The Website Corner – Playoff Week 3

Each week during the football season the staff of massillontigers.com will provide input of their choice related to the recent games or Massillon football in general.

Defending the Wing-T offense can be puzzling to some.  Many teams will lay back and let the play develop in front of them and then react and make the tackle.  Our Tigers chose to be more aggressive in their approach.

The key to defending the Wing-T is to follow the guards.  They will take you to the ball carrier.  Two Wing-T staple plays are the buck sweep and the trap.  New Albany ran both these plays very well throughout the season.  Our Tiger coaches elected to follow the pulling guard by having our d-line angle in the direction of the pulling guard.  Our Tigers executed the defense very well.  Defenders have to be disciplined and trust their keys.  The Tiger D did that very well.  They held the New Albany to just 101 yards rushing on 29 attempts and the Eagles recorded just 7 first downs.  Great job Tiger coaches and great execution by our Tigers.

This week’s challenge is to repeat the execution.  Cincinnati Winton Woods presents a unique challenge in that they run two different offensive schemes.  They run the spread and they run the flex-bone that Georgia Tech and the military academies run.  In both schemes they try to attack the perimeter of the defense.  Our Tigers will need to read keys and execute the defense like they did last week.  Get out Friday and support our Tigers like only the Tiger Nation can.  Go Tigers!  Beat Winton Woods! — GV

It goes without saying that at this stage of the playoffs every team is good.  That includes both Massillon and Cincinnati Winton Woods.  The Tigers will bring a power running attack with a proficient passing game to go along with a defense has been very stingy in the last few weeks.  All of this makes for a tough team to beat.  The Warriors, on the other hand, come at you with speed.  Think of a Bedford offense with a Canton McKinley defense and that pretty much sums it up for the Warriors.  They also will be a tough team to beat.

Winton Woods enters the game with a 12-1 record.  The lone loss was in overtime, 35-34, to Cincinnati Elder.  Being an independent team, the Warriors are forced to load up the schedule with the likes of Cincinnati LaSalle, Cincinnati Moeller, Columbus DeSales, Bishop Chartard, IN, and of course Cincinnati Elder.  So they have several signature wins, including a second victory over LaSalle.  Nine of their regular season games were against either Division 1 or Division 2 teams, including six private schools.  Four opponents qualified for the playoffs.  They average 34 points a game and give up 13.

Massillon quarterbacks coach Jarrett Troxler said that Winton Woods is very aggressive and athletic and the Tigers will have their hands full.  But the coaches feel good about the matchup and believe that they have a great game plan to win it.

Offensively, the Warriors utilize two different sets: the traditional spread and the “flex-bone.”  The latter is run by Navy and features three different running backs, one behind the quarterback and one at each wing, utilizing misdirection and triple-option.  Quarterback Kenny Mayberry (6′-2″, 190 lb.) is a 3-year starter and runs the offense well.  He throws a nice short pass and has a big arm to get it down the field to their speedy receivers, particularly Raequan Prince (5′-9″, 190 lbs.), who could be headed to D1.  Occasionally, Mayberry will run the ball off the read-option.  He’s not the swiftest player, but nevertheless he is very adequate.  Top running back Miyan Williams (5′-8″, 193 lbs.) is just a sophomore, but plays like a senior.  Coach Nate Moore considers Williams to be their best player.  However, he was injured last week and his status is unknown.  Both wingbacks are good.  The offensive line is big, averaging 5′-10″, 255 lbs.  Their best players on the line are the center and the two guards.

Defensively, Winton Woods looks a lot like Massillon on the interior, with a 3-man odd front.  Also like the Tigers, they will occasionally switch to an even front.  The secondary is where they differ.  Whereas Massillon plays a matchup zone, the Warriors prefer to go straight man-to-man.  Zone just doesn’t seem to work for them.  Therefore, look for all of the secondary players to line up in the faces of the receivers, with a single safety over the center.  The defensive line has good size, averaging 6′-1″, 246 lbs.  The linebackers also have good size, the best being Chris Oats (6′-2″, 230 lbs.), who holds many D1 offers.  Watch for the delay blitz on passing downs when aligned in an odd front. — DE

The Website Corner – Playoff Week 2

Each week during the football season the staff of massillontigers.com will provide input of their choice related to the recent games or Massillon football in general.

There are eight teams left fighting for the Division II state championship.  When you get to this point there is one common thread that stands out and that is defense.

When you look at the regional semi-final results the theme of defense becomes quite clear.  One might argue that yielding 20 and 21 points is not great defense, but in today’s era of spread offenses that will win you a lot of games.  The results were Cincinnati Winton Woods 52 Cincinnati Anderson 21 and Olmstead Falls 21 Wadsworth 20.

The results from the other Division II games were as follows.

Avon 28                        Medina Highland 10
Massillon 28                 Ashland 7
New Albany 30            Columbus Walnut Ridge 6
Cincinnati LaSalle 41  Sydney 6
Akron Hoban 49          Lyndhurst Brush 0
Barberton 35               Bedford 0

The theme of defense rings very true and it continues as we go forward.  We will need a stellar defensive effort again this week.  With New Albany’s offense we will need to stop their run game.  If we can do that we stand a very good chance of moving on.  Go Tigers! — GV

Last week Massillon defeated Ashland in a hard fought game, 28-7.  It was the first Round 2 Playoff victory for the Tigers in five years.  “The guys played hard,” said head coach Nate Moore.  “The defense played really well against a high-powered offense.”  They created turnovers (stripping the ball twice) and forced many incomplete passes.  Receivers coach Caleb Miller said the players really like coming to practice now, unlike earlier in the season, owing to the youth of the team.  He believes in practicing well to play well, something they did prior to the Ashland game.  Miller emphasized that the players have been doing that now for the last several weeks.  “The kids have taken a leadership role and really gotten after it,” he said.

The Round 3 opponent is New Albany, winner over a pair of inner-city Columbus teams in Whitehall-Yearling (42-35) and Walnut Ridge (30-6).  The Eagles finished the regular season with a 6-4 record, losing a pair of games to two superior Ohio Capital Conference opponents and LIcking Heights (35-30).  Their signature win came in Week 1 against Reynoldsburg (7-3) by the score of 15-13.  They average 24 points a game and give up 25.

Offensively, New Albany runs the Wing-T.  It’s different from Perry’s scheme in that they put two running backs in the backfield and split one of the wings wide.  But some of the plays are similar.  Look for outside sweeps, inside traps and quarterback keepers around end.  Moore said that the junior  quarterback is a good athlete and throws a good ball, although they prefer to run 80% of the time.  The junior running backs are smallish at 5′-8″ each, but they possess very good speed.  Defensively, the Eagles utilize a 3-3 with cover-4.  Occasionally, they will switch to a 4-man front.  The linebackers are good and there are several athletes in the secondary.  The offensive line has a 255 lb. center, but the rest of the line averages 215 lbs.  Defensively, they average 238 lbs.  They have two full-time 2-way players.  They also start eight juniors on the defensive side of the ball.  Moore stated that they are well-coached and play very disciplined ball.  At this stage everyone is good and the Tigers will need to be at the top of their game to win this one.

The OHSAA announced this week that the winner of the Massillon-New Albany game will face the winner of the Cincinnati LaSalle-Cincinnati Winton Woods game next week, presumably in Columbus. — DE