‘Gales-storm’
sweeps
Tigers 33-20
By CHUCK HESS, JR.
Independent Sports Editor
“.
. . My head is bloody but unbowed!”
A
line from the poem “Invictus” was scrawled across the blackboard in the Tiger stadium
squad room by acting game Co-Captain Dave Hout, a senior guard. Above the short poem were written the words,
“Tigers read this”.
The
poetry served to set the tone for the job ahead for the Washington high
football team. Coach Bob Commings and
his staff know the Orange and Black must forget the searing thoughts of their
33-20 loss to Niles McKinley and begin to plan their comeback route.
The
first hurdle will be the Alliance Aviators who come in next Friday hurting from
a 30-8 loss to Canton McKinley, also an All-American conference game. The Bulldogs (2-0) are in the first place
with Niles (1-0) second. Massillon and
Alliance have one loss and Warren Harding has two.
* * *
FRIDAY NIGHT’S defeat before 18,486 the season’s largest Tiger stadium turnout, was
Massillon’s first in three games and extended Niles’ skein to 4-0.
Coach
Bob Shaw holds the only two Red Dragon victories over the Tigers in the 10-game
series, stopped a personal 25-game win streak for Commings and got Niles its
first win at the stadium. The last
Shaw-coached victory scissored a 32-game Tiger victory string.
* * *
MEANWHILE, the Niles “Thunder Defense” as it is called by Shaw’s staff, bottled
up the Tigers’ ground game and threw a blanket over Tiger receivers. The Orange and Black never stopped trying to
come back – Commings gambling several times at crucial moments – but they
couldn’t come back as some unfortunate breaks aided the Niles cause.
* * *
“WHAT IT amounts to,” Commings explained, “is what we’ve been saying for three
weeks. We have to get total
concentration in games and in practice.
We played against some inferior teams and got away with it. Tonight we played against a heckuva team and
couldn’t get away with it.
“If
tonight proved anything, it proved we didn’t have a bunch of quitters,”
Commings commented.
* * *
ONE THING the game did prove was that Niles has a tremendous football team led by
two tremendous players in tailback Rick Gales and quarterback Ron Fusco – both
All-Ohio caliber. It proved Shaw was
right in installing the “I” formation this year to take full advantage of the
Fusco-Gales combination.
Gales
– “The Big Storm” – was never thrown for a loss as he carried 27 times for 152
yards and a 5.6 average.
The
AAC’s top back scored three touchdowns and aided in setting up another.
He
explained that everything was predicated to stop Gales, but the slant defense
strategy didn’t work.
Shaw
said Fusco’s quarterbacking was the key.
“He did a great job!”
* * *
HE THOUGHT the turning point was the Dragon’s third touchdown just before the end
of the second half.
“We
did nothing but straight ahead blocking,” Shaw explained. “Gales has the option to run anywhere he
feels he can get through.”
Shaw
then surprised reporters with the information that neither Gales nor fullback
George Harris had practiced this week – Harris because of an injury sustained
Monday and Gales because of one sustained last Saturday.
* * *
NILES TOOK the opening kickoff and marched 67-yards in nine plays after an
18-yard runback by Gales. Fusco’s
26-yard end run off a fake to the Massillon 17 and Gales’ slant off the right
side for 10 yards to the three set the ball up for flanker halfback Randy Hardy
who scored on a pitch on the following play with 8:47 left in the first
quarter. A two-point conversion try
failed.
The
Tigers came back as junior fullback Tom Cardinal streaked 35 yards to the 50
with the kickoff. Four plays later,
with 7:01 remaining, Autrey tied the game on an off-tackle trap on second down
from the two. Mauger’s kick was wide.
Quarterback
Gary Herring and wingback Larry “The Scooter” Harper had teamed up on a 49-yard
pass-run combination with Harper running 42 yards.
* * *
HARPER PUT the Tigers into a temporary 12-6 lead when he returned a punt 94 yards,
on some great open field running, with 10:03 left in the second stanza. The conversion pass attempt was incomplete.
The
Dragons marched 68 yards in 11 plays for their second TD with Gales carrying
eight times. A procedure penalty gave
Niles a first down on the one. Gales
capitalized on the opportunity, slanting over on the next play with 5:58
left. Harris’ kick made it 13-12.
The
Tigers started to drive for pay dirt after Darnell Streeter’s 19-yard kickoff
runback clicking on medium-length passes.
But Niles’ Mark Conway hauled in one of Gary Herring’s aerials on the
Niles 20 and the Dragons moved 78 yards in six plays, four of them passes.
* * *
GALES WENT over on first down from the four on another slant. A conversion pass attempt fell
incomplete. The clock read 1:22 in the
second quarter.
A
fumble on the second half kickoff, picked up by Joe Lucarello on the Massillon
14, set up the next Dragon score.
Three
plays later, Fusco faked Harris into the line and skirted an end from the 10
for the score with 10:28 remaining in the third quarter. Hardy scored the conversion on a pitch play.
The
Dragons scored for the final time after a fourth quarter, fourth down pass from
the Tigers’ 24 had fallen incomplete. Gales
scored on a pass from Fusco on third down from the seven with 3:51 showing on
the clock. A subsequent pass on the
conversion try was short.
The
Tigers got their last chance with 57 second remaining. Consecutive double reverses by Harper and
Bernard Sullivan for 18 and 29 yards, respectively, and a 19-yard screen pass
play, with a 14-yard run by Autrey put the ball on the Niles 16. Quarterback Franklin hit Denny Harper in the
corner of the end zone as the game ended.
Another
pass to Harper was complete for the conversion, but Massillon was called for
illegal procedure. Fans streamed onto
the field, making it impossible to replay the try so referee Tony Pianowski
declined the penalty and gave the Tigers two points.
M N
First downs – passing 6 5
First downs – penalties 0 0
Total first downs 15 25
Yards gained rushing 181 281
Yards lost rushing 12 9
Net yards gained rushing 169 272
Net yards gained passing 119 82
Total yards gained 388 354
Passes completed 7–19 6–9
Passes intercepted by 0 1
Yardage on passes
intercepted 0 0
Kickoff average (yards)
3–41.0 6–48.0
Kickoff returns (yards) 122 39
Punt returns (yards) 99 0
Lost fumbled balls 1–1 1–2
Touchdowns rushing 1 4
Touchdowns passing 1 1
Miscellaneous touchdowns 1 0
Total number of plays 53 66
Niles Won When
QB Shook
Jitters
NILES – Ron Fusco wasn’t having a very good night. He had missed his first three passes and he was tight. But that’s the way it is when you’re a Niles
quarterback playing against Massillon in front of 18,046 pairs of critical
eyes.
It
was late in the second quarter and the game was 12-12 with Niles camped on its
own
23-yard
line.
WITH FUSCO off form Niles had stuck almost exclusively to the ground with the
elusive Rick Gales doing the bulk of the ball carrying.
Red
Dragon’s coach Bob Shaw called time and waved Fusco to him at the
sidelines. “Take your time,” Shaw told
his passer. “You’re not setting up
properly. Don’t hurry your throws. The receivers are open.”
Fusco
returned to the huddle, called the play and threw a 12-yard completion. He then proceeded to connect on successive
passes of 18, 14 and 19 yards, moving the ball to the Massillon 4 where Gales
punched it over for the go-ahead touchdown.
George Harris kicked the extra point to give Niles a 19-12 edge which
they never relinquished en route to a 33-20 triumph over the Tigers Friday
night.
Fusco
went on to complete two more aerials, giving him six in a row after those first
three failures for a total of 81 yards and one touchdown.
SHAW CALLED that drive, a 77-yarder just before the half, the most important
series of the game.
“It gave us the lead and we proved to ourselves we could move the ball. This was a major test for us. We knew that and the kids were a little shaky. But we all grew up a little on that drive,” Shaw related.
While
Fusco was worrying Massillon in the air, Gales was giving them fits on the ground. The 5-9, 175-pound, senior halfback tied a
school record by scoring four touchdowns on runs of 12, 3, 4 yards and catching
a Fusco pass for 7 yards and another tally.