HELD SCORELESS

FIRST HALF,

TIGERS STRIKE BACK TO BEAT AKRON EAST 42-0

OVERCOME STUBBORN RESISTANCE TO WIN EIGHTH OF SEASON

 

By LUTHER EMERY

 

An inspired Akron East high team, playing its best football of the season, held the Washington high school Tigers scoreless for two periods Saturday afternoon but eventually weakened in the path of a spirited drive that produced six touchdowns in the second half and a 42-0 Massillon victory, the eighth of the season for the Tigers whose goal line has not been crossed by an opponent.

 

East was supposed to have been a setup for the Tigers this year.  It was Lou Little, Columbia’s fine coach who only recently said there are no setups.  Every team is a threat and every game a hard game, for there is always the chance of the “easy team” suddenly becoming imbued with great confidence and overthrowing an opponent that has too much of it.

 

East Played Inspired Football

Little talks from experience for only last year his Columbia Lions pounced into the Rose Bowl of the Pacific coast and made monkeys of the experts who had ridiculed the selection of Little’s team as the East’s representative in the traditional New Year’s day game with Stanford.  Columbia, playing inspired football, won that game 7-0 and Stanford had been proclaimed throughout the land as Columbia’s superior.

 

It was this type of football that kept Akron East in the game Saturday and made for it somewhat of a record in defeat; for no other team has succeeded in stopping the Washington high Tigers scoreless in two successive periods.

 

It was evident from the kickoff that the Tigers were in for a busy afternoon.  East received and Walker and Stager, fleet halfbacks, immediately tore through the Tigers revamped defense for long gains that would have meant a first down had not two five-yard penalties set the Orientals back 10 yards in the same series.

 

East Stops Massillon Backs

Stopped by penalties from making the yardage, Walker punted out of bounds on the

32-yard line.  Krier and McCants made a first down on their 47-yard line, but the going got tough from there on and the Tigers found themselves stopped for the first time this season.

 

They showed spasmodic flashes of offense but the Orientals were equal to the occasion and rallied their forces to stop every drive before it could penetrate into dangerous territory.

 

In fact, the nearest the Tigers could get to the East goal in the first half was the East

21-yard line.  There Krier fumbled when tackled and Kidney recovered for the visitors.

 

The Orientals were not only a defensive team in the first half but they had an offense that worried the Massillon fan who was hoping the Tigers could keep their goal line from being crossed.  The revamped Massillon defense, which consisted of McCants on right tackle, Snavely on left end, Wolfe at right guard and Krier backing up the line, proved unequal to the occasion and the team went back to the old style in short order.

 

Orientals Threaten

Throughout the first two periods and the rest of the game for that matter, Walker and Stager threatened to break away at anytime and prance for a touchdown.  Stager, a former Akron Red Pepper star, was exceptionally fast.  You thought he was going at full speed until a hole loomed in sight and when he put on full stream it looked like a vacuum had sucked him through.  These two aces on one occasion advanced the ball to Massillon’s

20-yard line where Snavely recovered Walker’s fumble to end the threat.

 

East made two first downs to Massillon’s three the first period and one to the Tigers’ four in the second quarter.  Penalties usually inflicted for offside stopped several other attempts of the Orientals to gain yardage.

 

What took place in the Massillon dressing room between halves is known only to the players themselves but what happened thereafter is more pleasant writing.

 

The Orientals came back into the game with pep and ginger and fought every inch of the way as they backed up 66 yards under the withering attack of the Massillon backs and charging linemen.  Then the goal line was reached and D.C. McCants smashed his way through for the first touchdown of the game.  Henry Krier kicked goal and the score was

7-0 in the Tigers’ favor.

 

East Surrenders

The touchdown shattered the morale of the visiting athletics.  Their big moment was lost and the Tigers had proved themselves the better team.  From there on East yielded ground more rapidly and the Tigers taking to the path of least resistance, the forward pass, soon had the score rocketing upward in a touchdown parade that was stopped only by the timekeepers’ gun.  Fourteen points were scored in the third period and 28 in the fourth to increase the team’s total for the season to 349.

 

The first touchdown drive began when Knox Little booted the ball out of bounds on the Tigers’ 34-yard line.  Krier smashed the right side of the East line for a 15-yard gain and took the ball past midfield in a second attempt.  Dutton snapped a pass to Lohr for a first down on the Akron 40.  He tried another that Lohr couldn’t reach and when a pass to Shertzer was grounded after a three-yard gain by Krier it looked as though the Orientals had once again succeeded in stopping the Massillon advance.  With fourth down up, Dutton faded back and fired again.   Shertzer grabbed the ball but as he did an Akron player grabbed his arm and the pigskin bounded out.  Interference was ruled and it was first down on the 25-yard line.  A beautifully executed lateral-forward, Shertzer to Lohr went for naught when Lohr with a clear field dropped the ball.  McCants, however made up for it by carrying the East team on his back to the 15-yard line.  He and Krier went on for another first down on the two-yard stripe and McCants went over in two attempts.  Krier placekicked the extra point.

 

It didn’t take long to get another.  Krier kicked off and East dashed back to the 25-yard line.  But Shertzer intercepted Walker’s pass on the 40.  Dutton passed too far in the flat for Shertzer but pegged a second to Lohr who made a brilliant catch as he took the ball away from two East players and fell across the goal line for a touchdown.  Krier again kicked the extra point and it was 14-0 Massillon.

 

Early in the fourth quarter the Tigers scored again.  The period opened with them in possession of the ball on the 36-yard line.  McCants and Krier advanced it to the 33-yard stripe and it was fourth down with one-half yard to go.  Wasting no time, Krier cut through his right tackle and tore between two of the East secondary for the touchdown.  Again he placekicked the extra point.

 

A 60-yard march featured a 40-yard run by Krier placed the ball on the eight-yard line in position for the fourth touchdown.  McCants went over on the first play and Krier kicked his fourth goal.

 

Passes Gain and Score

Krier placed the Tigers in position for their fifth score when he intercepted a pass over the line while sprawled out on the 37-yard line.  When McCants failed to gain, Mike Byelene passed to Krier for a first down on the 20-yard line.  McCants picked up seven yards and Krier went over in two plays.  The first try for point failed but East was offside and on the second attempt, Byelene passed to Lohr in the end zone for the extra point.

 

The Tigers got the ball next time on the East 28-yard line, when they held the Orientals for downs.  On the first play, Byelene snapped a sure fire pass to Shertzer for the touchdown.  This time McCants plunged the ball across for the extra point and the score was 42-0 in Massillon’s favor.

 

The end of the game saw the Tigers’ driving for another touchdown. Byelene had just passed 30 yards to Krier for a first down on the 20-yard line when the timekeeper pulled the trigger.

 

The difference between the two teams and the types of game they played before and after intermission is best shown by first downs.  Where the Tigers made but seven first downs to East’s three the first half, they made 14 to two for the Orientals the last two periods.  They only tried one pass which was incomplete the first half.  In the second half they completed six of 10 passes for a total gain of 116 yards.  East completed two of 10 passes for a gain of six yards.  Two were intercepted.  Massillon was penalized 25 yards and East 45 yards.

 

Lineup and Summary:

Massillon                   Pos.               Akron East

Shertzer                     LE                     E. Talley

Wolfe                         LT                       Schenz

Molinski                     LG                   Eisentraut

Morningstar                 C                       Rosado

Snavely                      RG                   McMillen

Buggs                         RT                      Skinner

Lohr                           RE                       Kidney

Dutton                       QB                      Walker

Krier                          LH                      Walker

Lange                        RH                        Stager

McCants                    FB                         Noga

 

Score by periods:

Massillon              0       0     14     28           42

 

Substitutions:

Massillon – Byelene, qb; McDew, le; Gillom, fb.

East – Little, le; Tally, re; Bell, rg; Meade, lg; Becrell, qb; Hicks, fb; Averette, re; Huff, qb.

 

Touchdowns:

Massillon – McCants  2; Krier  2; Lohr; Shertzer.

 

Points after touchdown:

Massillon – Krier  4 (placekicks); Lohr (pass from Byelene); McCants (line plunge).

 

Officials:

Referee – Watkins (Wooster).

Umpire – Kelly (Kenyon).

Head Linesman – Kester (Mt. Union).