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
Individual statistics
Rushing
Massillon) Stafford, 24‑182; Hurst, 11‑52;
Sparkman, 6‑37; Dixon, 2‑8.
(Altoona) Farris, 14‑22; Rusnak, 4‑minus 3.
Passing
(Massillon) Hurst 13‑23‑0 107; Slutz, 1‑1‑0
17.
(Altoona) Ruff 13‑22‑1 177; Keith 4‑11‑0
36.
Receiving
(Massillon) Harig, B‑73; Pierce, 1‑17; Smith, 2‑14;
Spencer, 2‑13; Manion, 1‑7.
Altoona) Berardinelli, 10‑111; Saylor, 3‑34; Farris,
3‑60.
ALTOONA 0 0
0 7 7
MASSILLON 12 0
0 6 18
M ‑ Stafford 19 run (kick failed)
M ‑ Stafford 32 run (pass failed)
A ‑ Berardineill 5 pass from Ruff (Swogger kick)
M ‑ Hurst 8 run (pass failed)