Massillon packaged a musical postcard for southwestern Ohio Saturday night.
Splashed on the front was a collage of band members who were playing when Paul Brown was coaching, a few thousand balloons, fireworks, and a Massillon football player smashing a ball carrier backward.
The inscription on the back of the postcard read: “Massillon 14, Fairfield 6. You guys got anything like this down there?”
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The overwhelming display may or may not have had something to do with Fairfield’s quarterback on one play lining up to take a snap from the guard.
If not, the answer to the question was still clear, Southwestern Ohio may have teams as good as the one up here. But the overall show doesn’t compare.
“There are too many distractions here,” said Ben Hubbard, the nine-year head coach at Fairfield. “Of course, that’s the way it’s planned.”
“It’s way different playing up here,” said Fairfield running back Mike Ritzie, who was a sophomore starter on the 1986 Indian team that won the Division I state title.
A game in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium is always unusual by high school football standards. But a few things were added Saturday to the end of puttin’ on the ritz.
Most notable was the band show. A halftime blockbuster featured nearly 300 members of Tiger Swing Bands past and present in a 50th anniversary bash. Almost every year of the band’s history, 1938‑88, was represented by somebody tooting “Tiger Rag.”
Fireworks exploded. White birthday balloons filled the sky on this crisp, clear September night.
The home folks responded with a spontaneous, spine‑tingling roar.
For the first two 1988 home games, paid attendance figures were the ones announced. This time, a decision was made to punctuate the message to southwestern Ohio. The total, in‑house crowd was announced ‑ an impressive 12.869.
It is important to note that by halftime the score was 14‑0, Massillon.
An old Massillon guy, Jim Place, now the head coach at Fairfield’s Greater Miami Conference rival Middletown, sensed that the kill had already been made.
“If you want to win in Massillon,” said Place, here to scout Fairfield, “something good has to happen for you early. If it doesn’t, and you don’t set the tone, the kids start to wonder. They start looking at the crowd.”
The outcome left the Tigers with a 4‑0 record and in position to move from No. 5 to No. 4 in the statewide Associated Press poll, since No. 4 Boardman lost to McKinley Friday.
The Tigers will play at Austintown‑Fitch Friday.
Fairfield, 3‑1, probably will lose its No. 7 state ranking, although there will be a quick chance for recovery, since the Indians take on No. 1 Princeton ‑ their next‑door neighbor ‑ on Friday.
“We lost the fourth game in 1986 and won the state title,” said Ritzie. “Now we’ve lost the fourth game in 1988. I hope there’s a connection.
“We just lost to a good team tonight. We’ve played two very tough teams already this year (Oak Hills and Purcell‑Marian). Each of them had one thing they didn’t do real well. Massillon is more balanced. Everything they do, they do well.”
Something good did happen early, but for the Tigers, not the Indians
On the sixth play of the game, Tiger linebacker David Ledwell intercepted a Briany Noster pass over the middle and returned it 39 yards to the 6‑yard line.
“Our guys put their hats on their quarterback and he couldn’t see where he was throwing,” Ledwell said. “It was a pretty easy interception.”
The Tigers set up their offense for the first time this season without tailback Jason Stafford, who couldn’t get sharp in practice after suffering a hamstring pull the previous week against Barberton. Stafford played later, but juniors Lamont Dixon and Ryan Sparkman were the running backs most of the night.
It was Dixon who blasted 11 yards for a touchdown, going over left tackle and following Sparkman’s block, after the Tigers were backed up by a procedure penalty. Lee Hurst’s kick made it 7‑0 with 7:49 left in the first quarter.
Something else good happened three plays later: Again, it was something good for the Tigers.
Ballyhooed Fairfield running back Oliver Whyte, was nailed after a short gain and fumbled the ball away to Tiger safety Joe Pierce at the Indians’ 38‑yard line.
The Tigers nickeled and dimed into scoring position, running for gains of 4, 1, 2, 5, 4 and 1 yards and passing for 4, 9, 4 and 4 yards. On fourth‑and‑two from the five, Dixon plowed four yards to the 1. Two plays later, Hurst sneaked in for a touchdown, added the point‑after kick, and the Tigers stunningly led 14‑0 with only 10:51 gone in the game.
Another Ledwell interception set up the Tigers at the Fairfield 27 late in the first half. Massillon head coach Lee Owens elected to go for a touchdown and the kill instead of a field goal when the Tigers had fourth and goal from the 2. Stafford was stopped at the line of scrimmage on a sweep left with 1:43 left in the half.
“We wound up scoring a touchdown after going for it on fourth down earlier,” Owens said. “After debating both sides for a while, we thought we could get the yards.”
The Tigers didn’t, and the score stayed 14‑0 at halftime.
Early in the fourth quarter it was looking like three extra points would’ve come in handy. Fairfield, which got the ball on an interception at the Tiger 26, now had first-and‑goal at the 3. Ledwell and T.R. Rivera ‑ part of what was at times a 10‑man front on the Tiger defensive line ‑ stuffed Fairfield’s T-formation attack on first down. Fairfield again gained nothing on second down, then Keith Warstler racked Whyte for a two‑yard loss on third down. A fourth‑down pass was incomplete and the Tigers had their second big goal‑line stand of the year, the first having come at Altoona.
It was part of a great night for the defense, which held Fairfield to 16l yards prior to a meaningless 54. yard scoring drive that ended with a 34‑yard TD pass on the last play of the game.
“Last week, the offense carried us,” said Tiger defensive tackle Bob Dunwiddie. ”This week, we carried them.”
“Fairfield kind of had a down night, maybe because we were so up,” Rivera said. “They’re not a passing team. We had a lot of guys on the line and we stuffed them pretty good.”
Stafford came in to the game having rushed 52 times for 450 yards. He was held to six yards in seven carries.
“I wanted to start but the coaches decided that I shouldn’t,” he said. “Maybe that was just as well. Maybe I couldn’t have helped the team. I’ll be 100 percent for the next game.
Owens said the offense had an off night but the defense was superb.
“Give (defensive coordinator) Jim Letcavits and the defensive guys a lot of credit,” Owens said. “We had 10 guys on the line at times and dared them to pass. When they did, they didn’t do it very well. In a way, it was a gambling defense. But it was a calculated gamble.”
MASSILLON 14 FAIRFIELD 6 M F First downs rushing 10 8 First downs passing 2 6 First downs by penalty 2 2 Totals first downs 14 16 Yards gained rushing 136 125 Yards lost rushing 37 26 Net yards rushing 99 99 Net yards passing 76 116 Total yards gained 175 215 Passes attempted 16 24 Passes completed 10 9 Passes Int. by 2 1 Times kicked off 3 1 Kickoff average 49.7 42.0 Kickoff return yards 14 47 Punts 3 2 Punting average 29.0 35.5 Fumbles 2 1 Fumbles lost 2 1 Penalties 7 6 Yards penalized 53 23 Number of plays 57 59 Time of possession 23.59 24.01 Attendance 12,869
Individual statistics
Rushing (Mas) Sparkman 10‑20, Dixon 16‑89, Stafford 7‑6, Hurst 7 for minus‑15, Owens 1 for minus‑1. (Fair) Ritzie 5‑35, Whyte 12‑18, Noster 8‑15, Roberts 9‑22, Eppard 1‑9.
Tom Persell, a magician by avocation, was at a loss to explain the trick the Massillon Tigers pulled on the Barberton Magics Friday.
“This time of possession is unbelievable,” said Persell, also a statistician, as he stared at a facts sheet fresh out of his computer in the pressbox at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
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A paid crowd of 11,548 had just watched‑the Massillon Tigers beat the Barberton Magics 34‑21. What the crowd didn’t know was that the Tigers pulled all of those points out of a hat they wore for only 13 minutes and 45 seconds. The Magics, meanwhile, hogged the stage on offense for 34 minutes, 15 seconds.
“You could do some serious research and I doubt you’d find a Massillon team that scored 34 points with a time of possession like that,” said Persell.
Actually, there was a simple explanation.
When you score on an 85‑yard run, as Jason Stafford did in the second quarter while showing off his 4.38 speed in the 40 (times two), the offense is in and out.
Ditto when you score on a 74‑yard run, as quarterback Lee Hurst did one play after Barberton closed the cap to 14‑7 in the third quarter.
Same with Lamont Dixon’s 50yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
The offense scored and sat, and it was “bring on the D.”
“Sometimes,” head coach Lee Owens was saying, “maybe we do score a little too quickly.”
Not that Owens plans to tell the ball carriers, “Fellas, run for 20 and take a dive.” It’s just that those take‑your‑breath‑away plays don’t give the defense any breathers.
The way Barberton’s bite‑sized quarterback, third‑year starter Butch Momchilov, was running the option, there was no time for deep breaths.
While the Tiger offense big played Barberton to death, Battlin’ Butch was whipping up volatile Momchilov Cocktails.
The Tigers met their quota on offense. Their goal is 350‑400 yards a game. They made it a third week in a row, with 400 on the nose.
The defense has a quota, too. Hold the foes under 200 yards. It hasn’t happened yet, but Barberton was the first team to really break the bank, collecting 347 yards.
Massillon’s defense made big plays when it had to, but was still concerned about Barberton’s ability to move the ball.
“I don’t want to be too critical of us,” Owens said. “Give Barberton some compliments. They were like a boxer. We’d knock them down, and they’d get right back up.”
The Tigers missed a lot of tackles, true. They will have to start connecting more frequently if they are to beat next week’s foe, Fairfield, which returns 19 of 22 starters from the only team to beat Cincinnati Princeton last year (Fairfield improved to 3‑0 by edging Cincinnati Purcell‑Marian 7‑0 last night).
It is also true that Momchilov is the kind of option QB who makes tacklers miss. He proved to be a wizard at the fakes and pitches essential to making an option offense work.
When he wasn’t faking or pitching, he was keeping and squirting out yards on his own.
”They played pretty good offense,” said gritty Tiger defensive back Brian Bach, who stands about 5‑feet‑8, and noted Momchilov is “about an inch shorter than me.
“He can cut real good,” Bach added. ”But we still need to play better on defense. I think we need more enthusiasm.”
Enthusiasm is building in town now that the team has improved to 3‑0 by beating a team that came in at 2‑0. It is tempered by a question many exiting fans were asking: “Can the Tigers stop Fairfield, or will they have to try to win a shootout?”
“The players aren’t happy with where we are on defense and I know the coaches are disappointed,” Owens said. “Right now, I’m baffled.”
But then, Fairfield, whose head coach Ben Hubbard led a scouting contingent to the Tigers’ game in Altoona last week, faces its own baffling question. How does one contain (forget about stopping) Jason Stafford?
The senior fullback rushed for 156 yards in 10 carries Friday, pushing him over 450 yards for three games. The only thing that stopped him was a pulled hamstring muscle he suffered with less than a minute left in the third quarter. He sat out the final period.
“It happened when I was running downfield throwing a block,” he said while standing on the sidelines, keeping an eye on the action. Just then, his teammate Dixon broke loose for the 50‑yard touchdown run that created the final score. He began running toward Dixon, making a “No. 1” signal with his index finger.
The play on which Stafford was injured was Hurst’s 74‑yard bootleg run.
Earlier, Stafford had run 85 yards on a play the team calls “inside ice.”
I fake to the inside then cut to the outside,” he said.
Barberton apparently had a good scouting report on Stafford. After Momchilov, who also plays safety, dove at Stafford and missed, he buried his faceguard in the turf. He knew no one would catch the blazing fullback. By the time Stafford reached the goal line, his closest pursuers were 15 yards behind.
After the game, the “inside ice” was on Stafford’s left hamstring in the training room.
“It’s not too bad,” he said. “I’ll I be ready to play.”
Stafford’s touchdown may have .been the key play in the game.
The Tigers had scored. early, parlaying Steve Snodgrass’ fumble recovery into a 38‑yard drive capped by Ryan Sparkman’s 1‑yard plunge at the 7:18 mark of the first quarter.
But Barberton tied the score at 7‑all with its next possession, driving 79 yards in 13 plays, including an 18‑yard completion to the Tiger 13 on fourth‑and‑three. Big fullback Pat Robertson, who finished with 99 yards in 19 rushes, went the final yard.
Barberton further asserted itself by forcing the Tigers to punt on their next possession. The Tigers in turn came, up with an important defensive stand and forced the Magics to punt.
Earlier, a clipping penalty that infuriated the Massillon coaches brought back what would have been a 60‑yard TD blast by Stafford. The clipping flags came out again on the punt, and the Tigers were backed up to their own 15.
Stafford solved the field position problem in a hurry by breaking loose on first down for the 85yarder.
Barberton head coach Don Ault was thinking about plays like that when he said, “That’s genes … there’s not much we could do about some of their big plays. They just out‑manned us.”
After the touchdown, Hurst ‑ not changing to a special kicking shoe for ‑the first time this year ‑ kicked his second extra point and the Tigers led 14‑7 with 4:08 left in the half.
Momchilov optioned Barberton to where it missed a 38‑yard field goal attempt with two seconds left in the half,
At halftime, Barberton led 171-169 in total offense and 17:23‑6:37 in time of possession.
The Tiger defense, following a pattern of doing something positive when it had to, kept the Magics at bay by forcing a punt on the first possession of the second half.
The Massillon offense then threatened to put away the game by driving 60 yards in nine plays for a score. The touchdown came on an excellent adjustment. On third-and‑one from the nine, Barberton’s defense shifted during the snap count so that most of its men were clogging the middle. The handoff went to Sparkman, who bounced off left tackle to the outside. He had clear sailing into the right comer of the end zone. Hurst’s kick was wide but the Tigers led 20-7 with 6:08 left in the third quarter.
The Magics didn’t disappear. The kickoff stuck them at their own 23 but Robertson quickly bulled for gains of 11 and 10. The drive kept moving and wound up consuming 77 yards in nine plays. Momchilov fired a seven‑yard pass to Steve Cuckler for a touchdown, and the kick made it 20‑14 with 57 seconds left in the half.
The Tigers faced the same sort of crises a week ago, when Altoona scored on the first play of the fourth quarter to cut a Massillon lead to 6 points. The Tigers then drove for a clinching touchdown on a mostly running drive described by Owens as “slug‑nose football.”
This time, the Tigers went back to kicking butt with the boot. On first down, Hurst, on the bootleg keep, sprinted around the right side, where he found an uncommon volume of running room.
“It was just a normal boot,” Hurst said. “I wasn’t really surprised I had that much room. Their linemen are aggressive and they jump inside. We had good blocking going on the play, too.”
“The play went the way the night went for us,” said center Don Gerber. “We came together and played as a team. On that play, everybody executed his block.”
Hurst showed good speed in turning the corner and outrunning three Barberton pursuers on the 74‑yard burst.
Late in the game, Barberton recovered a Tiger fumble near midfield and drove again. Momchilov passed seven yards to Dan Dimick for a touchdown. The kick was good and suddenly Barberton trailed 28-21 and was within an onside kick of making real trouble. The same sort of thing happened in last year’s Barberton game, when the Tigers sweated out a 34-26 victory in the Rubber Bowl.
As in 1987, the Tigers recovered the onside kick ‑ this time, Mark Owens did the honors. Dixon’s 50-yard TD burst came with 47 seconds left in the game.
“Everything is coming together,” concluded Tiger tight end Jeff Harig, who caught two passes for 35 yards. “The line is hitting hard and getting it done.”
Speaking for the defense, end Monte McGuire said, “We played hard, but we’ve just got to get a little more aggressive. Put it in the books. We’re going to beat Fairfield. ”
Another word from the defense, by defensive back Shawn Ashcraft: “I thought we played well at times. We missed a few tackles. We can do better. Next week, we have to make no mistakes.”
“Barberton was good,” said Owens. “But Fairfield will be better.
M B First downs rushing 9 12 First downs passing 3 6 First downs by penalty 0 2 Totals first downs 12 20 Yards gained rushing 351 226 Yards lost rushing 8 40 Net yards rushing 343 186 Not yards passing 57 161 Total yards gained 400 347 Passes attempted 9 23 Passes completed 5 13 Passes int. 1 0 Times kicked off 6 4 Kickoff average 55.5 35.3 Kickoff return yards 31 91 Punts 2 3 Punting average 41.0 33.0 Punt return yards 18 0 Fumbles 2 1 Fumbles 1 2 Penalties 6 5 Yards penalized 68 24 Number of plays 38 71 Tlme of possession 13:45 34:15 Third‑down conv. 4‑6 8‑15 Attendance 11,548
BARBERTON 0 7 7 7 21 MASSILLON 7 7 14 6 34
SCORING SUMMARY
First quarter M ‑ Sparkman 1 run (Hurst kick) 718 Second quarter B ‑ Robertson 1 run (Horvath kick) 11:57 M ‑ Stafford 85 run (Hurst kick) 4:26
Third quarter M ‑ Sparkman 9 run (kick failed) 6:08 B ‑ Cuckler 7 pass from Momchilov (Horvath kick) 0:57 M ‑ Hurst 74 run (Hurst run) 0:32
Fourth quarter B ‑ Dimick 7 pass from Momchilov (Horvath kick) 1:41 M ‑ Dixon 50 run (kick failed) 0:47
Barberton coach Don Ault knew the best way to try and stop the high powered Massillon offensive attack was to keep the ball out of the hands of multi‑dimensional quarterback Lee Hurst and swift tailback Jason Stafford.
Barberton’s offense followed the game plan almost perfectly Friday night. The Magics dominated possession of the ball as they hogged it for more than 34 minutes and ran 60 plays to the Tigers’ 38.
The only problem was that when the Tigers did have the ball, they were the epitome of efficiency.
Massillon scored on five of its 38 plays, including three touchdown runs of 50‑plus yards, to record a 34‑21 victory over the previously unbeaten Magics before a crowd of 11,548 at Massillon Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
“Barberton had the ball all night, but we had the points and that’s all that mattered,” said Hurst.
“It seemed like our defense was on the field all night, but when we did have a chance we usually made the most of it.”
Hurst was a key factor, but on this night it was his feet rather than arm that helped decide the game with a key third‑quarter run.
The Tigers (3‑0) had broken a 7‑7 second‑quarter tie when Stafford raced 85 yards to give Massillon the lead for good.
The Tigers upped their advantage to 20‑7 midway through the third quarter when junior fullback Ryan Sparkman ran 9 yards to cap a 60‑yard scoring drive.
The Magics, however, weren’t done,
Shifty senior quarterback Butch Momchilov led a typical Barberton drive ‑ 9 plays, 77 yards, 5:11 consumed ‑ and hit Steve Cuckler with a 9‑yard TD pass.
That cut the Magics’ deficit to 20‑14 with 57 seconds left in the third quarter,
Masillon defeats Magics
But on the first play following the kickoff, Hurst faked a sweep to left to Stafford and the Magics’ defense collapsed on the senior tailback, who had 156 yards on 10 carries at that point. Stafford, in fact, carried out the fake so intensely that he pulled a hamstring muscle and. was sidelined the rest of the game.
Hurst, meanwhile, bootlegged around the right side and raced 74 yards for a touchdown.
“It was bootleg keeper all the way,” said Hurst, who rushed 10 times and gained 98 of Massillon’s 343 rushing yards.
“All I have to do is read the blocks out front by (tight end) Jeff Harig and (guard) Tom Menches. They did a great job and I couldn’t believe how alone I was.”
Neither could Ault.
“We knew they had the bootleg and we knew we had to stop Hurst, but when you’ve also got a great back out there like Stafford you’re naturally more worried about him,” said Ault.
“We were keying on Stafford and Massillon did a great job executing.
“I thought we did a great job of ball‑control all game, but you can’t keep it away from them forever.
“And when they did get it they did a very good job ‑ that’s why I’d have to say they are a state power.”
The Magics made it interesting when Momchilov threw another TD pass with 1:41 to play to trim Massillon’s lead to 28‑21.
Massillon’s Mark Owens covered the ensuing onside kickoff attempt and two plays later junior fullback Lamont Dixon busted a 50‑yard TD run to clinch the game with 47 seconds left.
“Our offense did a great job, maybe too good a job because our defense was worn out by the end of the game,” said Massillon coach Lee Owens, whose squad faces Fairfield next Saturday.
“Maybe we need to take a little more time putting it in the end zone to give our defense a break.
“But in all seriousness, you have to give Coach Ault and the Barberton team a lot of credit. They did a great job controlling the ball and never gave up.”
Fan-tastic! Massillon supporters fill local motels
By Kay Stephens Staff Writer (Altoona Mirror Sept 10, 1988)
When the high school football team from Massillon, Ohio, comes to Altoona today, at least 2,000 fans are expected to follow.
And because the Massillon vs. Altoona game is at night, local motels and hotels are booked solid.
Each of those fans will probably spend an average of $70 to $75 each for room, meals and other expenses, James Caporuscio of the Altoona‑Blair County Chamber of Commerce estimated. So the mass of fans from Massillon should be pumping an additional $150,000 into local businesses.
Those Massillon fans who come early or leave late are likely to help make the Keystone Country Festival at Lakemont Park a success. Some fans are expected to stop at the festival today before the 7:30 p.m. game or on Sunday before they go home.
The Sheraton Altoona set aside 35 rooms for the team and about 35 for the fans. In addition to a convention and some rooms for the Keystone Country Festival vendors, the 226 room facility is sold out.
Other Altoona motels like Days Inn, Knights Inn and Holiday Inn, in addition to smaller motels like the Wye Motor Lodge and Rogers Motel, have no rooms for tonight.
Some motel clerks said they were referring room requests to motels in nearby towns.
Some Massillon fans are expected to come by camper, Caporuscio added. A group called last summer and was referred to the Sanderbeck Campgrounds near Duncansville where they’re expected to spend the night.
While the motels and hotels are sold out, Mansion Park is not.
As of Friday, the high school athletic office estimated attendance at 4,400 to 4,500, but more tickets will be sold tonight. If the weather is good, attendance is expected to be higher, Mansion Park seats 10,471.
As of Friday, 2,600 Altoona were expected to show up for the game. There are 700 season ticket holders and the athletic office sold 1,900 game tickets.
Fans who did not buy tickets by Friday can purchase them tonight at Mansion Park. The gates open at 6 p.m,
This is the second year of a two year contract that the Altoona Area School District struck up with Massillon School District for a football game between the two teams which used to face off regularly in the 1960s when fans traveled by trains to the games,
Massillon is bringing its band to the game, just as Altoona had to take its band last year to Massillon.
Altoona lost last year’s game, 34‑3.
When the Tigers travel, so do the fans
Altoona amazed by sea of orange
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
ALTOONA, Pa. ‑ A lost member of the “Trekkers from Tigertown,” fresh down the mountain that contains “world famous” Horseshoe Curve, needed directions to the stadium here Saturday evening.
A man standing in his front yard was hailed.
“You folks from Massillon?” the Altoona resident deadpanned. “Well, you, ‘just go right up there and keep going for about 10 miles.”
The man pointed to a remote peak in the wilderness. Then he laughed and gave the real directions to Mansion Park, seven blocks from his mail box.
When he was finished he said, “I usually go to the games, but not tonight. You guys will kill us.”
Three hours later, a maroon army of fans on the Altoona High side of Mansion Park was whooping ‘it up. A little split end named Dave “Whitey” Berardinelli was dancing in the end zone, having just caught a touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Altoona was not exactly getting killed. The Mountain Lions had seized control of the action and, when the extra‑point boot sailed through, trailed the Massillon Tigers by just a 12‑7 margin.
In downtown Altoona, across the street from the old Penn‑Alto Hotel where some visitors from Massillon spent the weekend, stands a restaurant called Frank n’ Joe’s.
“Breakfast is our specialty” is what the sign outside the greasy spoon says.
The restaurant can’t live on breakfast, though, so it stays open 24 hours.
“Passing is our specialty” is a sign one might hang on the 1988 Tigers, but they play the survival game, too. And Saturday night, they departed from their specialty to survive.
The possession after the Altoona touchdown loomed as the life‑or-death moment in this game.
“It was time to put the finesse stuff on the shelf,” said Massillon head coach Lee Owens.
It was time, Owens said, to play “slug nose football.”
Some noses got flattened, all’ right. The Tigers marched for a touchdown in 11 plays. Nine of them were running plays. The offensive line fired out, and the running backs ran over defenders.
Owens’ ballyhooed “run and boot” offense did, however, make a cameo appearance during the march.
“The touchdown run was a boot‑leg,” Owens smiled, referring to quarterback Lee Hurst’s 8‑yard scoring roll around the right side.
Now the score was 18‑7, and would stay that way. Now it was time for the Orange Army on the visitors’ side to erupt.
The crowd at Mansion Park was about 9,000. The visitors’ grand stand was stocked to about 85 per cent of its capacity, and about percent of its inhabitants we wearing something that screamed “I’m a Tiger fan.”
More than 2,000 Trekkers from Tigertown made the trip, which, took four to 5 1/2 hours, depending on the weight of each driver’s foot.
Altoona residents marveled at the Massillon turnout.
“Why do they do it?” The question kept coming up.
They are what makes Massillon unique.” That was as good an answer as any.
The parking lot at Mansion Park was wall‑to‑wall Winnebagos, campers and vans ‑ all decorated with something orange ‑ by 6:30 pm., an hour before kickoff.
Just before kickoff, members of the Reese’s Raiders club descended to the field to wave huge orange flags. The 100‑plus team members who bussed to Altoona then ran through a hoop that blared the message, “Massillon, Ohio … where everyone is a Tiger.”
At halftime, the man introducing the Massillon Tiger Swing Band – naturally, the band was there ‑ declared, “and from Massillon, Ohio, the high school football capital of the world …”
Most of the Trekkers from Tigertown, it seemed, stayed the night.
An hour after the game ended became rush hour at Altoona’s fast food parlors.
“Lord, you people from Massillon eat a lot of pizza,” said a harried worker from Domino’s Pizza.
Altoona people weren’t the only ones marveling over the Trekkers from Tigertown. Coach Owens, eating pizza and watching the Notre Dame Michigan game at the Sheraton, called the size of the Massillon contingent “amazing.”
“Would you get something like this from any town but Massillon?” Owens said.
He didn’t really need an answer.
‘Weak Two’ is tough Week two
Tigers have tough time knocking out Altoona, await rampaging Magics
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
ALTOONA, Pa. ‑ Forget that preseason about the Massillon Tigers not having their La‑Z‑Boy Recliners until the week of the high school football.
Tigers had to fight their way out of a op before winning in Week Two. They led the Altoona Mountain Lions 18‑7 before a crowd of 9,000 here Saturday night. Four, as you probably know because preseason hype, will send the Tigers Fairfield.
Fairfield, a next‑door neighbor of Cincinnati Princeton, beat eventual state champion Solon last year and, in 1986, claimed the crown for itself. If you’re looking ahead, Fairfield is 2‑0 after beating Cincinnati Oak -21 in a track meet Friday.
Don’t look ahead.
Tigers had trouble digesting ‘Toona Saturday. And Week Three will pit the orange and black against a knuckle sandwich named Barberton Friday in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
The Magics are back from scholastic football under old timer Don Ault, a former college head coach who came to the Magic City last year. They, too, are 2‑0. And they got there not by bullying habitual bunglers. Their resounding 30‑12 victory Friday came against Walsh Jesuit, hardly a parochial pipsqueak.
Walsh, usually a playoff contender, was tenderized by what veteran Massillon assistant coach Eric Schumacher, speaking from the Altoona Sheraton late Saturday, called “the best Barberton team I’ve seen.”
“It’ll be a big ball game,” added Lee Owens, the Tigers head coach.
Some Barberton folks in the over‑40 crowd still hold a big grudge over something that happened in 1959. Namely, a 90‑0 Massillon victory over the Magics.
You can bet the gross annual income of the Altoona Sheraton that this year’s Massillon-Barberton game won’t be a 90‑0 job.
Meanwhile, you might have had a few takers on a 90‑0 score in Saturday’s Massillon-Altoona game.
The Tigers grabbed a 12‑0 lead by the time the game was 17 plays old.
Pro‑rating the score over four quarters ‑ slightly less than half of the first quarter was gone when the Tigers scored their second TD ‑‑ you were looking at a 96‑0 final.
And that’s how outmanned Altoona looked.
But something strange happened as the twilight disappeared and darkness swallowed the mountains behind Mansion Park.
‘Toona made like a shark and bit back .
The Mountain Lions played the Tigers on no less than even terms for the better portion of three periods.
And, when Altoona’s short passing game, by then clicking on eight cylinders, produced a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter, the Lions trailed by only 12‑7.
“We got behind, but we were never afraid of them,” said Dave Berardinelli, the Altoona split end who caught the touchdown pass.
“I can’t say it was the same last year when we got beat pretty bad in Massillon. We were a slightly intimidated by the mystique. I remember that their booster club gave us gifts in the hotel and I was thinking, ‘Gee, this must be some football town.’
“We just looked at them as another team this time.”
Yet, maybe there’s something to the mystique after all.
Just as mysteriously as the Tigers went flat and stayed that way for three quarters, they discovered their roar again after Altoona closed to 12‑7.
The Tigers drove 76 yards in 11 plays for a clinching touchdown.
Whereas the short passing game had clicked during the 12‑0 getaway, the running game now became the force of the offense.
“It was time to put the finesse stuff on the shelf,” Owens said. “It was time to play slug nose football.”
Senior fullback Jason Stafford fired haymakers.
The 5‑foot‑9, 183‑pound speedster turned beat up would‑be tacklers in a series that became the jewel of one of the biggest night’s any Tiger rusher has ever had.
Stafford’s final, official totals were 24 carries for 182 yards and two touchdowns. The Massillon football press guide shows that Bill Harmon, Art Hastings, Tom Hannon, Mike Mauger and Mark McDew all exceeded 200 rushing yards in a game for the Tigers. Stafford’s outing is believed to rank in the top 10 all time.
The entire offense looked to be running on nitro during the critical drive.
“I looked in their eyes and knew they were ready to go,” Owens said.
The Tigers took over on their own 24 and quickly got a tough 13 yards from “A‑back” Ryan Sparkman. Quarterback Lee Hurst passed six yards to Robert Spencer, then Stafford crossed midfield on an 11‑yard blast.
Hurst bootlegged for 12 yards, then Stafford ground out 5 more to bash the Tigers inside the 30. Sparkman was stopped for no gain, but Hurst connected with tight end Jeff Harig for five yards that turned into a first down after a measurement.
Then Stafford rumbled 8 yards to the 16. It was Stafford again for 4 brutal yards for a first down to the 12.
Sparkman churned out 4 more to the 8. Then, on third and a short 2, Hurst took off on a bootleg around right end. By now, Altoona’s defenders were wondering whether it would be Stafford or Sparkman steamrollering inside, and the boot became a perfect call. Hurst scored easily.
The extra point failed, but the Tigers led 18‑7 with 8:06 remaining. They had the game on ice.
“As disappointed as I am in some things about the game, we still gained more than 400 yards (403), and the defense did some good things, including a very important goal‑line stand,” Owens said.
“We were ready at the start of the game then we scored twice and kind of lost it. We didn’t smell the blood and put ’em away. It takes a team a while to get to that point. We haven’t arrived yet. But we’re getting close.”
They looked more than close in the early going.
The Tigers received the opening kickoff then drove 73 yards in only eight plays for a touchdown. After an incomplete pass, Massillon plays covered 11, 4, 5, 9, 16, 9 and 19 yards. The last play was a draw to Stafford that turned into a touchdown. Hurst’s kick was wide and the Tigers led 6‑0 with 9:45 left in the first quarter.
The Tiger defense started as dominantly as the offense, forcing a punt after three nonproductive plays.
Massillon proceeded to cover 77 yards in only five plays ‑ a 7‑yard run by Stafford, a 5‑yard pass to Harig, a 7‑yard pass to Troy Manion, a 25‑yard bootleg run by Hurst and a 33‑yard touchdown sprint by Stafford, who broke a tackle and easily outran the secondary to the right corner of the end zone.
The two‑point conversion try failed and the Tigers led 12‑0 with 6:41 left in the first period.
The Tigers got the ball back quickly on an interception by Chad Buckland. That’s when the offense seemed to go flat, although Altoona head coach John Franco saw it another way.
“They have great athletes and they hit us with tremendous execution on their first two series,” Franco said. “We made an adjustment, bringing our coverage people in closer to the receivers, and it seemed to work.”
The Mountain Lions took over on downs at their own 32 late in the first quarter then used a mix of sideline passes and shots to the tight end over the middle to drive to the Tiger 1‑yard line on first and goal.
Massillon used its up‑against‑the wall unit to stage one of its great goal‑line stands of recent years. With T.R. Rivera leading the charge of the front wall, the stubborn Tigers stopped two running plays for no gain at the 1, then sniffed out a quarterback bootleg and tackled QB Jon Ruff for a 5‑yard loss. Berardinelli couldn’t catch up to a fourth‑down pass and the Tigers took over on downs.
“My Lord, if we score down there, it’s a different ball game,” said Franco.
As the defense ran off the field, end Monte McGuire was greeted by a hearty hand slap from assistant coach Curt Strawder.
Strawder once gave defenses fits as a Massillon receiver. He is in third place on the Tigers’ all‑time list for catches in a single game (eight). He now shares that position with Harig, whose outstanding night included eight catches for 73 yards.
Hurst completed 13 of 23 passes for 103 yards and was credited with 52 rushing yards in 11 carries.
For Altoona, Ruff completed 13 of 23 passes for 177 yards before leaving with a knee injury. He twisted the knee on the last play of Altoona’s touchdown drive and did not return.
The injury did not have a big impact on the game since the Tigers scored the first time they had the ball after the Altoona TD.
The Massillon defense came through its second straight week of shutting out an opponent in the first half. The defense has allowed only one second‑half touchdown in each of the season’s first two weeks.
Just as the offense rose up after the Altoona touchdown, the defense upgraded its play down the stretch.
After the Tigers’ final touchdown, Altoona still had eight minutes to get something going. The Tigers, however, stuffed the Mountain Lions by putting heavy pressure on backup quarterback T.J. Keith.
MASSILLON 18 ALTOONA 7 M A First downs rushing 17 3 First downs passing 7 8 First downs by penalty 0 1 Totals first downs 24 12 Yards gained rushing 292 33 Yards lost rushing 13 42 Net yards rushing 279 -9 Net yards passing 124 214 Total yards gained 403 205 Passes attempted 24 34 Passes completed 14 16 Passes int. by 1 0 Punts 3 5 Punting average 33.0 35.4 Fumbles 2 3 Fumbles lost 1 0 Penalties 6 2 Yards penalized 63 20 Number of plays 68 59 Time of possession 24.01 23.59 Attendance 9,000
The Massillon Tigers ran and booted and made the crowd’s heart race.
Quarterback Lee Hurst’s heart was racing before he put on his boots.
Coach Lee Owens’ creative concoction ‑ the run‑and‑boot offense ‑ lived up to advance bill Friday night when the Massillon Tigers outslugged and outran the Cuyahoga Falls Black Tigers 28‑6 in a high school football season opener seen by a paid house of 10,724 in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
Hurst, a junior starting his first varsity game, didn’t let it show, but he was “sluggish” according to Owens, and for a very specific reason.
“He’s under medication and he may have had a little too much of the medication tonight,” Owens said of the man who had just completed 13 of 20 passes for 138 yards.
He didn’t have the energy he normally would have.”
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“I’ve had a problem with a racing heart,” Hurst explained. “The medication is for that. They’ve made it stronger for football season. I may have had too much of it.”
Massillon had too much of everything for Falls.
“I thought we did really well on offense,” Hurst said. “The backs ran well and the linemen did a super job blocking.”
Fullback Jason Stafford did a lot of the outrunning and outslugging. The 5‑foot‑9, 165‑pound speed burner rushed 18 times for 103 yards.
He never quite could get his 4.39 second 40‑yard dash speed out in the open, but, as he put it, “I was close to breaking it all the way on every play.”
Hurst and Stafford were well known names last year. Lamont Dixon was not. Dixon opened a few eyes, though, when he rushed six times for 98 yards out of the “A-back” position, as Owens calls it.
Ryan Sparkman, who played despite an upper‑leg injury, had been ticketed for starting duty at the “Aback” spot. Dixon played as though he would like the job, running over anything that was in his way.
Speaking of surprises, the Tigers set the tempo for the evening by pulling off a big one.
On the sixth play of the game, facing fourth‑and‑three from the Falls 46‑yard line, the Tigers lined up to punt.
Three Tigers lined up five yards behind center. The man on the right was senior Jamie Slutz, who spent training camp battling for the starting quarterback job.
“The coach told me to check outside to see if Joe (Pierce) was covered,” Slutz said. “When I saw that he wasn’t, I called for the snap to come to me.”
It did. Slutz rolled out, “just looking to get the ball to somebody.” He saw a linebacker pop in front of the streaking Pierce. Pierce broke behind the linebacker and Slutz fired a strike.
The 16‑yard completion gave the Tigers a first down at the 30. The inspired Tigers gained 6, 5, 7, 5 and 5 yards to set up a 1‑yard plunge into the end zone by Sparkman.
The point‑after kick failed, but the gamble had succeeded.
“With all the buildup about our offense, it would have been hard for us to punt there,” said Owens who has said frequently that he looks at punt as “a dirty word.”
The Tigers sputtered at times the rest of the way but managed to make their offense look like they have an Indy car to tune up the rest of the season.
They led 28-0 before Falls scored on a bomb with 55 seconds left in the game.
“There were a lot of times when we out‑athleted ”em,” said Owens, smiling at the word he invented.
“I’m disappointed in a lot of things. We’ll have to be a lot better tomorrow. But I don’t want to take away from the victory earned by the players and the coaching staff. it was a great one.”
Falls is not among the top names on the Massillon schedule. The Black Tigers loomed as a team that might improve on last year’s 7‑3 campaign before a car crash last winter killed two boys, paralyzed two others and led another to transfer from Falls to another school district. All would have been starters this year, including one of the boys who was killed, 6‑7 quarterback Kevin Humble.
“I know a couple of Falls guys and I know they dedicated the whole season to the guys in that crash,” said Massillon middle guard Bob Dunwiddie. “They came in on a bubble. After a couple of hard hits, they came back to earth.”
Dunwiddie was pleased with the Massillon defense, which allowed only 131 yards until Falls beefed the total up to 208 on its last possession.
“We pulled together as a team instead of being individuals ” he said
Coach Bill Humble was not at all displeased with his team, which leads one to believe he sees Massillon as a powerhouse.
“Our kids played hard,” he said. “I thought we played pretty good football.”
Massillon’s early success on the faked punt “really hurt us,” Humble said. “That was a real key play.
There would be others.
Midway through the second quarter, Dixon exploded for 49 yards on a play that highlighted an‑84‑yard scoring drive.
“It was the old Redskin play, a counter gap,” said Owens. “I thought it worked well tonight.”
Dixon’s run was sandwiched between two Hurst‑to‑Marlon Smith completions. The touchdown came on a 6‑yard run by Stafford, who swept left, was caught at the three, spun away and reached the football barely over the goal line as he hit the turf.
Hurst’s point‑after kick boomed through and Massillon led 13‑0 with five minutes left in the half.
Falls went three‑and‑punt and Massillon got the ball back on the Black Tigers’ 45. A 12‑yard reception by Smith put the ball on the 20. On the next play tight end Jeff Harig ran a post pattern and Hurst led him with a high‑arcing pass to the back of the end zone. Harig dove and snagged the ball with his fingertips, pulling it in and hanging on as he crashed to the ground with a touchdown.
Harig did it again on the point after try, grabbing a tipped ball for a two‑pointer that gave the Tigers a 21‑0 halftime lead.
Falls staged a mild threat late in the third quarter. With the score still at 21‑0, the Black Tigers drove to the Massillon 22 where it was second‑and‑six. Pierce flew from his free safety position to break up what briefly appeared to be a touchdown pass on second down. Monte McGuire, playing with an air cast on his left ankle, stuffed 205‑pound fullback Jim Kearns for no gain on third down. A fourth‑down pass fell incomplete and the threat was over.
The Tigers drove 78 yards in 10 plays for an insurance touchdown. Sparkman went over left tackle and exploded for an 8‑yard touchdown run with 11:06 left in the game. Hurst’s kick made it 28‑0.
Falls’ touchdown drive was capped by a 41‑yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Jim Ballard to junior split end Jim Otis.
The Tigers were disappointed that the shutout got away. As the defense returned to the bench, Owens said, “Keep your heads up.”
The heads were up in the locker room afterward.
“We could have been a little more intense, but we did pretty well,” Pierce said.
GlenOak had riddled the Tigers for 14 completions in 20 attempts in a scrimmage the previous Friday. The Tiger linebackers’ timing was off that night, as they were not making the drops that would take away passes over the middle.
“The linebackers did a real good job tonight,” Pierce said. “They helped out the defensive backs a lot.”
Pierce said losing the shutout was a disappointment. McGuire agreed, but he didn’t look very disappointed.
“I feel good,” he said. “A win is a win.”
MASSILLON 28 CUY.FALLS 6 M CF First downs rushing 13 5 First downs passing 7 3 First downs by penalty 0 1 Totals first downs 20 9 Yards gained rushing 237 102 Yards lost rushing 17 11 Net yards rushing 220 91 Net yards passing 154 117 Total yards gained 374 208 Passes attempted 211 19 Passes completed 14 12 Passes int. by 1 0 Times kicked off 5 3 Kickoff average 55.8 30.31 Kickoff return yards 44 184 Punts 2 6 Punting average 32.5 30.3 Punt return yards 47 14 Fumbles 0 1 Fumbles lost 0 0 Penalties 5 3 Yards penalized 77 15 Number of plays 57 47 Time of possession 21.20 26.40
MAS ‑ Sparkman 1 run (kick failed) MAS ‑ Stafford 6 run (Hurst kick) MAS ‑ Harig 20 pass from Hurst (Harig pass from Hurst) MAS ‑ Sparkman 8 run (Hurst kick) CF ‑ Otis 41 pass from Ballard (pass failed)
On paper, call it even Tigers have better offense, Dogs have the ‘D
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
You want to play the Massillon McKinley football game on paper?
Since we have to wait until 2 p.m. Saturday to see it on the field, why not ?
OK, then.
On paper, Massillon has a slight edge on offense. McKinley has a clear edge on defense.
Between the lines, Massillon’s edge on offense might be greater and McKinley’s advantage on defense might be slighter since the Tigers have played a tougher schedule.
Massillon’s offense has amassed 2,570 yards in 418 plays for an average of 6.15 yards a play. McKinley’s offense has netted 2,309 yards in 414 plays for a 5.6 average.
The teams have comparable rushing numbers: Massillon’s 1,630 Yards at 5.7 a carry versus McKinley’s 1,766 at 5.6 a pop.
Game Action vs. Canton McKinley 1987
Massillon has a whopping advantage in the passing game. The Tigers have completed 61 of 127 passes for 940 yards, eight touchdowns and six interceptions, while the Bulldogs have connected on 38 of 95 for 543 yards, two touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Massillon quarterback Erik White has completed 60 of 122 passes for 883 yards, seven TDs and six interceptions. McKinley quarterback Pat Lyon, who has started all but two games, has completed 26 of 71 for 384 yards, two touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Six Tiger receivers ‑ Myricks (10 for 228), Wrentie Martin (12 for 223), Mark Kester (11 for 153), Jason Stafford (9 for 127), Craig York (9 for 87) and Gerald Pope (5 for 64) ‑ have caught at least five passes.
Keith Smith (7 for 177) and Mike Hedrick (7 for 96) are the only Bulldogs with more than five receptions.
So that’s the offense.
What about the defense?
McKinley’s has been better.
The Tiger defense has allowed 2,121 yards against its nine opponents. McKinley foes have gained only 1,399 yards.
Game Action vs. Canton McKinley 1987
Massillon’s running defense has surrendered 1,409 yards at 4.3 a carry. McKinley’s rushing defense has yielded 862 yards at under 3.5 a tote.
Opponents have passed for 712 yards against Massillon and 537 yards against McKinley.
Elsewhere on the statistical charts, there are some uncanny similarities between the teams.
Both squads have fumbled 27 times. The Tigers have lost 14 of the bobbles. The Bulldogs have lost 11.
Both teams have intercepted 12 passes. McKinley’s Mark Hedrick has picked off four errant throws. Massillon’s Mark Kester has made three interceptions.
The Tigers’ top ground gainer is Jerome Myricks with 989 yards in 155 carries at 6.4 a carry. The Bulldogs’ top rusher is Jeff Richardson with 145 carries for 970 yards at 6.7 a pop.
Game Action vs. Canton McKinley 1987
Massillon’s No. 2 ground gainer Jason Stafford with 357 yards at 6.6 a carry, has out rushed McKinley’s No. 2 man, Derrick Gordon with 259, yards at 6.8 per attempt.
But Massillon has no one else over 100 yards, while McKinley has DeVon Torrence with 156 yards in 17 carries, Kevin Campbell with 132 yards in 26 carries, and Lamuel Flowers with 116 yards in 28 carries.
Other Massillon rushers have included Shawn Ashcraft (8 for 57), David Ledwell (12 for 56), John Miller (11 for 55) and Vernon Riley (14 for 47).
Myricks leads the Tigers in scoring with 108 points. Richardson is McKinley’s top dog with 68 points. Richardson is behind the pace of his junior season in rushing yards. He needs 200 yards on the nose Saturday to match his 1986 total of 1,170 rushing yards for 10 games.
Those are the numbers. That’s how it looks on paper.
Add it all up and this looks like a dead‑even match up.
Pups edge Tigers Key play in first half ‘was about an inch short of the goal line…
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
It still means everything to the McKinley Bulldogs to play the Massillon Tigers.
There’s some solace in that for the Massillon team that got beat 18‑15 by McKinley Saturday.
Game Action vs. Canton McKinley 1987
It was true that McKinley fans were rubbing it in that their Bulldogs had beaten the Tigers four straight times for the first time since before radio was invented.
It was true that many Massillon fans were wondering when their beloved men of orange will ever defeat the crimson‑clad team from Canton again.
It was also true that the McKinley coach, Thom McDaniels, had cried with his team after what had been a brutal slugfest was over.
You don’t look like McDaniels looked ‑ like a man whose emotions had spent a week in a ringer washer unless the game means everything.
That is what Saturday’s game meant to him. As such, it meant that Massillon still has McKinley’s complete respect, if not its number.
Game Action vs. Canton McKinley 1987
‘We experienced a lot of things this year,” said McDaniels, talking about the tumultuous things that accompany a less‑than‑perfect season in either the Canton or Massillon football communities.
McDaniels has been McKinley’s head coach since 1982, the year after Terry Forbes steered the Bulldogs to the only big‑school state championship a Stark County team has ever won since the advent of the playoff era.
Such was the tumult of 1987 that his status at McKinley for 1988 is clouded.
McDaniels’ team finished ’87 with a 7‑3 record and missed the playoffs for the first time since his ’84 team went 7‑3.
Saturday’s setback gave Massillon a 1987 record of 6‑4, A pattern that has haunted John Maronto in his three years as Massillon’s head coach ‑ playing tough, but failing just short against the elite teams ‑ held true again.
Both Maronto and McDaniels are saying their futures at their respective schools are up in the air.
Game Action vs. Canton McKinley 1987
The Tigers stunned McKinley on the ground. After the Bulldogs stalled in three plays following the opening kickoff, Massillon set up at midfield. From time to time under Maronto, the Tigers’ first play has been a bomb. McKinley knows that and may have been sucked in when Tiger quarterback Erik White dropped back for an apparent pass. However, the was a sprint draw, with Myricks taking a handoff and going through a gaping hole up the middle.
“We wanted to get Jerome one‑on‑one with a defensive back on that play,” Maronto said. “It was very well blocked by our players.”
Myricks is a hard man to catch in the open field. This time, nobody caught him. He shifted smoothly to the left sideline and out ran McKinley’s defense into the end zone for a 50‑yard touchdown run.
“We ran that play successfully the whole game,” Maronto said. “Most of our blocking schemes were effective, especially behind John Woodlock and John Schilling. There were a lot of exciting plays and Jerome came very close to breaking the long one on several others.”
Game Action vs. Canton McKinley 1987
But while the Tigers were coming close to the big play, McKinley was making it. The Bulldogs used a running attack that netted 283 yards to score the game’s next three touchdowns.
A 93‑yard drive capped by Bulldog quarterback Pat Lyon’s 8‑yard pass to a wide‑open tight end, 6‑1 senior Dan Roshong, cut Massillon’s lead to 7‑6 with 34 seconds left in the first quarter. The extra‑point kick was wide left.
McKinley got great field position on its next possession following a 19‑yard loss on which Tiger fullback Jason Stafford was caught on a reverse. A short punt enabled the Bulldogs to set up on the Tiger 38, and they scored three plays later when tailback Jeff Richardson took a pitch left and motored 24 yards for a touchdown.
McKinley pulled out to an 18‑7 lead by driving 63 yards for a TD on its first possession of the second half. Richardson went over the right side to score from four yards out.
The Tigers turned it into a thriller when White got hot late in the third quarter, launching a mostly passing, 72‑yard drive capped by Myricks’ 6‑yard blast up the middle with 8:36 left in the game.
Since McKinley had failed on all three of its extra point tries, the Tigers had a chance to pull within a field goal of a tie by making a two‑point conversion. Jerome got the job done by running over Schilling and Woodlock on the right side, and it was 18‑15.
The Tigers, however, got the ball only once more, setting up on their own 18 after a punt and moving to the 30 on a diving 12‑yard reception by senior split end Craig York. Bulldog linebacker Scott Herrington sacked White for an 11‑yard loss to set up a punt, and the Bulldogs ran out the clock.
Save for a few inches, perhaps less, the game might have been drastically different.
The Tigers came up just short of the end zone when fullback John Miller, a secret weapon who had played the season primarily at inside linebacker, was stopped on fourth and goal from the 3 with 1:38 left in the first half.
Miller was so close to the goal line that White, the quarterback, signaled a touchdown.
“I was about an inch, maybe two, short of the goal line,” Miller said.
“The films show it couldn’t have been more than a couple inches,” Maronto said. “The play was blocked successfully at the point of attack. (Defensive tackle) Robert Copenny came from nowhere to get just enough of John’s legs to slow him down.”
The drive had begun at the McKinley 31 on the kickoff following McKinley’s go‑ahead touchdown. In fact, is was one of the more dramatic marches of the season.
McKINLEY 18 MASSILLON 15
MAS McK First downs rushing 7 12 First downs passing 7 5 First downs by penalty 0 1 Totals first downs 14 18 Yards gained rushing 190 306 Yards lost rushing 52 23 Net yards rushing 138 283 Net yards passing 90 67 Total yards gained 228 350 Passes attempted 14 8 Passes completed 9 5 Passes int. by 0 0 Times kicked off 3 4 Kickoff average 49.0 41.8 Kickoff return yards 63 46 Punts 5 3 Punting average 26.4 32.3 Punt return yards 0 13 Fumbles 0 2 Fumbles lost 0 0 Penalties 3 5 Yards penalized 26 25 Number of plays 60 51 Time of possession 22:54 25:06 Attendance 17,500
MASSILLON 7 0 0 8 15 McKINLEY 6 6 6 0 18
Grid war lives up to reputation Tigers fall short against Bulldogs
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
The good fight has been fought. And now the war between the cities is over.
“I did a lot of thinking about the game today,” Massillon Tiger co-captain John Miller said Sunday night, more than 24 hours after his football team fell 18‑15 to the McKinley Bulldogs. “Now I’ll just try to forget about it. It’s time to move on.”
The Tigers scored on their first play from scrimmage Saturday when Jerome Myricks cut loose for a 50‑yard touchdown run. McKinley, however, used a ground assault that netted 283 yards to score a touchdown in each of the first three periods on their way to the win.
“It’s a very tough loss for our football team and our program,” Tiger head coach John Maronto said. “A lot of energy was expended to come up a couple of inches short. But the thing you have to understand is that our young men gave everything they had … and a little bit more. It was one of the best high school football games I’ve ever been involved in … certainly one of the hardest hitting.”
Maronto, who has been under fire since last year’s 23‑6 loss to McKinley, has a 20‑10 record in his three years at the Massillon helm. He has been haunted by a series of close defeats against powerful teams. The coach’s three‑year contract expires at the end of this school year, and there has been speculation he will not be offered a new pact.
As to his future in Massillon, Maronto said, “That remains to be seen.” He said his thoughts are focused on other areas right now. “I’m more concerned with looking out for the best interests of the graduating seniors,” he said. “I want to make sure everyone has things in the right perspective in terms of next season. I’m most concerned with dealing with the team.
“This is the most successful 6‑4 team you could ever be involved with,” Maronto added. “People have to agree that these players played the toughest Massillon schedule possible ever. They weren’t more than an inch here or an inch there from being 9‑1. I’m pretty proud of the way this team played, the class they showed and the adversity it fought to overcome.”
Miller, a surprise starter at fullback Saturday, and fellow co-captain Erik Moledor wound down Sunday by going to the movie “Hellraiser” at Lincoln Theater.
“It was kind of dumb,” Miller admitted. Saturday’s game had been kind of sensational. But in the Tigers’ eyes, it had a “dumb ending,” what with McKinley on top.
“There was some serious hitting going on,” said Miller, who played inside linebacker in addition to fullback. “I mean serious. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I’m a little sore today, but nothing major.”
The Tigers finished their 1987 grid campaign with a 6‑4 record. It was only the sixth time since Paul Brown left town in 1940 that the team has endured as many as four losses in a season.
It also was the fourth straight setback to McKinley, marking the second longest losing streak in the history of the series, which Massillon still leads 50‑38‑5. The Canton team won the first 11 games in the series, which began in 1894.
“We didn’t have as good a season as we thought we would,” Miller said. “We expected to go pretty far. I’m still glad I played on this team. I liked everybody on the squad. It was a great bunch.”
Moledor, a senior defensive back, was keeping a stiff upper lip Sunday but remained in obvious disappointment.
“I thought we gave it everything we had,” said Moledor. “McKinley was pretty tough. Give ’em credit.” “We really worked hard together this year. I think that’s the best thing we did … worked hard. Saturday was tough. But I don’t think there are any regrets.”
Middletown coach feels bad about 12-7 win: Massillon coach feels boos
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
Jim Place spent his formative years in Massillon. He knows.
He knows what it is like here after the third defeat of a football season.
Painful No. 3 came Friday night by a 12‑7 score as 7,254 looked on in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. The victor, Middletown High’s Middies, are coached by Place, who moved to Massillon when he was a fifth grader.
Place was telling someone on a locker room telephone. “Honest, I really never have.”
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He was talking to Sonny Spielman, Massillon’s assistant athletic director, who is recovering from surgery to remove a non‑malignant tumor from his pituitary gland. Spielman was one of Place’s coaches at Central Catholic High School in the early 1960s.
The loss puzzled the Tigers, who were inexplicably flat in the first half, but still had a chance to win until near the end. It sent them into next Saturday’s McKinley game needing a victory to post their third straight 7‑3 season. Middletown, 7-1 needs to beat Lancaster next week to make the Division I playoffs.
Place told reporters more about his love for Massillon, where he once attended St. Joseph School.
“If I pick up a newspaper in Middletown and see Massillon lost, I feel bad,” he said. “There’s some Massillon in me. I felt bad tonight for Coach (John) Maronto. I shook his hand after the game and wished him well.”
The crowd was less sympathetic. The booing got loud late in the fourth quarter.
The Massillon dressing room was very quiet.
A reporter from Middletown asked Maronto if he thought a Massillon fumble of the game‑opening kickoff was a turning point. The fumble led to a touchdown.
“I really don’t think the fumble was a factor,” Maronto said. “Middletown played well and made no turnovers. (Tommy) Harkrader is a heck of a back. Their other back, (Duane) Gregory, is part of the quickness that hurt us. Frankly, they deserved to will.
“Middletown can play with the best team in any state at any time. Give them credit.”
Dion Roberts, a 140‑pound Middletown senior, gets much of the credit.
It was Roberts who recovered Steve Siegenthaler’s fumble of the opening kickoff at the 27‑yard line, setting up a 3‑yard touchdown run by the hard‑running Harkrader, a 6‑1 senior who will be playing somewhere in the Big Ten (as his father and two brothers did) next year.
It was Roberts who intercepted Erik White’s pass in the end zone with 9:07 left in the contest, snuffing out a furious threat that seemed destined to reverse a 9‑7 Middletown lead.
“This was our biggest win of the season, by far,” said Jason Feczko, Middletown’s record‑setting place kicker, whose two second‑half field goals overturned a 7‑6 Tiger lead at halftime.
This was a game in which the agony and the ecstasy happened in the wrong order for the Tigers.
The most exciting play of the season had left Massillon fans in gleeful spirits early in the second quarter. The Tigers’ first two possessions resulted in 11 modest gains on running plays. An incomplete pass left Massillon with a third‑and‑long from the Tiger 40.
White dropped back to pass and was about to be crushed by two Middletown rushers when he flicked a little shovel pass to fullback Jason Stafford. Stafford used his sub-4.6 40‑yard dash speed to rocket through a huge gap in the middle. He cut left and easily out ran two Middletown defenders into the end zone for a 60‑yard touchdown that left the fans roaring.
Since Middletown’s point‑after kick died in a fumble, Lee Hurst had a chance to give the Tigers the lead. Hurst’s kick was perfect and the Tigers led 7‑6 with 10:30 left in the first half.
At halftime, the diminutive Gregory got the word. “They told me I was going to be running the ball more,” the 151‑pound junior said.
Gregory squirted through the middle and around the outside all night. With his excellent speed and low center of gravity (he stands 56), the Tigers had a devil of a time bringing him down. He finished with 124 yards in 13 carries. Harkrader added 89 yards in 13 rushes. Quarterback Jason Tisdale, a bruising 191‑pounder who was also swift and deceptive, rushed S5 yards in 15 carries.
They were the men who enabled the Middies to drive 57 yards after taking the second‑half kickoff. The drive stalled at the 11, but Feczko’s 27‑yard field goal gave Middletown a 9‑7 lead.
The 15‑play drive just about wiped out the third quarter. The field goal came with 4:31 left.
The Tigers proceeded to wipe out another big chunk of time ‑ and, almost, the lead ‑ after starting on their own 20 following the ensuing kickoff.
Senior tailback Jerome Myricks, who finished with 118 yards in 19 carries, finally got cooking after a so‑so first half. Runs of 9, 8, 10, 7, 14 and 10 yards by Myricks were the keys that gave the Tigers a first down on the Middletown 14-yard line. The drive stalled on fourth down at the 8, and Hurst trotted on to the field to try a 25‑yard field goal that would give Massillon a 10‑9 lead. But Middletown gave the Tigers what shaped up as a huge gift when the right end jumped off sides. The miscue gave Massillon a first down at the 4, and the offense returned to the field.
On first down, Myricks was stopped for no gain by the middle of the line, On second down, Siegenthaler, getting his second rushing attempt of the season, was stopped for a 1-yard gain to the 3. On third down, White rolled right but couldn’t get away from two hard‑charging Middies. Just before he was hit, White avoided the sack by unloading the ball into the right side of the end zone, Unfortunately, Roberts was waiting and came away with an easy interception.
Middletown’s offense took over, unleashing Gregory, Harkrader and Tisdale on an all‑rushing drive that swallowed big chunks of time and yardage before halting on fourth down at the 21.
Feczko, who has made 13 of his career field goal attempts and has range to 45 yards, drilled a 38yarder to give the Middies their 12‑7 edge with 3:21 left.
Still, there was time … but at the end of an 8‑yard gain, Myricks fumbled and Carlos Brooks recovered for Middletown with 2:27 left. On fourth‑and‑one with a minute left, Gregory blasted around left end for 14 yards to end all Tiger hopes.
Afterward, Harkrader was a happy man. “I’ve heard a lot about Massillon but I’d never seen them play,” he said. “This means a lot. Our offense just overpowered them. They hit pretty hard, but I don’t know if they were expecting us to hit as hard as we did.”
Nor were the Tigers expecting the troubles they had with the passing game. The shovel pass to Stafford was the only completion of the night in eight attempts.
”They were the first team all year that was able to take away our, passing attack,” Maronto said.
The Middies didn’t mount much of an air game, either, as Tisdale completed two of seven passes for 29 yards. However, Middletown used a 268‑149 advantage in rushing yardage to win the battle of net offense 277‑209.
As a result of McKinley’s 14‑7 victory over Glen0ak Friday night, the Bulldogs and Tigers will enter their annual showdown with 6‑3 records.
“All I know is we’ve got a lot of’ hard work to do,” Maronto said. “We have to re‑evaluate and regroup. I’m certain of one thing. The team will come back and play their hearts out.”
MIDDLETOWN 12 MASSILLON 7 MAS MID First downs rushing 11 15 First downs passing 1 0 First downs by penalty 1 2 Total first downs 13 17 Yards gained rushing 151 274 Yards lost rushing 2 6 Net yards rushing 149 268 Net yards passing 60 9 Total yards gained 209 277 Passes attempted 8 7 Passes completed 1 2 Passes int. by 0 1 Times kicked off 2 4 Kickoff average 58.0 55.8 Kickoff return yards 30 48 Punts 3 1 Punting average 37.0 46.0 Punt return yards 0 0 Fumbles 4 0 Fumbles lost 2 0 Penalties 3 4 Yards penalized 30 29 Number of plays 39 50 Time of possession 18:38 29:22 Attendance 7,254
MIDDLETOWN 6 0 3 3 12 MASSILLON 0 7 0 0 7
MID ‑ Harkrader 3 run (kick failed) MAS ‑ Stafford 60 pass from White (Hurst kick) MID ‑ FG Feczko 27 MID ‑ FG Feczko 38
Tigers are angry; Vikes are No. 1 Game‑turning safety might not have been safety, game films reveal
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
Does Saturday’s mud‑bath, 8‑0 victory over the Massillon Tigers mean Cleveland St. Joseph is the best high school football team in Ohio?
“Oh, yes … we are … by far,” St. Joseph linebacker Jerry Carlock said even before he had wiped a mask of mud from his face in a slippery locker room at Euclid’s Panther stadium.
A day later, back in Massillon,*, the feeling in the Tiger camp was that St. Joseph was not even the best team in the game. A great team, to be sure. But a dubious victor.
The outcome left St. Joseph with four straight shutouts, an 8‑0 record and a certain perch atop Ohio’s poll of Division I teams. The Vikings entered the week ranked No. 2 behind Cincinnati Princeton, which was upset by defending state champion Fairfield Friday. The Tigers, 6‑2, will be back home Friday to take on 6‑2 Middletown, who own a win over Fairfield this year.
In the film room at Washington High School Sunday night, coaches hurled paper wads at the screen in disgust over critical calls that influenced the scoring.
“I’m sure there will be a few extra people at the Booster Club meeting (tonight at 7:30 at the high school) who are curious about the game films,” one parent of a Massillon player said Sunday.
The players would normally see those films this afternoon. “We may not waste our time showing the players the films because of the total situation,” Massillon’s head coach, John Maronto said.
The game turned on a controversial safety with 4:27 left in the third period.
Tim Radigan, a 140‑pound St. Joseph senior who played the game of his life, put a 28‑yard punt in Downtown Coffin Comer. It skipped out of bounds inside the 1.
Erik White quarterback sneaked one yard, Jerome Myricks was stopped for no gain, Jason Stafford plowed ahead for two yards, and Mark Kester set up to punt from the back of the end zone.
Massillon has been playing football since 1894. It is hard to imagine field conditions ever having been worse than they were in Saturday’s rain. It was not surprising that the long snap to Kester was a bad snap that bounced in front of him.
Kester fielded the ball, straightened up and facing a stiff wind got off his best punt of the miserable night. However, an official ruled that his knee had been down in the end zone. St. Joseph was awarded a safety.
“The game films show what we thought at first had happened,” Maronto said. “Kester made a very heady play. In fact, he was picked by the coaches as our best special teams player in the game,
Kester, a senior who also plays defensive back and split end, said he thought he did everything he needed to do to avoid the safety.
MASSILLON 0 CLEVELAND ST. JOSEPH 8 M C First downs rushing 2 5 First downs passing 1 0 First downs by penalty 0 2 Totals first downs 3 7 Yards gained rushing 84 146 Yards lost rushing 2 10 Net yards rushing 82 136 Net yards passing 45 0 Total yards gained 127 0 Passes attempted 11 2 Passes completed 2 0 Passes Int. by 0 1 Times kicked off 0 3 Kickoff average 00.0 42.0 Kickoff return yards 64 00 Punts 7 6 Punting average 21.7 30.5 Punt return yards 0 0 Fumbles 2 0 Fumbles lost 1 0 Penalties 3 5 Yards penalized 33 30 Number of Plays 37 47 Time of possession 20:00 28:00
Attendance 8,000(est.)
St. JOSPEPH 0 0 2 6 8 MASSILLON 0 0 0 0 0
CSJ ‑ Safety, Massillon punter Kester’s knee ruled down In end zone CSJ ‑ Howard 10 run (run failed)
Recalling the play, Kester said he went to his knee to knock down the errant snap, knowing he must not hold the ball with his knee on the ground. He then lifted his knee off the ground and picked up the ball, avoiding the rush and kicking it cleanly to the 35‑yard line.
“If he doesn’t have possession when his knee is on the ground, it shouldn’t be a safety,” Maronto said. “Mark did what he was supposed to do.”
The safety stood, and Massillon had to free kick the ball away to St. Joseph trailing 2‑0.
A good kickoff by Lee Hurst kept the Vikings from having great field position, as they had to set up on their own 38.
The Massillon defense, which played masterfully even though senior tackle and co‑captain James Bullock left the game early after reinjuring a sprained ankle, forced a punt after three plays.
Radigan, whose six punts for a 30.5 average were outstanding under the conditions, got off another good one, and the Tigers’ Steve Siegenthaler couldn’t hang on to it. St. Joseph coverage man Byron Hopkins pounced on the ball at the 15. Massillon stayed in the game, though, when Mark Freidly leveled star tailback Desmond Howard on fourth‑and‑one at the 6.
The Tigers moved to the 14 on third and two. Viking linebacker Scott Zele leveled Myricks a split second after the Tiger senior took a handoff and Massillon had to punt.
Most of the fourth period remained, however, after St. Joseph couldn’t budge on three plays, setting up another punt on fourth down from Massillon’s 48‑yard line.
Then … astonishment.
Radigan got off his punt but a flag flew.
Penalty against Massillon … 15 yards?
But what penalty.
“I was given two versions,” said Maronto, who spoke cautiously but clearly was disturbed by the development. “One was too many men on the field. The other was illegal equipment.”
An official exiting the field said the penalty was for too many men on the field. “The game films show we had 11,” Maronto said.
One observer reported that a Massillon player’s mouthpiece was dangling out of his mouth as the play unfolded. If, in fact, the call was illegal equipment based on the mouthpiece ‑ the call would have been technically correct. Based on the field conditions and the moment of the game, however, whistling the technicality would have been utterly flabbergasting.
The 15‑yard penalty moved the ball to the 33 with 8:05 left in the game. Howard ran 8 yards on first down, but the Vikings got a half‑the‑distance penalty after a facemask violation corroborated by the game films. Howard then ran 3 yards to the 10. On second down, he ran over the left side and into the end zone.
Many fans were shocked when St. Joseph head coach Bill Gutbrod, in his 38th year at the helm, elected not to put the game out of reach with a point‑after kick.
“I asked my man if he could give me the point and he was honest,” Gutbrod explained. “He said with the field the way it was, there was no way, he could get off the kick. So we went with a run. ”
The run failed, leaving the Tigers with 6:27 to try for a touchdown and tying two‑point conversion.
Massillon set up on its own 34 after the ensuing kickoff but had to punt after gaining just a yard on a pass completion.
Kester’s punt was fair caught by Howard at the St. Joseph 33. Massillon defense answered the challenge again, forcing a punt after three plays. Radigan got his last lick in, booting the ball to the Tiger 37 with 3:30 left.
There had been nothing to indicate the Tiger’ could wade through 68 yards of slop in a short period of time. But hopes soared when, on first down, White heaved a bomb over the middle into the arms of flanker Wrentie Martin. Martin was behind the defender but couldn’t get the traction needed to escape for a touchdown and was caught at the St. Joseph 18.
The hopes were dashed, though, when White threw four straight incomplete passes, the last of which far overshot Martin with 1:48 left. St. Joseph was able to run out the clock.
“I had guys open, and I wish I could have gotten them the ball,” White said. “Unfortunately, the ball slipped out of my hands a couple of times. Believe me, I wish I could have gotten the ball there. ”
On this night, the ball had a mind of its own. St. Joseph had several chances to take a lead in the first half.
Siegenthaler made a nifty return of the game opening kickoff, a squib kick, and Massillon set up on the 44.
A 42‑yard punt by Radigan, with a strong wind at his back, buried the Tigers at their own 13 with eight minutes left in the first quarter, one play after Bullock was carried off the field.
Punt exchanges enabled St. Joseph to get progressively closer to the goal line. First‑half Massillon possessions began on the 13‑, 5‑, 15‑ and 9‑yard lines.
St. Joseph possessions began in Massillon territory at the 38, 32 and 23.
The half ended in more controversy. A 23‑yard run by Myricks, who three times in the first half was one man away from breaking the same kind of touchdown run he popped in the mud at Austintown‑Fitch last year, put the ball near midfield.
On fourth and one from the Viking 47, a crazy looking play with men in motion was cut short when the Tigers were called for a delay of game. The Massillon camp contends a game official was holding the ball in a towel when it should have been spotted.
The penalty set up a punt, and the half ended with St. Joseph in possession around midfield.
The loss ended a six‑game Massillon winning streak but did not end the Tigers’ playoff hopes. If they beat Middletown and McKinley, they should amass enough points to finish in the top four of, Division I, Region 2. Massillon then would need a favorable ruling from the Ninth District Court of Appeals, which has been asked to overturn an OHSAA playoff ban against the Tigers.
St. Joseph has clinched a Division I playoff berth, setting up the outside possibility of a Tiger‑Viking rematch.
Statistics were predictable, based on the mud. St. Joseph held a 136‑127 edge in net offensive yards. Howard rushed 29 times for 90 yards. The Vikings ran only 18 plays on which the 5‑foot‑8 speedster did not have the ball.
Myricks also had the ball on more than half of his team’s 37 offensive plays. The 5‑foot‑11 tailback rushed 19 times for 73 yards and caught a pass for 1 yard.
The crowd fell short of the 10,000 figure some observers reported. It was in the range of about 8,000. The visitors’ side was a sea of orange; in fact, numerous Massillon fans sat in the home grandstand, and more than half of the throng may have been Tigertown rooters.
They went home disappointed after watching a strange game.
Said one fan dressed in orange, “I sure would like to see a rematch on a dry field.”
But in the St. Joseph camp, the feeling was different. “We’ve got to be one of the top two or three teams in Ohio, based on what we’ve done on the field,” Gutbrod said.
Added the linebacker Zele, “It feels great to be the No. I team in Ohio,”
Tigers give Harding hard time Most points vs. Warren since ’40 in 56‑14 rout
By STEVE DOERSCHUK Independent Sports Editor
On the field, Jason Stafford lines up in front of Jerome Myricks.
In the interview room after the Massillon Tigers’ 56‑14 walloping of Warren Harding Friday night before 7,745 in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, Myricks took the seat in front of Stafford.
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Neither took a back seat to the other in the game. They were co-pilots on the same flying carpet. Fullback Stafford rushed nine times for 115 yards and caught a pair of Erik White passes for 30 ~yards. Tailback Myricks motored 107 yards in 15 rushes and reeled in two passes for 41 yards. That gave Myricks, a senior, 148 yards on the night to 145 for Stafford, a junior. The numbers helped the Tigers improve to 6‑1 and sink Warren to 4‑3.
“It’s about time,” Myricks said, rolling his eyes backward to Stafford. “It’s about time he ran the way I knew he could. He’s a good back. I knew it all along. Tonight, it showed. ”
Stafford agreed, saying, “Like the man said, it’s about time. I made my mind up right before the game. I told myself, tonight, I’ve got to do it.”
He did it all right. Using good blocks and great speed ‑ a Tiger coach put him at 4.5 over 40 yards; Stafford set the figure at 4.53 ‑ he exploded for runs of 28, 29 and 30 yards, the latter carry going for a touchdown that blew open a 41‑14 lead in the third quarter.
The program puts Stafford at 5 feet, 10 inches, 182 pounds. On paper, that’s small for a fullback … except Stafford says he weighs 168 pounds.
Stafford lost his entire sophomore season to ineligibility. Before that, he always played tailback.
Game action vs. Warren Harding 1987
In the Southern Cal tradition of paying one’s dues as an underclassman fullback before becoming the main man at tailback as a senior, Stafford has learned to be a lead blocker for Myricks (who now has 798 yards in 117 rushes) this autumn.
“I don’t mind it at all … it’s just as fun,” Stafford said.
The game got to be tons of fun for the Tigers, but only after they overcame an early 7‑0 deficit and later broke away from a 21‑14 halftime lead.
Two things happened in the second half. The Tiger defense, bruised for 206 yards in the first half, gave up only 78 more yards. And the Massillon offense, which. warmed up with 191 yards in the first half, went stir crazy in the second, tacking on 270 more yards for a whopping 461 total.
“We talked at halftime only of getting back down to the basics, instead of trying to make a big play on every down,” Massillon head coach John Maronto said. “The defense got after them a little bit more in the second half. And you saw what the offense did.”
It did whatever it wanted.
“That’s one of the better offenses I’ve seen,” said Warren head coach Frank Thomas, a former Harding player who spent the middle 1970s as an assistant coach at Massillon. “We fumbled the ball away five times. We emphasized all week to our kids that we couldn’t play a powerhouse team like Massillon, with the offense they have, and turn the ball over.
“They have four or five people who can get their hands on the ball and score six points in eight seconds. Plus, they have that offensive line. That line is awesome.”
“There was absolutely no doubt in my mind we were going to come back,” Miller said emphatically.
Miller’s confidence was quickly substantiated when Steve Siegenthaler returned a squib kick 31 yards to the Tiger 46‑yard line. White, the 6‑1/2 senior quarterback, went‑for‑it all on first down, barely missing Gerald Pope on a bomb. But split end Craig York caught a pass on second down and made some nifty moves for an 18yard gain. From there, Myricks and Stafford ran the ball to the 2, from where Vernon Riley ‑ the Tigers “big” fullback and regular nose guard ‑ rammed it in straight up the middle. Lee Hurst’s kick made it 7‑7 at the 4:34 mark of the first quarter.
Warren was driving again early in the second quarter. But the tide turned when Baugh was popped by Bob Dunwiddie at the end of a 13yard gain to the 30 and fumbled away the ball. On the next two plays, Stafford turned on the burners for gains of 28 and 29 yards. A clipping penalty sent the ball back to the 31, but White found Mark Kester for a 15‑yard gain to the 16, and then drilled a pass to York at the 10. York put two of the prettiest fakes of the season on a pair of Warren defenders and turned the play into, a 16‑yard touchdown. Hurst’s kick made it 14‑7 with 5:05 left in the half.
Thirty‑four seconds later, the Tigers scored again.
Miller exploded out of his inside linebacker spot to put a ferocious hit on Warren tailback Mike Hall. The ball hit the ground. “I saw it coming,” said Myricks, who scooped it up on the dead run and sprinted 22 yards into the end zone. Hurst’s kick made it 21‑7, but Warren was not finished.
After setting up on their own 35 after the ensuing kickoff, the Panthers drove 65 yards in 10 plays, With Hall covering the final 7 yards ‑Jones’ kick made it 21‑14 with 1: 25 left, and that became the halftime score. ‑
After that, it was all Massillon.
On the first possession of the second half, the Tigers drove 65 yards in seven plays. The capper was Myricks’ 11‑yard TD run on a pitch right. Myricks rushed for 48 yards on the drive. Hurst’s kick made it 28‑14 with 8:44 left in the third quarter.
Marko Miller, who had to leave the game in the first half after aggravating a foot injury, gained 18 yards on two carries after the kick‑off. But his second carry ended in a fumble recovered by Bullock at the Warren 37. A 15‑yard pass to Stafford and two 11‑yard runs by Myricks put the ball in the end zone. Hurst’s kick made it 35‑14 with 6:21 left in period three.
Warren’s next possession ended on the third play with an interception by Kester at the Harding 34. Stafford ran 4 yards to the 30 and on the next play rocketed over the right side for a 30‑yard touchdown run. Hurst’s kick made it 41‑14 with 3:59 left in the third frame.
Then it was razzle dazzle time. After the Tigers got the ball at their own 9 on a punt and punched it to their own 43 on first down, Hurst, the backup quarterback, came in and lined up as a receiver. White threw a sideline pass to Hurst that was actually a lateral, since Hurst was behind White when he caught the ball. Hurst then looked upfield and delivered a bomb to flanker Wrentie Martin, who easily got behind the coverage, caught the ball, and danced into the end zone on a 57‑yard completion. Hurst’s kick made it 49‑14 with 9:45 left in the game.
Fullback David Ledwell, who rushed 4 times for 25 yards, blasted in from 2 yards out at the 5: 42 mark. Senior Chris Smith got into the books with the point‑after kick.
The 56 points were the most Massillon scored against Warren since 1940, when the Tigers won 59‑0.
White wound up with eight completions in 16 attempts for 136 yards. Waite completed 18 of 31 passes for 173 yards.
Miller, whose foot injury kept him from manning the defensive end spot from which he has played so well this year, wound up with 60 yards in nine carries. Baugh had a big day, catching 10 passes for 135 yards.
Next up for the Tigers is Cleveland St. Joseph, which will play in Euclid High’s Stadium tonight against Cleveland St. Ignatius.
St. Joseph is 6‑0 and ranked second in Ohio. You might say next Saturday’s affair will be a big game.
“I’m glad to get this one out of the way,” Maronto said of the Warren game.
Cautioned the quarterback, White, “We can’t get carried away by what we did tonight. There’s a big one coming up.”
MASSILLON 56 WARREN 14 M W First downs rushing 15 8 First downs passing 7 9 First downs by penalty 0 0 Totals first down 22 17 Yards gained rushing 270 116 Yards lost rushing 2 5 Net yards rushing 268 111 Net yards passing 193 173 Total yards gained 461 284 Passes attempted 17 31 Passes completed 9 18 Passes int. by 2 1 Times kicked off 9 3 Kickoff average 55.8 45.7 Kickoff return yards 73 157 Punts 1 1 Punting average 44.0 42.0 Punt return yards 0 0 Fumbles 1 5 Fumbles lost 1 5 Penalties 7 7 Yards penalized 58 40 Number of plays 53 56 Time of possession 23:44 24:16
WARREN 7 7 0 0 14 MASSILLON 7 14 21 14 56
W ‑ Miller 20 run (Jones kick) M ‑ Riley 2 run (Hurst kick) M ‑ York 16 pass from White (Hurst kick] M ‑ Myricks 22 tumble return (Hurst kick W ‑ Hall 7 run (Jones kick) M ‑ Myricks 15 run (Hurst kick) M ‑ Stafford 30 run (Hurst kick) M ‑ Marlin 57 pass from Hurst (Hurst kick M ‑ Ledwell 2 run (Smith kick) Halftime talk Propels Tigers
By CHRIS TOMASSON Repository sports writer
MASSILLON ‑ At halftime Friday night, the Massillon locker room was not a place for feeble folks.
The heavily favored Tigers were defeating Warren Harding only 21‑14, and they had been out gained 206‑191 yards. So Massillon coach John Maronto gave his players’ eardrums a workout.
“He really let us have it,” said Massillon tailback Jason Stafford. “We weren’t used to be yelled at like that.”
Apparently it worked, as the Tigers came out in an utter frenzy and humbled the Panthers 35‑0 in the second half en route to a 56‑14 win.
“I told them at halftime that I wanted them to go back to basic ball,” Maronto said. “We had to set some sort of tempo for the game. ”
Massillon (6‑1) had thrown the ball 11 times in the first half, but in the second half the Tigers only put it up six times. The Tigers turned to good old Massillon football, handing the ball off on nearly every play to Stafford or Jerome Myricks.
In the second half, Myricks rushed for 79 of his 107 yards and scored two touchdowns. And Stafford had 45 of his 115 yards rushing and scored a touchdown.
While Myricks and Stafford may have run wild, the Panthers (4‑3) made it as easy for them. For the game, Harding turned the ball over seven times, leading to 35 Massillon points.
The Panthers, who were once ranked No. 9 in the state in Division 1, are becoming quite skilled at turning the ball over. Last week, they also lost the ball seven times in a 16‑6 loss to Niles McKinley.
“You can’t make those kind of mistakes against a powerhouse football team,” said Harding coach Frankie Thomas. “We’d fumble the ball and it seemed like eight seconds later they’d be in the end zone. ”
You think Thomas was exaggerating? Late in the second quarter with Massillon up 14‑7, Massillon defensive back Steve Siegenthaler smashed Harding’s Mike Hall, and the ball squirted out. Myricks, playing defensive back, scooped it off the turf and sprinted 22 yards into the end zone before the average fan had time to swallow a kernel of popcorn.
And that was the only reason Massillon even led at the half because the Panthers added a touchdown late in the second quarter.
Warren Harding might have made the game more interesting had it not’ lost its star running back, Marko Miller, in the late in the first quarter with a possible broken toe. Miller gained 46 yards on seven carries before he was carried off the field.
Despite intense pain, Miller returned to the game in the second half, carrying two times for 14 yards. But after he fumbled and Massillon drove for its fifth touchdown, he was given the rest of the night off.
Massillon didn’t have to go very far for its second‑half touchdowns. After Harding turnovers. three of the seven came on drives of less than 40 yards. But the Tigers did put together a nifty 92‑yard march early in the fourth quarter that gave them a 49‑14 lead.
And the usually conservative Maronto capped off the drive with reward for the fans who stayed throughout the massacre. Quarterback Erik Martin threw a pass, behind the line of scrimmage to Lee Hurst, the backup quarterback, who flung the ball downfield. to a wide‑open Wrentie Martin to complete a.74‑yard TD bomb.
Massillon finished with 461 yards total offense to 284 for the Panthers. But the Panthers had only 78 yards. In the second half.
Altoona, GlenOak, Barberton, Fitch and now Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary have paid.
The Washington High football team was so angry about what happened Sept. 4 that it won’t let anybody in a game.
You want thrills in the final minutes Sorry. Brian Sipe lives in California.
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The latest foe to get knocked out early was Akron St. Vincent‑St. Mary. The Tigers decked the Irish with three quick touchdowns that produced a 21‑0 lead. They eventually bagged an easy 24‑12 win in front of 8,098 fans Friday night in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.
Erik White passed for 150 yards and Jerome Myricks scored three more touchdowns and rushed for 106 yards in the Tigers’ fifth straight win,
The Irish were good fighters. They finished with 276 offensive yards to Massillon’s 277. They controlled the ball for 23 minutes and 38 seconds, just 44 seconds less the home team. But really, folks, it was over early.
“We have to keep working,” said Mark Kester, one of White’s ace receivers. “We have a lot of room to improve. We have a lot of tough games coming up. But we’re real happy about what we’ve done.”
These kids have a right to be happy. Here are more recent diary installments.
Sept. 12 ‑ Lead Altoona 20‑3 at halftime in easy 34‑3 win.
Sept. 18 ‑ Hit GlenOak with first quarter TD … never let Eagles sniff end zone in 21‑0 win.
Sept. 26 ‑ Jump on Barberton for 34‑7 lead. Crazy finish lets Magics score three TDs in final three minutes in 34‑28 win.
Oct. 3 ‑ Shoot to 24‑7 halftime vs. Fitch in 38‑29 win.
The Tigers haven’t been perfect. But since Sept. 4, nobody has had a realistic shot at knocking them off in the waning minutes..
“We, played pretty well tonight against one of the tougher teams we’ve played,” said 6‑foot‑4 senior linebacker Mark Freidly. “I really didn’t think we let down after it was 21‑0. We try to go out there like it’s 0‑0 in the second half. They were just a pretty tough team, up there with Glen0ak and Fitch.
“We’ve been improving week by week. We’ve got to keep it up.”
Myricks keeps holding up his end. His three touchdowns Friday lifted his season total to 15. With 90 points through six games, he is within sight of the Tigers’ top‑five single season points leaders of all time.
He won’t catch Dutch Hill, who racked up 204 points in 1922. But he is within reach of Mike Mauger (152 in 1970), Heine Krier (149 in 1934), Bob Glass (137 in 1937) and Art Hastings (134 in 1960).
Massillon head coach John Maronto disdains talking about statistics.
He probably doesn’t have to worry about Myricks ‑ a cool customer who seems to have an excellent sense of team ‑ getting a fat head.
“The team,” Myricks said, ”is getting more confident. I don’t think anybody is getting a big head. We know we’ve got some tough games left to play. We know we have to improve.”
Maronto sees the improvement. He concedes the Tiger’s let down, “and that includes the coaches,” after getting the big lead.
But we can’t be anything but pleased,” Maronto said. “The team we just beat 24‑12 is a team that beat Garfield.”
Maronto said the offensive game plan was to pass on St. V’s 4‑4 (eight men always close to the line) defense.
The first time Massillon got the ball was on its own 9‑yard line after a punt. The first three plays ‑ out of a hurry‑up offense to keep the Irish defense offguard ‑ were completions from White to Myricks, Jeff Harig and Wrentie Martin. After a 3‑yard run by fullback Jason Stafford, White found Kester for 10 yards. Myricks was held to a yard gain and a pass intended for Harig fell incomplete.
That made it third‑and‑nine 38 yards from the end zone. White dropped back to pass and the Tiger line released the St. V pass rushers on what became a beautifully set up screen pass. Just before the rush reached him, White dumped a little pass to a wide‑open Myricks, who got to the outside before several downfield defenders could meet him and raced down the left sideline into the end zone.
Lee Hurst’s kick made it 7‑0 at the 5:32 mark of the first period.
Late in the first quarter, Tiger tackle Bob Dunwiddie jarred the ball loose from Irish back Phil Gori and Tiger defensive back Erik Moledor recovered on the St. V 30‑yard line. Myricks rushed for 11 yards and seemed angry he didn’t make it more. On the next play, he went through the middle, spun away from two defenders who met him at the 13, and sprinted to the right corner of the end zone.
It was the sort of spectacular run that has become a weekly scene for Myricks.
“They didn’t wrap their arms around me when they hit me,” Myricks said “That’s when I spun.” Hurst’s boot made it 14‑0 with 26 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Irish went 1‑2‑3‑punt and the Tigers took over near midfield. A 12‑yard run on a trap play by Myricks and a 17‑yard pass from White to Stafford were the key plays that put the ball on the 14, where it was first down. Myricks went through a gaping hole up the middle on the next play. He encountered resistance at the 5 but kept driving, finally spinning away from the last would‑be tackler at the 1 and making the end zone standing.
Hurst’s kick made it 21‑0 with 6:48 .left in the half.
Kester was impressed with White’s work on the drive. “He puts unbelievable touch on the ball,” Kester said. “He’s come such a long way.”
White’s fine half was tainted a bit late in the second period when, rather than taking a sack, he tried to pitch the ball to a teammate, but instead fumbled it away to St. V’s Steve Nagy at the Tiger 35‑yard line. That set up a 5‑yard scoring pass from senior quarterback Mark Lenz to Mark Clevenger with just 18 seconds left in the first half. A two point conversion attempt failed and it was 21‑6 at the intermission.
The Tigers started from their own 40 after taking the second‑half kickoff and put together the drive that iced the victory. They ate up half the third quarter in driving to the 3, where Myricks was stopped for a 3‑yard loss on third down.
The Tigers settled for Hurst’s 23‑yard field goal and led 24‑6 with 6:37 left in the third quarter.
The Irish made things a bit interesting by scoring on a 58‑yard drive late in the third quarter. The key play was a spectacular aerial hookup between Lenz and fullback Chris Littler on a play that covered 32 yards, Later, on first down from the 13, Lenz delivered a low flying bullet which Chris Markowski picked off his shoestrings in the end zone. The extra‑point kick failed and it was 24‑12 with 59 seconds left in the third quarter.
St. Vincent put together another impressive drive midway through the fourth quarter, marching from the Irish 36 to the Tiger 23. But on fourth‑and‑five, Littler was strung out on a sweep by Tiger defenders David Hackenbracht and Steve Siegenthaler and stuffed by inside linebacker John Miller three yards short of the first down.
The Tigers took over on downs with 7:22 left, and although the Irish got the ball back on a fumble with 3:42 remaining, it was too late for St. V.
One play after the Irish got the ball back, Lenz suffered a pulled hamstring muscle when he was pulled down by Siegenthaler a yard shy of a first down. Taking over at quarterback was Dave Houston, son of former Massillon All‑Ohioan Jim Houston.
Houston’s first play was a rifle shot pass that was intercepted by Myricks. The play began the rush to the parking lot.
Irish head coach John Cistone, whose record against the Tigers fell to 0‑5, and whose season record dropped to 2‑4, was hardly crushed.
“We feel good about coming back on them,” the 22nd‑year St. V mentor said. “We made a game of it. We moved the ball right along but we made some mistakes. We stopped ourselves.
“Massillon,” Cistone added, “is a little more explosive on offense this year. Myricks is a talent. He has some great moves.”
Despite the late Irish surge, Maronto said he was generally pleased with the work of the Tigers’ defense.
“Defensively, we played at the level we’re capable of playing,” the coach said. “What put our defense in a hole a couple of times was our offense. I have a lot of confidence in our defense.”
The Tigers held St V’s leading rusher, Littler, to 55 yards in nine carries. Before leaving with his injury, Lenz completed nine of 15 passes for 126 yards.
The Tigers’ White completed 12 of 22 passes for 150 yards. Myricks rushed 26 times for 106 yards and caught two passes for 54 yards. Senior split end Craig York had a good night, catching three passes for 22 yards. Kester finished with three receptions for 36 yards.
Next up for the Tigers is Warren Harding, which takes a 4‑1 record into a game against one of its big rivals, Niles, tonight.
What’s the connection? Well, what happened in Paul Brown Tiger Stadium Friday night was “football the way it oughtta be.” Weren’t they saying something like that in the Big Apple last year?
Program Cover
The offenses went berserk as the Washington High football team outscored Austintown‑Fitch 38‑29. Only 8,284 folks showed up in P.B.’s Big House. But the ones wearing orange were loving it.
When was the last time a Massillon crowd jumped into a game like this? That was a question goin’ around.
And it didn’t stop at the locker room door.
“A football team needs to generate a lot of emotion,” said Massillon quarterback Erik White. “A lot of that comes from the fans. I get pumped up when I hear them. We need our fans behind us and I’d like to thank them for tonight.”
Football the way it oughtta be?
The Tigers scored five touchdowns on a Fitch team that had given up a combined two TDs to its four previous opponents. Every coach from Knute to Woody would think that means “de‑fense.” But Friday’s offensive outburst was the stuff fans could sink their teeth into.
It was the most impressive onslaught against a quality opponent during the John Maronto era. Last year’s 27‑0 win over Akron St. Vincent‑St. Mary ‑ next Friday’s Tiger foe ‑ had been the Maronto era’s most impressive previous outburst.
Maronto, a disciple of defense, was disturbed about Friday’s missed tackles and fundamental lapses that allowed Fitch to amass 294 net offensive yards.
But he broke into a spontaneous grin when asked if he was happy anyway.
“This one was an awfully big win for the town,” the coach said. “it was a win for pride. The kids won with heart and effort. I can’t think of any better words. It’s an indication of the character they have.”
The pride had been twice wounded by Fitch, coached by former Massillon player David Hartman. Fitch beat Massillon 21‑19 in 1985 and 13‑10 in 1986 in the only two meetings the rivals have had.
Vengeance belonged to the Massillon offense. The Tigers amassed 326 yards, 235 on the ground and 91 in the air.
Senior tailback Jerome Myricks rushed 25 times for 119 yards and scored three more touchdowns. His totals at the halfway point of the season include 76 rushes, 585 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Junior fullback Jason Stafford, coming off the bench after junior David Ledwell got the start, rushed 70 yards in five carries. Ledwell, reinserted after Stafford turned an ankle, carried once for 14 yards.
Added Maronto, “Erik White’s stats were not as impressive as they have been (White completed 6 of 12 passes for 91 yards), but he showed a lot of poise and leadership. And the offensive line deserves a whole lot of credit. (Guard) Tracy Liggett and (center) Don Gerber are a couple of juniors who have become outstanding. People around the country know about (guard) John Woodlock and (tackle) John Schilling. And (tackle) Billy Kline has come on and done a real nice job.
“Our tight ends (Gerald Pope and Jeff Harig) continue to block well We’ve got a nice chemistry going.”
Chemistry and a four‑game winning streak. The Tigers improved to 4‑1 while hard‑luck Fitch fell to 2‑3 heading into next week’s game against Youngstown Ursuline.
“They just outmanned us,” said Fitch’s Hartman. “Their offensive line is huge. But we played with a lot of heart. We had lousy field position in the first half and we got behind. We certainly moved the ball in the second half when we got field position. We just didn’t stop them.”
The Tigers defense stuffed Fitch in the first half, allowing only 39 nets yards. But Fitch cranked up its wing‑T attack in the second half, enabling outstanding senior tailback Mike Sztary to finish with 114 yards in 15 carries. He also returned a kickoff 96 yards for a score.
Fullback Kevin Motter wound up with 61 yards in 7 carries, while junior quarterback Darick Fletcher ran for 43 yards and passed for 50 more.
Sztary, who is listed at 165 pounds, gives the impression of a much bigger back during his fearless slashes with the ball. But a visit to the locker room after the game revealed that his program weight is accurate. He is, in fact, a skinny kid with deceptive strength.
“We didn’t make any adjustments for the second half,” Sztary said. “We just played with a lot of heart.”
But every time Fitch would threaten to get back in the game, the Tigers put on a scoring drive of their own.
The Tigers started the game on their own 24 after taking the opening kickoff and came out throwing. White passed on three of the first four plays but the Tigers had to punt following an incompletion. Fitch mishandled Mark Kester’s boot and the Tigers’ Vernon Riley recovered at midfield. On the next play, White launched a bomb toward the right flag in the end zone and Fitch’s Rod Turner intercepted at the 5.
“I knew right then we were going to move the ball, even though it was an interception,” White said. “We were determined. We were confident.”
Fitch drove 34 yards and had a second‑and‑one when Hartman gambled and sent in the Falcons’ first pass of the night. Fletcher threw into double coverage. Myricks, playing free safety, easily reached the 30‑yard toss and tipped it to cornerback Steve Siegenthaler, who raced 20 yards to the Tiger 45‑yard line.
The Tigers then went on a long running march that included gains of 3, 8, 3, 3, 6, 6 and 2 yards, a 6‑yard pass, then runs of 2, 2 and 3 yards. That ended the first quarter with the ball on the 3‑yard line on third-and‑goal.
On the first play of the second quarter, Myricks went straight up the middle with a gigantic hurdle step that carried him into the end zone. Lee Hurst’s kick made it 7‑0.
The field position Hartman cited then came into play. Sophomore return man Charles Wesson fielded
Hurst’s booming kickoff near the goal line and slipped at the 1, where his knee was ruled to have touched the ground. On third‑and‑one, Myricks and Siegenthaler slammed Motter for a yard loss and the Falcons had to punt. A short boot gave the Tigers possession on the Fitch 35. On third‑and‑seven, White led Harig with a perfect looping pass that gained 31 yards down the left sideline, putting the ball on the 1. Myricks again hurdled straight ahead for the score, and Hurst’s boot made it 14‑0 with 7:36 left in the half.
Then came a shocker.
Fitch immediately got back in the game when Sztary took Hurst’s kickoff near the right corner of the end zone, charged up the middle, broke a tackle at the 30 and sailed into the clear on a 96‑yard touchdown run. Jeff Wilkins’ kick made it 14‑7 at the 7:20 mark.
Then … the aftershock.
The Tigers scored two plays after the ensuing kickoff. On second‑and‑four, Stafford went up the middle on a quick hitter, encountered two tacklers at the first‑down mark, then did a Myricks imitation. Stafford exploded out of the pack and was off to the races, scoring on a 59‑yard run. Hurst converted again to make it 21‑7 with 6:1 3 left in the half.
An interception by Myricks ended Fitch’s next possession three plays after it started. Myricks returned the pickoff 26 yards to the Fitch 38. A personal foul against Fitch and a 10‑yard run by Myricks set up Hurst’s 27‑yard field goal, which gave the Tigers a 24‑7 halftime lead.
A different Fitch team came out of the locker room.
The same guys who couldn’t total 40 yards in the first half gained 60 on their first four plays of the second half. Three plays later, on third‑and‑goal from the 9, Fletcher rolled right, broke two tackles, and scored. The point‑after was blocked by Vernon Riley, but Fitch was back in the game, trailing 24‑13 with 8:30 left in the third quarter.
The Tigers struck back.
Myricks, a man for all reasons, returned the kickoff 40 yards. White connected with Pope on a 16‑yard sideline route that put the ball on the Fitch 40. After a 5‑yard motion penalty, it was time for Myricks’ weekly breakaway. The 5‑11, 181‑pound senior followed blocks by Stafford, Kline and Woodlock around the right side, saw daylight in the middle and cut back to it, broke three tackles as he headed for the right sideline, and went scott free the last 25 yards down the right sideline.
“When I break into the open field, I feel I can score,” said Myricks. “Again, I have to thank the offensive line for letting me get that far. The whole line blocked great again.”
“Fitch is one of the best defenses in the state. Scoring 38 points against them … that’s not too bad.”
Myricks’ 45‑yard TD burst and Hurst’s kick made it 31‑13 with 6:37 left in the third quarter.
It was the killing blow, even though Fitch managed to sandwich a 10‑yard scoring run by Sztary and a 13‑yard TD pass from Fletcher to Rod Tofil around a 15‑yard touchdown run by White.
White has scored on keepers two straight weeks. Last week, he ran a bootleg left to hit Barberton with a 4‑yard TD run. Last night, he faked the quick hitter to the fullback and rolled right, showing good speed as he outran the fooled Fitch defense into the end zone.
The second half was a game of neither team being able to stop the other. The Tigers won the game by being unstoppable in the first half, as well.
Maronto credited Brandon Oliver, the new offensive coordinator, and offensive assistants Nick Vrotsos, Tom Jarvis, Ron Bayduke and Tim Manion for putting together a package that was too hot for Fitch to handle.
“Really, though, it’s the players who deserve the credit,” Maronto said. “We’ve got a lot of big games coming up. We’ve got a lot of work ahead. But the players deserve to savor this one a little while.” M F First downs rushing 10 11 First downs passing 6 3 First downs by penalty 1 2 Total first downs 17 16 Yards gained rushing 246 236 Yards lost rushing 11 1 Net yards rushing 235 22 Net yards passing 91 71 Total yards gained 326 294 Passes attempted 12 10 Passes completed 6 5 Passes Int. by 2 1 Times kicked off 7 5 Kickoff average 54.1 46.2 Kickoff return yards 90 198 Punts 2 2 Punting average 20.5 39.0 Punt return yards 6 0 Fumbles 0 1 Fumbles lost 0 1 Penalties 6 5 Yards penalized 34 55 Number of plays 51 44 Time of possession 27:05 20:55 Attendance 8,284
FITCH 0 7 14 8 29 MASSILLON 0 24 7 7 38
M ‑ Myricks 3 run (Hurst kick) M ‑ Myricks 1 run (Hurst kick) F ‑ Sztary 96 kickoff return (Wilkins kick) M ‑ Stafford 59 run (Hurst kick) M ‑ FG Hurst 27 F ‑ Fletcher 8 run (kick failed) M ‑ Myricks 45 run (Hurst kick) F ‑ Sztary 10 run (Fletcher run) M ‑ White 15 run (Hurst kick)
