman 31 pass from Tonn (McCarthy kick)
M – Smith 45 pass from Tonn (McCarthy kick)

Mas GO
First downs 13 15
Rushes-yards 23-46 41-318
Comp-Att-Int 17-30-2 4-15-1
Passing yards 330 103
Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-1
Penalties-yards 4-30 4-20
Records 1-1 1-1

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing: Massillon – Reiman 7-23.
GlenOak – Dunn 39-320 3 TDs.

Passing: Massillon – Tonn 17-30-330 4 TDs, 2 INTs.
GlenOak – Meredith 4-15-103 TD, INT.

Receiving: Massillon – Olack 8-150 TD, Smith 5-116 2 TDs; Roberson 2-29; Allman
1-31 TD; Winters 1-4.
GlenOak – Butler 1-45 TD, Merrell 1-27, Dunn 1-20, Hall 1-11.

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2010: Massillon 13, Akron Buchtel 29

Buchtel tames Tigers by taking advantage of turnovers

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

MASSILLON, OH – The excitement was reaching a crescendo at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium Thursday night. The long-awaited 2010 football season for the Massillon Tigers had finally arrived.

And it took the Buchtel Griffins all of 14 seconds to suck the air out of the crowd.

The Griffins took the opening kickoff in for a touchdown, silencing most of the orange-clad fans in attendance at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. The Tigers would never entirely recover from that blow, as they were left shocked by the reigning Akron City Series champions, 29-13.

As staggering as Ernie Calhoun Jr.’s 90-yard return on the opening kick was, it was not nearly as shocking as the choppy performance by the Tigers’ offense.

While Massillon finished with a 295-235 edge in total yards, it struggled to get anything going consistently. The Tigers gave the ball up seven times, including six interceptions.

“We were inconsistent,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said. “Turnovers. At the end of the day, what did we end up with turnover-wise? You can’t win a game that way. We have to do better with play-calling. We have to work in practice to get our kids executing better. At the end of the day, that’s our job, to put our kids in a position to win.”

On Massillon’s second offensive play, an overthrown pass ended up in the hands of Buchtel’s Alex Arrington for an interception. On the Tigers’ third possession, Calhoun added to his evening by coming up with the Griffin defense’s second pick of the game.

Buchtel, meanwhile, was having its share of success moving the ball in the opening quarter, even if it was unable to punch it in the end zone. The Griffins had a 79-16 edge in first-quarter rushing yards, and a 93-19 advantage in total yards in the first 12 minutes of play.

But the Griffins didn’t have an offensive touchdown to show for it, in part because Massillon’s Tyler Miller came up with an interception in the end zone on the first play of the second quarter to thwart Buchtel’s best drive of the half.

That pick would lead to the first Massillon points of the season, as Alex Winters capped a 10-play, 80-yard drive with a 1-yard plunge at the 7:56 mark of the second quarter. The point-after try bounced off the right upright, keeping the score tied at 6-6.

Brody Tonn shook off a rough first quarter to hit Devin Smith on passes of 12 and 42 yards on the drive. He hit Justin Olack on a 4-yard touchdown pass on the next possession – gained after a Buchtel fumble – that gave Massillon a 13-6 lead after the PAT.

Tonn finished 16-of-35 for 211 yards. He threw the one touchdown, but also had all six interceptions.

“I don’t think you can sit here and put this game on Brody’s shoulders,” Hall said. “That’s not the case. He’s a sophomore. We have tons of seniors on this team and coaches. At the end of the day, you win and lose as a team.”

The second half seemed to start out well enough for the Tigers, who recovered an onside kick at the Griffin 48. But they turned the ball over on their first three possessions of the half – two interceptions and a fumble on fourth down.

The third turnover helped Buchtel take the lead when Tyler Jones hit Elijah Bell for a 12-yard touchdown pass. Marlon Oden then took the two-point conversion run in, giving the Griffins a 14-13 lead with 4:56 left in the third quarter.

Buchtel had a chance to add to its lead early in the fourth quarter, but Garrett Kreiger came up with an interception as he was falling to the turf.

Massillon gave the ball right back with its fifth interception of the night – which was brought back for a touchdown by Oden, only to be nullified by a personal foul penalty against Buchtel behind the play.

With 3:21 left, Jones would twist the knife into the Tigers’ hearts with a 37-yard score for a 21-13 lead after the PAT. Then Oden sealed the game with a pick-6 of his own with 3:06 left for a 29-13 lead.

“It’s hard handling adversity,” Hall said. “It’s the hardest thing in life, to handle tough times. That’s part of the reason we’re here. We’re trying to mold young men and teach them how to handle those situations.”

GAME STATS

Buchtel 29, Massillon 13

At Paul Brown Tiger Stadium

Buchtel 6 0 8 15 29

Massillon 0 13 0 0 13

SCORING SUMMARY

B – Calhoun 90 kickoff return (Kick failed)

M – Winters 1 run (Kick failed)

M – Olack 4 pass from Tonn (McCarthy kick)

B – Bell 12 pass from Jones (Oden run)

B – Jones 37 run (Brewer kick)

B – Oden 11 interception return (Jones run)

Mas Buch

First downs 16 12

Rushes-yards 36-84 38-212

Passing yards 211 23

Comp.-Att.-Int. 16-35-6 4-14-3

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties-yards 7-54 7-65

Records 0-1 1-0

2009: Massillon 17, Cleveland Glenville 31

Tigers’ run ends in 31-17 loss to Glenville

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

AKRON, OH — The one thing the Massillon Tigers didn’t want Saturday night’s Division I state semifinal against Glenville to turn into was a track meet. But the Tarblooders were able to do just that, hitting on three touchdowns of at least 40 yards as they defeated the Tigers 31-17 in front of 10,248 at the University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium.

The loss ends Massillon’s season a game shy of the state championship game, as the Tigers bow out at 10-4. Glenville, which is 13-1, will make its first-ever title-game appearance next Saturday night at Fawcett Stadium, facing Hilliard Davidson (12-1).

The catalyst for the Tigers’ loss was their inability to keep Glenville’s explosive athletes in check. The Tarblooders hit on touchdowns of 51, 44, 71 and 26 yards, the last two of those coming in the fourth quarter after Massillon had battled back from an 11-point deficit to tie the game at 17-17.

“It just wasn’t our night tonight,” said Tiger coach Jason Hall, whose team was outgained 466-270 on the night. “They made more big plays than us. They executed. … They’re a good team.”

The Tigers did their best for much of the night to keep Glenville contained. The Tarblooders managed just two first downs over the first 15 minutes of the game, while Massillon chewed up yards and clock time in jumping in front 3-0 on Jeremy Geier’s 30-yard field goal with 9:07 left in the first half.

But on the very first play of its next possession, Glenville showed why they’re generallyregarded as one of the most athletic teams in the state. Running back Toney Foster Jr. took a pitch to the left and raced down the sideline – avoiding a  would-be Massillon tacklers at about the Tiger 15 – for a 51- yard touchdown with 8:46 left in the half.

It would grow to 14-3 Glenville on the Tarblooders’ next possession. This time, it was Cardale Jones hitting Aramis Greenwood Jr. on a 45-yard catch-and-run on a post pattern.

Jones tossed a jump pass to Shane Belle II for the two-point conversion for the 11-point margin with 2:26 showing on the clock.

“We just felt we needed to attack the middle,” said Jones, who threw for 199 yards and two scores while rushing for another 150 yards and a score. “We felt they were weak in the middle, and our game plan, everything was based on attacking that middle.

Their linebackers were running out to the flats, leaving the middle wide open.”

But the Tigers didn’t wilt in the face of their largest deficit of the postseason. Instead, they began to claw back.
Massillon pulled within 14-10 on Bo Grunder’s 26-yard touchdown catch with 1:28 left in the half. The one-play scoring drive was set up by a muffed punt which was recovered by the Tigers’ Danny Huhn.

Grunder finished the game with four catches for 63 yards, all of those in the second quarter.

“I just try to do the best I can for my teammates,” Grunder said. “I try to make a play when I can; catch a ball when it’s thrown to me. I do my part.”

Glenville would get a field goal before the half for a 17-10 lead, but the Tigers fought back to a 17-17 deadlock on Jake Reiman’s 2-yard run with 5:53 left in the third. Reiman’s run capped a 13-play, 74-yard scoring drive for Massillon, a drive boosted by a pair of penalties on Glenville, including an offsides flag on a fourth-and-4 situation from the Tarblooder 15.

Nine of the 13 plays on the drive were rushes by Massillon, which ran the ball 37 times for 104 yards. Reiman finished with 79 yards on 26 carries.

“I thought we had some success,” Hall said. “We just weren’t consistent tonight. That probably would be the biggest thing; we weren’t consistent when we got on the other side of the 50.”

Glenville got on the other side of the 50 on its first two fourth-quarter possessions, and that’s what won it the game.

The first time came when Jones hit Shane Wynn on a 71-yard touchdown pass with 8:59 remaining. Jones was scrambling to the left, drawing the Tiger defense toward him, before hitting a wide-open Wynn about 10 yards down-field.

Wynn then raced to the end zone for a 24-17 Tarblooder lead. “I dumped the ball off to Wynn,” Jones said. “It was about a 6- yard pass, and he did the rest.”

Jones did it himself on the next Tarblooder possession, scrambling 26 yards for a score with 5:02 left for a 31-17 lead.

Massillon would twice drive inside the Glenville 25. Both would end on failed fourth-down conversions.

GAME STATS

Glenville 31
Massillon 17

Massillon 00 10 07 00 17
Glenville 00 17 00 14 31

SCORING SUMMARY
M – FG Geier 30
G – Foster 51 run (Run failed)
G – Greenwood 44 pass from Jones (Belle pass from Jones)
M – Grunder 26 pass from Partridge (Geier kick)
G – FG Bryant 28
M – Reiman 2 run (Geier kick)
G – Wynn 71 pass from Jones (Bryant kick)
G – Jones 26 run (Bryant kick)
Mas Glen
First downs 16 18
Rushes-yards 37-104 36-267
Comp-Att-Int 11-29-0 9-20-0
Passing yards 166 199
Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-1
Penalty yards 4-21 9-79
Records 10-4 13-1
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 26-79 TD; Nalbach 4-37; White 2-4.
Glenville – Jones 16-150 TD; Foster 5-69 TD; Walton 7-28; Wynn
6-22.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 11-29-166 TD.
Glenville – Jones 9-20-199 2 TDs.
Receiving:
Massillon – Smith 5-78; Grunder 4 – 63; Olack 2-25;.
Glenville – Wynn 2-71 TD; Anderson 2-14; Greenwood 1-44 TD;
Davis 1-23; Dunn 1-19; Bell 1-18; Bryant 1-9.

2009: Massillon 10, Canton McKinley 7

Tigers survive nailbiter with McKinley, win regional title

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

AKRON, OH — In the span of two minutes of game action Saturday night, the Massillon Tigers took an emotional roller-coaster ride which would have rivaled anything offered at Cedar Point.

But in the end, the ride ended with the Tigers earning their first state semifinal berth in nine years – as well as a ton of revenge – by beating McKinley 10-7 in a Division I regional final in front of an announced crowd of 13,121 at the University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium.

Leading by three, the Tiger marched 74 yards in 14 plays, reaching the McKinley 6. But with just under two minutes, Massillon fumbled the ball out of the end zone, giving the Bulldogs life at their own 20.

“It was a thriller,” Tiger quarterback Robert Partridge said.  “We just wanted to get down and run the clock out. It was a mistake, but I knew our defense was going to come out and stop them. We have great players on defense.”

McKinley took advantage driving down to the Massillon 16 less than 45 seconds remaining. But faced with a third-and-4, Massillon’s Tyler Miller came up with his second interception of the game – the third for the Tiger defense on the night – at the Tiger 2 with 33 seconds remaining to send Massillon into next Saturday night’s state semifinal against 12-1 Glenville at InfoCision Stadium.

“We put ourselves in position,” McKinley coach Ron Johnson said. “We went down and made plays and got into the scoring zone. We just didn’t finish.” A big reason why McKinley wasn’t able to finish was the Massillon  defense.

After allowing McKinley to score 35 points and rack up 364 yards in the Bulldogs’ regular-season win over Massillon, the Tigers clamped down on the Bulldogs in the playoff rematch. Massillon surrendered just the one touchdown – an 8-yard pass from Kyle Ohradzansky to Angelo Powell with 8 seconds left in the half –
and 219 total offensive yards to McKinley, which bows out at 8- 5.

The Tigers turned the Bulldogs away three different times in the second half after McKinley had reached deep into Massillon territory. Massillon blocked a 39-yard field goal attempt on the first drive of the third quarter, while Miller picked off a pass in the end zone with 8:37 left, then closed out Massillon’s win just over eight minutes later.

“They did have the ball on our side of the field pretty much the whole second half,” Tiger safety Bo Grunder said. “You know, we just have to stay up and stick with what we’re doing, read our keys and make plays.”

Massillon finished with three takeaways on the night, as Grunder also had an interception midway through the third quarter.

“We’re playing good defense,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “We’re holding good teams to one touchdown or 10 points.”

Massillon may have felt a bit disappointed only having 10 points on its side of the scoreboard going into the locker room. Of course, that was still enough for the Tigers to hold a 10-7 lead.

The Tigers drove onto McKinley’s side of the 50 on their first four first-half possessions, and inside the 20 on three straight possessions. They were able to take a 7-0 lead when Jake Reiman’s 1-yard plunge capped a 10-play, 69-yard drive at the 3:51 mark of the first quarter.

Reiman matched his career high rushing with his second straight 127-yard rushing performance.

After a missed field goal on its first second-quarter possession, Massillon made it 10-0 on Jeremy Geier’s 21-yard field goal with 4:04 remaining in the half.

The Tigers had 182 total yards in the first half. They finished the game with 269 yards.

“We just executed our plays,” Partridge said of the first-half offense. “We did our keys. Offensively, we mixed it up with the run and the pass. We ran the ball really well this time.”

That was especially true on the Tigers’ fourth-quarter drive which appeared on its way to icing the win. After getting the ball at their own 20 on Miller’s first interception, the Tigers ran it 12 times for 74 – including 11 straight runs after backto-back pass plays left Massillon with a fourth-and-1 at its own 29.

That’s when Hall turned riverboat gambler. Eschewing the punt, he went for it deep in his own territory, getting it when Clayton Mattox fought forward for two yards.

“Everybody keeps asking me about that,” Hall said of the fourth down call. “But to me, it was a situation where after the first McKinley-Massillon game in Week Ten, a lot was said about them winning the game physically. That was our focus. … I think in general, I wanted our kids to win the game, so I put it in their hands because I know they can do it.”

And in the end, the Tigers did just that. Only not before going on one more emotional roller-coaster ride.

GAME STATS

Massillon 10
McKinley 7

Massillon 07 03 00 00 10
McKinley 00 07 00 00 07

SCORING SUMMARY
Mas – Reiman 1 run (Geier kick)
Mas – FG Geier 21
McK – Powell 8 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)

Mas McK
First downs 16 12
Rushes-yards 41-178 33-150
Comp-Att-Int 12-22-0 10-24-3
Passing yards 91 69
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalty yards 1-5 0-0
Records 10-3 8-5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 27-127 TD; Nalbach 2-24; Partridge 6-19;
Grunder 2-10.
McKinley – Wilder 18-89; Ohradzansky 7-61; Farrakhan 7-11.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 12-22-91.
McKinley – Ohradzansky 10-23-69 TD, 3 INTs; Team 0-1-0.
Receiving:
Massillon – Olack 7-60; Reiman 2-15; Allman 1-8; Smith 1-5.
McKinley – Powell 3-24; Wilder 3-7; Parton 2-21; Ogletree 1-16.

2009: Massillon 10, Twinsburg 7

Geier’s kick lifts Massillon past Twinsburg

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

CANTON, OH – It was as good a time as any for Jeremy Geier to attempt – and hit – the longest field goal of his two-year Massillon Tiger career.

With the score tied and 28 seconds showing on the clock Saturday night, Geier connected on a 40-yard field goal to lift Massillon past Twinsburg 10-7 in a Division I regional semifinal in front of 7,621 fans at Fawcett Stadium.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Geier, whose previous career long – both for an attempted and a made field goal – was 39 yards. “That was awesome.”

The win sends Massillon, now 9-3, to the regional championship game for the first time since 2005. Standing in the Tigers’ path is archrival McKinley, which is 8-4 after routing GlenOak 48-7 earlier Saturday afternoon at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The fifth playoff meeting between the two rivals will be held at the University of Akron’s new InfoCision Stadium. The previous four playoff meetings were all at the Rubber Bowl. It wasn’t nearly as easy for the Tigers to earn their rematch with the Bulldogs, who won the regular-season meeting 35-21 at Fawcett Stadium. In fact, Massillon found itself in a dogfight with another group of Tigers – these from Twinsburg – for almost 48 solid minutes.

“I can’t say enough about the character of this team and the way they handle adversity,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “They never give up. You think they’re down, and they just keep fighting. It’s a bunch of fighters. I’m just proud of these kids. I’m happy to be a small part of it.”

The only scoring prior to Geier’s field goal was a touchdown pass for each team. Twinsburg’s came on a 38-yard screen pass from Andrew Collier to Dion Johnson with 3:39 left in the first half for a 7-0 lead, while Massillon matched that with a 41-yard strike from Robert Partridge to Devin Smith with 8:46 remaining in the third quarter.
While both teams’ touchdowns came through the air, it was the running games for both which really set the tone. Twinsburg rushed for 216 yards, while Massillon gained 140 on the ground.

For Massillon, much of that rushing total came in the second half, when it made a concerted effort to utilize its size advantage up front with a variety of unbalanced looks to pound the ball against Twinsburg. The biggest benefactor was Jake Reiman, who had 19 of his game-high 26 carries and 78 of his game – and career – high 125 yards in the second half.

“I couldn’t have done it without my line or my fullback,” Reiman said. “They block their (butts) off today. … I’m just glad I got my opportunity and I’m trying to do the best I can with it.”

Both teams had plenty of chances to add to their totals. All eight of Massillon’s possessions in the game had at least two snaps on Twinsburg’s side of the 50, including a pair of drives – beyond the Tigers’ two scoring drives – which moved inside the Twinsburg 30.

But Massillon turned the ball over three times on Twinsburg’s side of the field, including a pair of interceptions, one of which came in the end zone.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Hall said. “It was not pretty. We made mistakes and I said it at halftime, we were killing ourselves. It wasn’t like they were smashing us at the line with a lot of negative plays. We killed ourselves.”

Twinsburg had its chances as well. The Summit County edition of the Tigers had seven of their nine possessions reach the Massillon side of the field, including three drives inside the Massillon 30.

Two of those drives were turned away by fourth-down stands by Massillon, and another was squelched when Bo Grunder got the first of his two interceptions on the night. Grunder also put the final nail in the Twinsburg coffin with a pick with 17 seconds left.

Twinsburg also had an 83-yard touchdown pass late in the first half negated by a holding penalty.

“This is the same problem we had last year against Hoover (in the second round of the playoffs),” said Twinsburg coach Mark Solis, whose team bows out in the second round for the second straight year, this time at 10-2. “I have to go back and work my (butt) off as a coach and figure it out. We have to do a better job when we get down in the red zone. What it is, when we get down there and people put pressure on us, we don’t handle it
well.”

GAME STATS

Massillon 10
Twinsburg 7

Massillon 00 00 07 03 10
Twinsburg 00 07 00 00 07

SCORING SUMMARY
T – Johnson 38 pass from Collier (Russell kick)
M – Smith 41 pass from Partridge (Geier kick)
M – FG Geier 40

Mas Twi
First downs 20 17
Rushes-yards 34-140 37-216
Comp-Att-Int 13-27-2 12-22-2
Passing yards 226 132
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0
Penalty yards 7-48 6-50
Records 9-3 10-2
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 26-125; Nalbach 3-14.
Twinsburg – Nero 7-95; Johnson 15-65; Collier 12-43; Hiller 3-
13.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 13-27-226 TD, 2 INTs.
Twinsburg – Collier 12-22-132 TD, 2 INTs.
Receiving:
Massillon – Olack 4-104; Smith 4-64 TD; Grunder 4-41; Allman 1-
17.
Twinsburg – Johnson 3-56 TD; Comar 3-30; Nero 3-24; Grant 2-16;
Francisco 1-6.

2009: Massillon 17, North Canton Hoover 10

Tigers moving on, sweep out Hoover

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

MASSILLON, OH — For almost 365 days, the Massillon Tigers had last year’s first-round loss to Hoover ingrained in their memories. On Saturday night, they had a chance to either replace that memory with a much more positive one, or add another bitter one.

They decided to give themselves something much better to thinking about, as they elicited a bit of revenge on the Vikings – and advance into the second round of the playoffs – with a 17- 10 victory over Hoover in a Division I Region 2 quarterfinal in front of a boisterous 6,898 fans at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“It definitely feels good to get a win, especially in the playoffs, because we keep going,” said Tiger senior Bo Grunder, who had four clutch catches – all to pick up first downs – as well as a key stop on a fourth-and-goal play midway through the fourth quarter. “It feels good since last year. I’ve thought about that 14-7 score (in the loss to Hoover) the whole season, the offseason and the whole year. We just paid them back.”

The Tigers did so by getting arguably their best defensive performance of the season as they held Hoover’s Erick Howard to just 99 yards on 38 carries. Of those yards, 46 came on the Vikings’ third-quarter touchdown drive which cut Massillon’s lead to 17-10.

It was only the third time this season Howard, Stark County’s all-time leading rusher, was held below 100 yards. And it was 96 yards fewer than the 195 yards he gained on 40 carries in last year’s win over the Tigers.

“That’s what we wanted,” said Tiger coach Jason Hall, whose 8-3 team will now face 10-1 Twinsburg next  Saturday night at Fawcett Stadium. “We told all our kids that we weren’t just going to come up and lay into him, we were going to give him everything we’ve got every play. … It sounds kind of cliche, but we’d rather die with pride than live without it. That’s just about leaving it on the field.”

Hoover had two chances in the fourth quarter to force a tie, but were stopped both times. The Vikings reached the Tiger 6 midway through the quarter, before Grunder came up with the key defensive play on a quarterback keeper by Brett Tulodzieski four yards shy of the goal line.

The final chance came over the final two minutes of the game, as the Vikings reached the Massillon 47. But a third-down pass play didn’t pick up enough for a first down, nor did the receiver get out of bounds, and the
clock ran out, setting off a wild celebration by the Tigers.

“Give Massillon a lot of credit, players and coaches,” said Hoover coach Don Hertler Jr., whose team bows out at 7-4. “They really did a great job. I don’t know how our kids could’ve played any harder. … We just couldn’t get over the hump.”

The Tigers played from ahead almost the entire game, starting with their second drive which resulted with a 5-yard touchdown run by Jake Reiman. Reiman, starting in place of the injured Alex Winters, carried the ball three times for 36 yards on the drive and actually outgained Howard 49-35 over the first half.

Reiman finished with a career-high 65 yards on 14 carries. “I’ve said it all along, Jake can play for a lot of teams,” Hall said. “He can obviously play for us. We have three or four quality tailbacks. … Jake can run the ball, there’s no mistake about it.”

Hoover had two first-half drives which moved deep into Tiger territory. But only one of those resulted in points, as A.J. Sarbaugh booted a 43-yard field goal to cut the Massillon lead to 7-3 with 9:25 left in the half after the Vikings reached the Tiger 26.

The other drive, which moved to the Massillon 29, was snuffed out by a nifty interception by strong safety Josh Remark. “I rolled down and I saw him (Tulodzieski) get his arm back ready to throw the ball,” Remark said. “I just broke and I caught the ball. … It was all possible because he had to come my way because my teammates were getting the job done up front.”

Meanwhile, the Tigers were methodical in scoring points on their two second-quarter drives, taking at least 11 plays on each as they built up a 17-3 halftime lead. The first was a 15-play, 80-yard march which ended when Robert Partridge hit Devin Smith on a 5-yard fade route with 5:06 remaining in the half. The other was an 11-play, 68-yard drive which ended when Jeremy Geier kicked a 24-yard field goal as time expired at the half.
A key to both drives was some clutch catches by Grunder, who had three grabs for 28 yards in the quarter. All three came on either third or fourth down, and all three picked up the necessary yards to move the chains.
Grunder would come up with one more clutch catch in the fourth quarter, when he made a 23-yard grab on third-and-12 from the Tiger 16 to keep Massillon’s final drive going.

“I just want to help my team win the game,” Grunder said. “When it’s time to make a catch, they can throw it to me, Devin, J.O. (Justin Olack). We have a lot of options. It just depends on who’s open.”

GAME STATS

Massillon 17
Hoover 10

Hoover 00 03 07 00 10
Massillon 07 10 00 00 17

SCORING SUMMARY
M – Reiman 5 run (Geier kick)
H – FG Sarbaugh 43
M – Smith 5 pass from Partridge (Geier kick)
M – FG Geier 24
H – Howard 1 run (Sarbaugh kick)
Hoo Mas
First downs 18 14
Rushes-yards 48-141 22-70
Comp-Att-Int 9-22-1 17-30-0
Passing yards 127 229
Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-1
Penalty yards 8-72 11-92
Records 7-4 8-3
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 14-65 TD.
Hoover – Howard 38-99 TD; Tulodzieski 8-43.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 17-30-229 TD.
Hoover – Tulodzieski 9-20-127 INT.
Receiving:
Massillon – Smith 4-91 TD; Grunder 4-51; Olack 4-40; Allman 4-
38.
Hoover – Nettleton 3-31; Sarbaugh 2-43; Howard 2-17; Gardner 1-
19.

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large)

2009: Massillon 21, Canton McKinley 35

Bulldogs’ big plays take down Tigers

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

Massillon came into Saturday afternoon’s game against archrival McKinley as the team boasting the big-play ability. But it was the Bulldogs who seemed to make the biggest plays when needed in the 118th meeting between the two storied programs.

And those big plays – be it on offense, defense or special teams – proved to be the difference as McKinley snapped a four-game losing streak to the Tigers with a 35-21 victory over Massillon in front of 15,555 at Fawcett Stadium Saturday afternoon.

McKinley had three touchdowns of 25 yards or more in the game. None of the Tigers’ three scoring plays were by more than two yards.

“They made a lot of big plays,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “You have to take your hat off to them. They really made some big plays, just too many for us to recover from.”

The Tigers now head into the playoffs with a 7-3 record. Massillon will be hosting a first-round game next Saturday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, likely against Hoover, the same team which beat the Tigers in the first round last year in North Canton.

McKinley, meanwhile, likely earned a trip to the playoffs with its first two-game win streak of the season. The Bulldogs, who are now 6-4, are expected to head to Toledo to meet Whitmer next weekend.

The Bulldogs set the big-play tone on their third play after a missed Tiger field goal, as quarterback Kyle Ohradzansky hit Angelo Powell on a post pattern for a 66-yard touchdown pass with 5:09 left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead after the point-after try.

“It really got the nerves off our shoulders,” said Ohradzansky, who was 7-of-10 for 136 yards with a pair of touchdowns to Powell. “They shut us out last year 17-0. So when we come out and score right away, it gave our guys a real sense of confidence, like ‘Hey, we can score on these guys and we can do it really, really fast.”

Ohradzansky would add a 1-yard plunge for a 14-0 Bulldog lead 1:36 into the second quarter. But the Tigers would come back with a 1-yard Jake Reiman plunge to cut it to 14-7 with 3:46 left in the half.

Reiman, who finished with 50 yards on 16 carries and three scores, came into the game after Alex Winters suffered an apparent knee injury on the first play of the Tigers’ second possession. That’s when McKinley would get big play No. 2, and maybe the biggest play of the game.

Taron Montgomery would take the subsequent kickoff at McKinley 2, run straight ahead, cut to the left and then took off. He wouldn’t be touched until he was tackled well after crossing the goal line by a Massillon player, but the score stood and the Bulldog lead was 14 again at 21-7 with 3:33 left until halftime.

“It’s a momentum swing,” said Hall, whose team trailed 21-14 at halftime. “In big games, special teams a lot of times are the factor. That was a big play for them.” Massillon offense reached McKinley’s territory on all nine
possessions of the game. But the Tigers were turned away on five trips inside the Bulldog 35, once on a missed field goal, another on an interception on their second drive, twice on downs and a final time when time expired in the game.

“We were just relentless,” McKinley defensive lineman Jamaal McClain said. “We went through practice all week talking about going hard. … We just wanted to play hard and relentless. That’s all we did. We were just focused and ready to play.”

Both of the turnovers on down came in the third quarter after McKinley moved ahead 28-21 on Ohradzansky’s second touchdown pass of the game. The first came from the Bulldog 24 on fourthand-10, the second from the McKinley 17 on a fourth-and-8.

“Sometimes in these big games, we were down and trying to get momentum back,” Hall said. “You don’t know when you’re going to get back again. We tried one early and we didn’t hit. We just decided we were in that tweener area. A couple times they made plays and a couple times that’s when we got scores.”

Massillon seemed to have a chance with just under six minutes remaining after Reiman’s third scoring run – a 2-yard run – cut it to 28-21. But McKinley answered, as Bryce Wilder ripped off a 25-yard touchdown run with 1:17 left to cap a nine-play, 81-yard drive.

Wilder finished with 119 yards on 17 carries. “Bryce Wilder and Elijah Farrakhan, unbelievable,” McKinley
coach Ron Johnson said. “They took care of the football. They squeezed it up and they made plays.”

And plays – big ones – were the reason why the Bulldogs were the ones celebrating with the Victory Bell on Saturday afternoon.

GAME STATS

McKinley 35
Massillon 21

Massillon 00 14 00 07 21
McKinley 07 14 07 07 35

SCORING SUMMARY
McK – Powell 66 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)
McK – Ohradzansky 1 run (Forsythe kick)
Mas – Reiman 1 run (Geier kick)
McK – Montgomery 92 kickoff return (Forsythe kick)
Mas – Reiman 1 run (Geier kick)
McK – Powell 5 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)
Mas – Reiman 2 run (Geier kick)
McK – Wilder 25 run (Forsythe kick)
Mas McK
First downs 18 15
Rushes-yards 33-127 42-228
Comp-Att-Int 13-34-1 7-10-0
Passing yards 235 136
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Penalty yards 4-50 8-64
Records 7-3 6-4
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 16-50 3 TDs; Partridge 8-48; Winters 7-26;
Robey 2-3.
McKinley – Wilder 17-119 TD; Farrakhan 12-77; Ohradzansky 11-26
TD.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 13-34-235 TD.
McKinley – Ohradzansky 7-10-136 2 TDs.
Receiving:
Massillon – Olack 5-107; Allman 2-41; Grunder 2-40; Reiman 2-19.
McKinley – Powell 3-83 2 TDs; Parton 2-10; Wilder 1-31; Ogletree
1-12.

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo

2009: Massillon 28, Mentor 20

Tigers clear big hurdle with win over Mentor

CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

Before the Massillon Tigers could turn their attention to their archrivals in Canton, they had to take care of the Mentor Cardinals. And Mentor made sure they had the Tigers’ attention for the full four quarters Friday night.
Despite taking Mentor’s best shot, the Tigers cleared the tricky Week Nine hurdle, and head into McKinley Week on the heels of a 28-20 win over the Cardinals in front of 5,940 soaked fans at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“I think we learned our lesson with that earlier in the year, midseason,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said. “We have to come and prepare week-to-week with our schedule, especially the second half. Mentor is a great football team. … They fought and you have to take your hat off to (Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno) and his guys. When it was crunch time, we had to run the clock out to win the game.”

Massillon heads into the final week of the regular season with a 7-2 record. Awaiting them is a McKinley team that knocked off Boardman on Friday night to improve to 5-4.Mentor falls to 5-4 on the season.

With a slick turf, both teams stuck to the ground for much of the first quarter with varying degrees of success. Mentor, however, was able to make the most of its rather limited successes in the quarter, ending it with a 51-yard Greg Klisuric field goal for a 3-0 lead.

Breaking the scoreless deadlock was like opening a valve as both offenses came to life in the second quarter.
Massillon scored on its first two possessions of the quarter and had a score on its third drive called back due to an illegal hands to the face penalty. The first – a 26-yard Robert Partridge-to-Devin Smith scoring strike – made it 7-3 Tigers 1:31 into the second quarter.

The second touchdown – a 10-yard run by Alex Winters, who had 118 of his 176 rushing yards in the first half – gave Massillon the lead back at 14-10 with 5:27 remaining in the half.

“I think Alex, after those two games (against St. Ignatius and Steubenville), we challenged him and he’s really stepped it up,” Hall said. “He’s really lowered his shoulders and delivered punishment instead of take it. That’s kind of a progression of a young running back. Sometimes I forget he’s just my baby running back. He’s a 10th-grader, but he didn’t play like a 10th grader.”

In between those scores, Mentor put together its own touchdown drive, creasing the Tiger defense with both the run and the pass. Cardinal quarterback Sam Mayse was 3-for-3 on the drive for 48 yards, while tailback Mike Korecz ran five times for 13 yards – including a 1-yard touchdown – and Ricky Hanzlik added a 19-yard run.
Korecz gained 82 yards on 14 first-half carries. He finished with 110 yards.

Partridge and Smith hooked up for a second touchdown with 4:18 left in the third quarter. Partridge dropped back from the Mentor 4 and lobbed a fade pass to Smith, who leaped and made the catch for the touchdown. Jeremy Geier’s point-after made it 21-10 Tigers.

Partridge finished the game 14-of-20 for 233 yards. He threw three touchdown passes, all to Smith, who had four catches for 144 yards.

“Rob’s been sick with the flu,” Hall said. “He had a slow start, but he really battled through some adversity. He’s really under the weather and it took him about a quarter to get going.”

Aided by a roughing the passer penalty on a 41-yard pass play, the Cardinals drove to the Massillon 11. After a procedure penalty moved the ball back to the Tiger 16, Mentor ran an endaround to Graeham McKnight, who pulled up and threw a 16-yard touchdown strike to a wide-open Marcus Cade in the end zone. Klisuric’s PAT made it 21-17 Tigers with 2:05 left in the third quarter.

Partridge and Smith hooked up a third time with 7:47 left in regulation, this time a 67-yard strike to make it 28-17. The play came right after a Bo Grunder interception, the second pick of the game for Massillon.

“Any time you capitalize, it’s big,” Hall said. “The one, they’re driving and we get that pick and we come right back and throw that ball. Rob did a good job of recognizing cover-3 and he went for the home run ball.”

But Mentor drove down the field, reaching the Tiger 7. After a pair of incomplete passes, Klisuric was called on to boot a 25- yard field goal, which made it 28-20 Tigers with 4:49 left.

With 1:22 remaining, the Tigers iced the game when Patridge scrambled for a nine-yard game on a fourth-and-seven on the Mentor 27.

GAME STATS

Massillon 28
Mentor 20

Mentor 03 07 07 03 20
Massillon 00 14 07 07 28

SCORING SUMMARY
Men – FG Klisuric 51
Mas – Smith 26 pass from Partridge (Geier kick)
Men – Korecz 1 run (Klisuric kick)
Mas – Winters 10 run (Geier kick)
Mas – Smith 4 pass from Partridge (Geier kick)
Men – Cade 16 pass from McKnight (Klisuric kick)
Mas – Smith 67 pass from Patridge (Geier kick)
Men – FG Klisuric 25
Men Mas
First downs 18 19
Rushes-yards 36-189 41-194
Comp-Att-Int 13-23-2 14-20-0
Passing yards 211 233
Fumbles-lost 4-1 0-0
Penalty yards 5-35 6-49
Records 5-4 7-2
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Winters 29-164 TD; Partridge 8-31.
Mentor – Korecz 24-108 TD; Hanzlik 7-60.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 14-20-233 3 TDs.
Mentor – Mayse 12-22-195 2 INTs; McKnight 1-1-16 TD.
Receiving:
Massillon – Olack 6-49; Smith 4-144 3 TDs; Allman 1-16;
Winters 1-12.
Mentor – Rowe 7-115; Cade 4-82 TD; Hanzlik 1-9; Korecz 1-5.