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Massillon-McKinley Food Drive Contest Underway

Massillon is once again participating in the Stark County Hunger Task Force Food Drive in competition with Canton.  Canned food is accepted and every dollar donated is equated to seven pounds of food.  Donations can be brought to the Monday Booster Club meeting or the Tuesday Touchdown Club.  Or you can contact Nick Pribich at pribich@att.net or Mary Lou Wilton at marylouanddon24@gmailcom. Last year the Tiger Nation bested the Bulldogs in this great event for the first time.  Help us beat McKinley for the second year in a row.

Booster Club Report – Week 6

After a blowout win over Austintown Fitch, it’s time to get back to business with a good Monroeville Gateway, Pennsylvania, team coming to town.

Scores from last week:

• The varsity defeated Austintown Fitch 55-7 (All-time win No. 891)
• The JV game vs. Fitch was canceled
• The Freshmen lost to Fitch 44-42
• The 8th Grade tied Fitch 14-14
• The 7th Grade defeated Fitch 8-6

The Booster Club is sponsoring one or two buses to the October 18 Barberton game for the cost of $25.00, not including the game ticket.  A sub sandwich and drink will be provided.  The buses will depart from the old K-Mart parking lot at 4:30 pm.  Tickets can be purchased at Keller’s Office Supply.

Massillon is once again participating in the Stark County Hunger Task Force Food Drive in competition with Canton.  Canned food is accepted and every dollar donated is equated to seven pounds of food.  Donations can be brought to the Monday Booster Club meeting or the Tuesday Touchdown Club.  Or you can contact Nick Pribich or Mary Lou Wilton.  Last year the Tiger Nation bested the Bulldogs in this great event for the first time.

Funds raised by the Gateway parents for a bus to travel to this week’s game ran short, so some of the Tiger Moms raised $500 to help out.  It was enough and the parents will be in Tigertown on Friday.

The guest players this week were senior quarterback Aidan Longwell and senior center Cole Jones.  In addressing the upcoming game with Gateway, Longwell said, “We’re preparing for everything.  They’re a really good team.  We have a good game plan.”  “Practices are tough this week, but are going pretty well,” added Jones.  “Their defensive line is not huge, but quick.  It will be challenging.”

Head Coach Nate Moore started his presentation by showing films from last week’s victory over Fitch.  “Our offensive line really had a dominating performance,” he said.  “Great blocking.  Keyes also had a really good game.”  He also commented on the experience of Longwell at quarterback using as an example Massillon’s first play of the game.  Expecting a single safety over the top, the play called a deep throw to the end zone to one of two receivers left uncovered by the safety.  However, Fitch aligned with two safeties instead, which meant that both deep receivers would be covered.  So Aidan immediately altered the scheme by focusing on Jayden Ballard, who was running a crossing route short of the safeties.  Longwell hit Ballard in stride with a bullet pass and Jayden then took it to the house, giving the Tigers a quick 7-0 lead.  Experience counts.

Traditionally very tough at home, Fitch had great trouble matching up with Massillon offensive line and complementary skill players.  The net result was a 48-7 Tiger halftime lead with six touchdowns scored in six possessions.  With the Falcons aligning their defense to stop the pass, it was a night for the run.  Following that first passing touchdown, the Tigers went almost exclusively to the ground for the rest of the night.  With the offensive line completely dismantling Fitch’s front seven, running back Terrence Keyes had his biggest game as a Tiger, gaining 185 yards in 16 carries (11.6 yards per attempt) and scoring four touchdowns.  And there were no turnovers, for the second consecutive game.

A seventh touchdown came via special teams when Austin Brawley blocked a punt and Isaiah Clark scooped up the ball at the three yard line and carried it into the end zone for the score.  In fact, it was the second blocked punt on the night for this group.  The special teams had a great night, keeping the Falcons pinned deep in their own territory the entire game with exceptional kicking and kick coverage .

Defensively, Massillon was focused on stopping the running of Fitch’s alternating quarterbacks, who combined had put up some big numbers this year.  But the Tigers were able to keep the pair in check the entire night, limiting them to just 60 yards in 18 carries.  Stat-wise, the Falcons gained just 123 yards in 43 carries (2.9 yard per attempt).

Additional notes:

• Massillon has scored a touchdown in each of its last 18 first-half possessions.
• For  the season, the Tigers are averaging 39.3 points per game in first-half action (50.2 per full game).
• Massillon has surrendered just seven second-half points.
• The Tigers have scored 25 touchdowns out of 26 attempts in the red zone.
• The offense has an efficiency rating (first down, touchdown, field goal) of 92%, higher than any Tiger team during the era of the spread offense
• Defensively, the Tigers are limiting the opponent to just 2.6 yards per carry, the best of any Tiger team during the era of the spread offense.
• Massillon owns a 17-game regular season winning streak.

Gateway enters this week’s game with a 6-1 record, the lone loss having come in Game 2 against previous Massillon opponent Penn-Trafford, 28-7.  Tied 7-7 at the half, the Gators surrendered the ball six times in the second half to spell doom.  Since that game, Gateway has outscored its opponents 213-7.  “This is a very, very good football team,” said Moore.  “The best comparison is East St. Louis (Massillon opponent last year), but necessarily not at all positions.”  For instance, while the Gators do possess some exceptional athletes, the offensive line is average and this may be a big mismatch against the Tiger front 7.  The defensive line is also on the smaller side.

But the story for Gateway is really about those East St. Louis-type athletes.

• Derrick Davis – 6′-1″, 190 lb. junior running back / safety.  He has rushed 60 times for 835 yards (13.9 yards per attempt) and 15 touchdowns.  He has also caught eight passes for 241 yards (30.1 yards per catch) and scored two TDs.  A Rivals 4-Star recruit, he currently holds dozens of Power-5 offers, including Ohio State, Clemson and Alabama.
• Tui Faumunia-Brown – 6’3, 210 lb. senior tight end / fullback / linebacker.  He is a Rivals 2-Star recruit that holds several offers from Mid-American Conference schools.
• Jacques Taylor – 6′-1″, 240 lb. junior offensive lineman / defensive end.  While he is considered their best offensive lineman, he is a big-time player on defense.  He is very active and makes a lot of plays, according to Moore.
• Shane Thrift – 6′-170 lb. junior cornerback / backup wide receiver.  A Rivals 2-Star recruit, he has been offered by several 1-AA schools.

Senior quarterback Bryson Venanzio (5′-10:, 180) has completed 105 of 165 passes (64%) for 1,563 yards and 21 touchdowns with five interceptions.  Moore says that he is really effective and very accurate, although not blessed with speed.  He distributes the ball well and will utilize some run option and some run / pass option out of the spread offense.  Look for a lot of 4-receiver sets.  The wide receivers are all good and are all 6′-1″ and around 180 lbs.  And they all run well after the catch.  The offensive line averages 6′-1″, 241 lbs.

Defensively, the Gators utilize a 3-4 alignment, similar to Penn-Trafford.  Both corners are pretty good and of course there is Davis at safety.  The defensive line averages 6′-0″, 230 lbs. and Massillon should have an advantage there.

Go Tigers!

Booster Club Report – Week 5

The meeting was a bit shorter this week owing to minimal discussion of last week’s 56-0 blowout of Akron Firestone, which was incidentally Massillon’s 890th all-time victory.  “That was fun, but it’s over,”: said Tiger head coach Nate Moore.

Scores from last week:

• The varsity defeated Firestone 56-0 to run their record to 5-0.
• The JV game with Firestone was canceled.
• The freshmen defeated the combined Firestone freshmen and sophomores 32-0.  Their record is now 3-2.
• The 8th Grade defeated Barberton 27-13.  They are now 3-1.
• The 7th Grade defeated Barberton 48-6 to remain unbeaten at 5-0.

Around fifty seats are available on the buses to Austintown Fitch for the cost of $25.00.  The bus will arrive at the K-Mart parking lot at 4:00 pm and depart around 4:30 pm.  Tickets can be purchased at Keller’s Office Supply.

The guest players this week were senior linebacker Ben Krichbaum and senior linebacker / running back Preston Hodges.  In the last three games Krichbaum has recorded six solo tackles and eight assists.  Hodges leads the team in tackle points with nine solo tackles and 20 assists.  He also has three tackles for loss and three pass interceptions.  Against Firestone Hodges blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown and intercepted a pass that led to another score.  Both players briefly addressed this week’s opponent, Austintown Fitch.  “It’s going to be a big challenge this Friday,” said Krichbaum.  “They have a good front seven.”:

Fitch will host Massillon on Friday in a 7:00 pm start and enters the fray with a 3-2 record, with an average game score of 22-23.  Both teams have played Canton GlenOak and Warren Harding, with the Tigers defeating each handily and the Falcons suffering a setback against Warren.  Their scores are as follows:

• Erie, PA (3-3): W 48-26
• Youngstown Ursuline (0-5): W 27-7
• Canton GlenOak (1-4): W 49-27
• Warren Harding (4-1): L 7-10
• Cleveland Benedictine (5-0): L 27-47

The Fitch offense revolves around a pair of alternating quarterbacks in junior Nate Leskovac (6′-0″, 187) and sophomore Devin Sherwood (5′-10″, 174), both of whom are adept at running the football.  This year they have favored the run 70% of the time, often utilizing the QB option.  The passing has been handled almost exclusively by Sherwood, who throws mostly off a sprint rather from the pocket.  Running back senior CJ Woodberry (5’9″, 168) is a returning starter and is very capable.  A couple of their wide receiver may be missing this week, but sophomore Tyler Evans (5’9″, 188) is good one to watch.  He is a talented “kid” according to Moore.  All of their skill players have good speed.  The offensive line averages 6′-0, 256 lbs. and returns two starters from last year, including senior Kyle Moore (6′-5″, 285) and senior Payton Short (5′-8″, 288).  They play well and finish blocks.

Defensively, Fitch operates out of a 3-3 odd stack with a cover-3 in the secondary.  Expect lots of blitzing, more than from any previous opponent to date.  The best player is senior defensive end Christian Armstrong, a 2-year returning starter.  In fact, all three linemen return from last year, including senior Joe Perez (5′-10″, 218), who Moore calls a “pretty good player.”  Leskovac, also one of the quarterbacks, is their best linebacker and is very active at the position.  The secondary rotates a lot of players, but the group is led by Evans, who doubles as a wide receiver.

The special teams should be exciting to watch with multiple schemes used for both kickoffs and punts.  Regardless of the given situation, the Tigers will need to guard against on-side kicks, pooch kicks and short sideline kicks.  Don’t expect any deep ones.  And a fake punt is always in play.

“We’re thoroughly looking forward to this,” said Moore.

Halfway through the regular season, Massillon is averaging a whopping 49 points per game and giving up just 11.  They are also averaging 399 yards per game, 170 on the ground and 220 through the air vs. 189 total yards by the opponent.  The leading ball carrier is Terrence Keyes, who has toted the ball 65 times for 397 yards and six touchdowns with a 6.1 per carry average.  Quarterback Aidan Longwell has completed 56 of 71 passes (79%) for 955 yards and 12 scores.  Against Penn-Trafford Longwell set a new record for career passing touchdowns and against Firestone he set a new mark for career passing yards.  Most of the passes this year have gone to Jayden Ballard (22-422, 8 TDs) and Andrew Wilson-Lamp (19-378, 3 TDs).  Ballard is also the leading scorer with 60 points.  The Tigers have only punted four times this year vs. 26 times for the opponents.  On defense, the top three tacklers are Preston Hodges, Luke Murphy and Caiden Woullard.  Alex Bauer has converted 34 of 35 extra point tries.  The Tigers have not attempted a field goal this year owing to a 95% (20 of 21) success rate in the red zone.

See you in Austintown.  Go Tigers!

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Tigers Gain National Exposure

During the third quarter of the Cleveland-Los Angeles football game, NBC aired a short clip highlighting the Massillon Tigers and John McVay, the grandfather of Sean McVay, head coach of the Rams.  You can view the video here.

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Booster Club Report – Week 3

It was great weekend for the Tigers and another clean sweep over their opponents.  Here are the scores from those games:

• The Varsity defeated Warren Harding on the road, 49-7
• The Junior Varsity defeated Warren Harding at home, 27-20
• The Freshmen team defeated Warren, 24-0
• The 8^th Grade game was halted three minutes in on account of weather, with the Tigers up 8-0
• The 7^th Grade defeated Warren Middle School, 27-6

Head Coach Nate Moore’s assessment of last week’s performance was that the Tigers played “really well” in all phases of the game.  The defense surrendered just one TD, that following a turnover, and the offense, once it got past an early funk on its first two possessions, scored seven touchdowns in the next nine, with a running clock in effect for most of the second half.

Defensively, Massillon held the Warren rushing attack in check for nearly the entire night.  After using a spread offense throughout the first half and finding minimal success, the Raiders switched to a power-I, but did not fare any better.  Moore said that the Tigers have really good interior defensive linemen, something that was missing during the last few years, singling out the play of Manny McElroy and CJ Harris.

Linebacker play was also very good, especially on the edge by Caiden Woullard, who led the group with six tackles and one assist, including three tackles for a loss.  Then there was the big interception return by Preston Hodges.  Robbie Paige also played very well at safety, and has been improving his performance in leaps and bounds.  He makes great breaks on the ball, according to the coach.

Through three games, the defense has allowed just 3.5 yards per play (2.5 on the ground) as compared to last year’s numbers of 4.7 and 3.9 (I know, it’s early).  But the more that things stay the same within the program, the better it gets.

On offensive, Moore liked the play of Rager Els and Cole Jones.  However, as a group, the line struggled at times with pass protection due to Warren’s quickness.  Nevertheless, they surrendered just one quarterback sack, that being Massillon’s first of the year.  But it was in the run game that they really excelled and seemed to get better as the game wore on.  For the night, that phase netted 174 yards at 6.7 yards a clip.  It was a virtual clinic on how to execute inside zone blocking, with really good double teams according to the coach.  That’s the reason they were able to free Hodges and Terrence Keyes for big runs in the second half.

One scheme that really worked well was the run/pass option.  On one particular play, the line blocked like it was a run, sucking in the free safety, while Aidan Longwell (15 of 25 for 200 yards and two TDs) fired the ball to a crossing Jaden Ballard for a wide-open touchdown.  Ballard led the Tigers with seven catches for 94 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

This week’s opponent is Penn-Trafford from Harrison City, Pennsylvania.  The game was scheduled after a team in their league opted out this year, creating an open date.  Later this season, Gateway from Monroeville, PA, also from the same league, will face the Tigers.

Last year the Warriors finished with a record of 9-3 and come into this one on the heels of a 4-0 record, having outscored the opposition by an average of 35-8.  Moore compared them to a good Avon team with skill players.

Senior Quarterback Gabe Dunlap (6’-1”, 170 lbs.) engineers a wide-open attack that features athletes both at running back and wide receiver. At times, Dunlap will also run the ball off designed plays and has racked up 397 yards and six touchdowns.  In the passing game, he has completed 53 passes for 440 yards and four touchdowns.  His favorite target is junior Ethan Carr (6’-3”, 165 lbs.), who has caught nine passes for 211 yards and four touchdowns.

The running attack has been split between two outstanding players, Caleb Lisbon and Sam Fanelli.  But it appears that both may miss this one due to injury.  However, Moore has good respect for the backup, junior Brad Ford (5’-11” 175 lbs.).

The offensive line is good, according to the coach, and returns all five starters from last year.  They average 6’-1”, 262 lbs. from tackle-to-tackle.  Moore says that they are pretty physical and really good at outside zone blocking.

Defensively, Penn-Trafford utilizes a 3-4 alignment.  The strength of this unit is the line, especially at nose tackle in senior Josh Cheplick (6’-1”, 275 lbs.), who he compared to the Tigers’ Manny McElroy.  The secondary is the next best group.

Last week’s injury to Massillon center Dylan Garretson will result in a reshuffling of the offensive line.  Manny McElroy will return to his traditional defensive position.  Cole Jones will move to center and Terrence Rankl will take over his tackle position.  The line now averages 6’-2”, 286 lbs., and is one of the largest lines Massillon has had in recent history.

Quarterback Aidan Longwell is closing in on a couple of career records.  He needs 256 yards to tie the mark of 6,034, set by Kyle Kempt in 2012.  And he needs two touchdown passes to tie the mark of 63, set by Justin Zwick in 2001.  But I’m sure Aidan is just focused on just getting a win this Friday.  The records will come on their own.

Brawley Spectacular in 27-20 JV Win Against Warren Harding

The following story was written by David Lee Morgan, Jr. WHS English/Journalism Teacher and Varsity/JV Running Backs Coach  

MASSILLON: There is a reason sophomore Austin Brawley has moved up the Massillon depth chart and is now a backup on the varsity roster.  The kid can flat-out play.

Brawley put on a show Saturday morning (Sept. 14) against Warren Harding at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in a 27-20 junior varsity win.  Brawley caught six passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns.  He added another touchdown (57 yards) that was called back because of a penalty.

“Austin is one of the hardest workers and most coachable kids I have ever coached,” said veteran Massillon wide receiver coach Cale Miller.  “He works hard in the weight room and in the classroom.  He is a major asset to our program.”

Brawley (5-foot-8, 135 pounds) scored on a 70-yard reception on the first play of the game.  He also scored on passes of 68 yards and on a 59-yard TD, in which he had to tip the ball to himself and juggle it several times between two defenders before racing in to the endzone.

Sophomore quarterback Tanner Pierce was 6-of-13 for 271 yards, three TDs and an interception.  Sophomore running back Camden Beasley rushed for a 5-yard touchdown.

Defensively, the Tigers (3-0) gave up two touchdowns on long runs, but made stops in the closing minutes.

Junior linebacker Andrew Edwards (six tackles), junior defensive back Ezra Strickland (four tackles) and Shane Rue and Niles Cleveland (three tackles) led the unit, which forced six turnovers.