Tag: <span>2006 OHSAA Playoffs</span>

History

2006: Massillon 10, Toledo Whitmer 14

End of the line

Tigers don’t capitalize on scoring opportunities in loss to Whitmer
Division I Region 2 Semifinal

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

The Massillon Tigers figured if they held Toledo Whitmer to just a pair of touchdowns, chances were good they would find themselves back in a regional championship game for the second year in a row.

Massillon was able to do just that, but will still be putting the equipment away this week after it suffered a 14-10 defeat at the hands of the Panthers in a Division I Region 2 semifinal on a cool, rainy Saturday night at Parma’s Byers Field.

Two old, familiar problems showed up to sabotage the Tigers’ dreams of matching last year’s magical playoff run – a dangerous running quarterback, and the lack of big plays on offense.

“Their quarterback is a good player,” said Tiger coach Tom Stacy, whose team bows out at 7-5. “We knew that coming in, and he ran the ball well. But it was our inability to finish on offense that really hurt us. When you give up 14 points in the playoffs, you should win. We just didn’t do enough on offense to get it done.”

Whitmer’s quarterback-in-a-fullback-body, Donnie Dottei, hurt Massillon with 113 yards rushing on 23 carries, including a third-quarter score that put the Panthers on the board for the first time. Many of those runs were on designed quarterback counter plays similar to the ones which caused the Tigers so much trouble in a loss to Mentor earlier in the season.

“We never saw that tape, but we knew that Mentor had a good game plan also out of the spread offense,” said Whitmer coach Joe Palka, whose team will take a 9-3 record into this Friday’s regional final against McKinley at Byers Field. “We knew that the quarterback run could give them problems.

“Fortunately today, it worked well for us. Donnie is one of our best runners, so it worked out good.”

Dottei also hurt Massillon with his arm – somewhat. It was his 24-yard touchdown strike to tight end Kevin Koger, a ball Koger made a nifty adjustment on to grab behind a Tiger defender, which provided the winning points with 8:22 remaining in the game.

The Tigers did enough to jump in front 10-0 in the first half, even with all-state tailback Brian Gamble limited to just defensive duties for much of the game due to an ankle injury. Massillon scored on its first possession of the game – a drive that started at the Whitmer 47 following a punt – when junior K.J. Herring ripped off a 37-yard touchdown run with 9:54 remaining.

Herring and sophomore J.T. Turner picked right back up where they left off a week ago in the win over Perry, when they combined for 96 yards rushing. In fact, they bettered those numbers as Turner finished with 117 yards on 18 carries, while Herring ran for 99 on 16 totes.

“They did a good job,” Stacy said of Herring and Turner. “They did a good job. Still, when you lose an all-state tailback, it’s big. He does so much for us, not just running the football, but catching it also. But the two young guys did a nice job.”

Massillon’s second – and final – score came on the Tigers’ first drive of the second quarter. Starting at its own 20, Massillon methodically drove the ball to the Panther 10, but stalled. Facing a fourth-and-6 situation, Steve Schott was called on to kick a 27-yard field goal, which he did to make it 10-0 Tigers with 3:55 left until halftime.

It would be the final time the Tigers would change the number on their side of the scoreboard this season.

The Tigers were able to eliminate the turnovers for the third straight game.

But they did set up Whitmer’s first score with a bad snap on a punt which moved the ball from the Panther 39 to the Massillon 17. Two plays later, Dottei was in the end zone to make it 10-7 Tigers with 8:54 remaining in the third quarter.

Massillon had its share of chances throughout the game, snapping the ball 30 times on Whitmer’s side of the 50 on the evening. Every second-half drive by the Tigers reached at least the 50, and three of the four possessions moved at least to the Whitmer 39.

But none of those drives could produce points, not even a last-ditch drive which reached the Panther 20 following a 37-yard Turner run. Three incomplete passes, as well as an 8-yard loss on a screen pass, sealed Massillon’s fate.

“We had a lot of opportunities to make plays tonight, and we didn’t make them,” Stacy said. “It’s really a hard thing to explain. We didn’t protect (quarterback Bobby Huth) very well, again. That was really disappointing. We just didn’t make plays when we had to, to win.”

Massillon’s loss brings an end to the Tiger careers of 27 seniors, including the likes of Gamble, Huth, Andrew Dailey, Trey Miller, Antonio Scassa and Emery Saunders. It was those players Stacy was thinking about most as he stood outside the same locker room from which the Tigers emerged following their historic win over St. Ignatius just a year earlier.

“I just feel bad for our seniors,” Stacy said. “It’s a great group of kids. They took us to the state championship game last year. I just feel bad for them. The Gambles and Daileys and Saunders. They’ve done so much for our program the last three years, I just feel really bad for them.

“We have a lot of guys hurting in there. They’ve invested a lot of time and effort into the program. You lose a game like this, you’re hurting. We have a lot of guys hurting in there right now.”

Massillon 7 3 0 0 10

Whitmer 0 0 7 7 14

SCORING SUMMARY

M ‑ K.J. Herring 37 run (Steve Schott kick)

M ‑ Schott 27 field goal

W ‑ Donnie Dottei 7 run (TreCaris kick)

W ‑ Kevin Koger 24 pass from Dottei (Caris kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing: J.T. Turner 117; Herring 16‑99 TD; Gamble 3‑14; Tommy Leonard 3‑8.

Whitmer rushing: Dottei 23‑113 TD; Dewayne Frazier 11 ‑42; Jeremy Jones 1‑0.

Massillon passing: Bobby Huth 7‑16‑67.

Perry passing: Dottei 2‑9‑41 TD.

Massillon receiving: Andrew Dailey 2‑17; Josh Cross 1‑32; Bryan Sheegog 1‑15; Giorgio Jackson 1‑8; Trey Miller 1‑3; Brian Gamble 1‑(‑8).

Whitmer receiving: Koger 2‑41 TD.

GAME STATS

History

2006: Massillon 41, Massillon Perry 20

Eye of the Tigers

Massillon big‑play offense shines against neighborhood rival Perry

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@lndeOnline.com

Kudos were tossed in the direction of the Massillon Tiger defense for getting the team in the playoffs with a stifling performance in the regular‑season finale against McKinley. The offense can now take a bow for helping the Tigers advance into the second round.

Behind an efficient offensive effort, Massillon made its first trip to Perry Stadium a successful one, outscoring the never‑say‑die Perry Panthers 41‑20 in a Division I Region 2 quarterfinal game on Saturday night.

The sold‑out throng of more than 7,000 that packed the stands and wrapped around the field had to be surprised to see the scoreboard change as much as it did. But they weren’t the only ones stunned to see a game between the two backyard rivals result in a combined 61 points and 776 yards of offense for both teams.

Massillon finished with 428 offensive yards in the game. Perry, meanwhile, racked up 348 yards in defeat.

“I didn’t think it would be this high‑scoring,” said Tiger coach Tom Stacy, whose 7‑4 squad will now meet Toledo Whitmer in this Saturday’s regional semifinal at Parma’s Byers Field. “We knew we were capable on offense; we just had to start making some things happen. I think throwing the ball really helped our running game. We were able to throw it, and that really helped our running game.”

It was a running game that suffered a major blow on the next‑to‑last play of the first quarter, when Tiger senior tailback Brian Gamble re-injured his ankle while playing defense. Gamble spent the remainder of the game on crutches, but Stacy was optimistic he will be able to play against Whitmer.

With Gamble on the sideline, the onus of the offense shifted to senior quarterback Bobby Huth, and Huth delivered. The two‑year starter completed 11‑of‑16 passes for 260 yards and three touchdowns, two of those on beautifully‑thrown balls to Giorgio Jackson and the other a 36‑yard strike to a wide‑open Andrew Dailey which gave Massillon a 7‑0 lead just 1:36 into the game.

“I was kind of in a zone,” Huth said. “Giorgio made a lot of great plays for me. He went up and got the ball.”

Huth also benefited from having time to find his receivers. Stacy spent much of the week talking about the necessity of his offensive line to elevate its game after a disappointing showing against McKinley, and the line responded by keeping Huth clean for much of the game.

“Coach pretty much came to the line this week ‑ both (offensive line coach Matt) Leisure and Coach Stacy ‑ and said, ‘We need to get this done,”‘ Tiger center Blake Seidler said. “‘We’ve been having trouble lately. We haven’t produced the way we wanted to.’ Pretty much, it was a challenge, we were either in or out. We were either going to make it and make a run, or not.”

Perry’s hopes for a long playoff run after a 9‑1 regular season were dashed by the Tiger offensive explosion. But that doesn’t mean the Panthers went quietly into the cool Saturday evening.

Twice Perry cut the deficit to one touchdown ‑ at 14‑6 with 3:30 left in the first half and at 21‑13 less than two minutes into the second half ‑ on Eric Magnacca runs of 40 and 59 yards.

“That’s what got us here,” Perry coach John “Spider” Miller said of the running game. “At halftime, we said ‘Let’s run our double tights with our double wing and we’re going to run it.’ That’s what we did, and we got back into the ballgame.”

Both runs came on similar off‑tackle runs in which Magnacca ‑who finished with 192 of Perry’s 304 rushing yards found a crease in the Tiger defense and then simply outran the defenders to the end zone. He would add a third touchdown run of 29 yards in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a lot of (responsibility breakdowns), Tiger linebacker Antonio Scassa explained. “We messed up a couple of times. We didn’t get off the blocks, he found a seam and he took it.”

The problem for Perry was that Massillon had a counterpunch for everything the Panthers did. Massillon scored on the subsequent possession after all three Perry scores, preventing the Panthers from getting any sort of momentum.

In the first half, after Magnacca’s initial scoring run, the Tigers marched right back down the field. Buoyed by a pair of big Huth‑to‑Trey Miller pass plays, Massillon moved to the Panther 5, where K.J. Herring made it a two‑score game again at 21‑6 with his lone touchdown run of the game at the 1:46 mark of the first half.

After Magnacca cut it back to an eight‑point game on the first drive of the third quarter, the Tigers came right back down the field. This time, it was J.T. Turner ‑ the other half of the tandem filling in for Gamble ‑ doing the honors, scoring on a 20‑yard run with 7:19 remaining in the third.

The extra point was wide left, keeping it at 27‑13.

“Our kids would answer, and then their kids would answer,” Perry’s Miller said. “You can’t go back‑and‑forth like that. We needed to punch another one in or eat the clock up and keep the ball away from them. That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s what we tried to do. That’s what we wanted, and that’s what we’ve done all year.”

Massillon would get the three‑score breathing room it needed on its next possession. On the second play of the drive, Huth lofted a perfect throw down the right sideline to Jackson, who broke clear of the Panther defense to catch the ball in stride and race into the end zone for a 70‑yard score with 4:56 left in the third quarter.

“The (route) was an out-and‑up,” said Jackson, who had a game‑high 114 receiving yards on three catches. “We just called it, the guy was a little bit in front of me, I saw I could make a play and just outran the rest of the defenders.”

Magnacca gave the Panthers momentary hope with his third long touchdown run of the game ‑this one a 29‑yarder ‑ to cut it to 34‑20 with six seconds left in the third. But Jackson sealed the Panthers’ fate with a leaping 32‑yard touchdown catch over a Perry defender in the end zone with 8:56 left to provide the final margin.

“(Scoring) 41 points is awesome,” Tiger inside linebacker Cody Colly said. “We hadn’t really been able to do that all season. We finally did it.”

And because of it, the Tigers live to play another day.

GAME STATS