Tag: <span>Andrew David</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2013: Massillon 27, Austintown Fitch 30

SOOOO CLOSE
Tigers battle back, but run out of time

AUSTINTOWN In the end, there just wasn’t enough time for Massillon to complete the comeback.

Facing the largest deficit of the season and on the road against the state’s No. 4-ranked Division I team, the Tigers came close to pull ing out a memorable win on Friday night at Austintown Fitch. Instead, the time literally ran out on Massillon as it fell 30-27 to the Falcons in front of about 8,000 at Falcon Stadium.

“We’re extremely proud of the kids for the effort,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after his team fell to 6-1. “They handled a lot of adversity in the game. With five minutes to go in the game, it just started clicking for us. We started doing some of the things we know we can do.”

The Tigers trailed 30-14 with 4:45 remaining after Fitch quarterback Antwan Harris scored his third touchdown of the game, a 1-yard plunge. But two Danny Clark-to-Reggie Rogers touchdown passes – an 80-yarder with 4:30 remaining and a 72-yarder with 2:41 left – pulled Massillon to within three points.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Tigers got the ball back with 1:06 remaining at their 35. Six
plays later, they were at the Fitch 10, then the 5 after a penalty on the Falcons.
On second-and-goal from there, Clark hit Whitfield on a pretty strike just over the goal line for
what appeared to be the go-ahead touchdown with 14 seconds remaining. But a illegal
formation flag wiped that out, moving the ball back to the 10
.
“Danny’s the reason we got back in this game,” Hall said of Clark, who was 16-of-23 for 358
yards on the night. “He’s a 15-year-old kid who brought the Tigers back with five minutes in
the game. He really made one of the best throws I’ve seen any quarterback I’ve ever had make
(on the Whitfield touchdown that was nullified).”

An incompletion made it third down with 10 seconds remaining. On the next play, though, the Falcon defense forced a scramble, which they tackled inbounds to close the game out.

“They got their money’s worth tonight,” Fitch coach Phil Annarella said after his team improved to 7-0. “My hat’s off to Massillon. What a great comeback. They didn’t quit. ”

Just to get to that point took quite an effort from the Tigers, who spent much of the game playing from behind. In fact, five plays into the contest, they were down 7-0 after Harris — the Fitch quarterback — took off for a 60-yard touchdown run.

The last time the Tigers would even the score up came on their subsequent drive, when Lyron Wilson capped the nine-play march with a 5-yard touchdown to make it 7-7 with 5:53 remaining. By the time Massillon would score again, on J.D. Crabtree’s 38-yard on the fourth play of the second half, it was in a hole it could never completely climb out of.

Massillon set up Fitch’s second score when it failed to convert on a fake punt attempt on fourth down from the Tiger 31. It was compounded by a late hit penalty on Massillon on the Falcons’ subsequent possession, which moved the ball to the Tiger 12, where it was fourth-and-1.

“They typically bring a lot of pressure all the time,” Hall said of the fake punt. “So we tried to bring two people from inside-out down the hashes, and they did a good job covering it. … We got them stopped (then) on third-and-long, it’s going to be fourth and at least 10, and we get a personal foul. It becomes fourth-and-1, and they get a touchdown on that.”

Harris picked up that and more, ripping off a 12-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7 Falcons with 8:36 remaining in the half. The junior quarterback, who was injured on the Falcons’ final offensive play of the game, rushed for 147 yards on 27 carries, including 102 yards in the first half.

The Fitch passing game, which has been called inconsistent by Annarella this week, provided the next score. Harris hit Joey Harrington for a 34-yard touchdown catch-and-run to make it 21-7 with 5:26 remaining in the half.

Massillon tried to cut into that before the half, reaching the Fitch 28. But a 45-yard field goal was blocked, leaving the Falcons ahead by 14 points.

Crabtree’s scoring run to open the second half pulled Massillon to 21-14. But there would be no scoring until the Fitch defense recorded a safety against the Tigers with 10:20 remaining to make it 23-14.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2013: Massillon 23, Canton Glenoak 20

Triple OT
Massillon outlasts GlenOak for second victory

“Take your hat off to GlenOak; they had a great defensive game plan. They just brought the house at us all night.” MASSILLON COACH JASON HALL

BY CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor,

MASSILLON Massillon’s season opener against Perry last week had its share of miscues, penalties and turnovers. But the Tigers were able to overcome those to still run away with the win.

The second time Massillon took the field this season was filled with more of the same as it welcomed nemesis GlenOak to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on Thursday night. And once again, the Tigers were able to overcome all of that to get the win.

This time, though, it was no rout. Instead, it was a nail-biting, breath-taking rally that gave Massillon a 23-20 triple-overtime win over the Golden Eagles.

“I happy with it, but at the same time, I’m really disappointed with the way we played,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after his team moved to 2-0 thanks to a 20-yard Andrew David field goal in the third overtime, followed by a fourth-down stop from his team’s own 1. “Take your hat off to GlenOak; they had a great defensive game plan. They just brought the house at us all night. We didn’t do a great job. We have to get back to fundamentals.”

On a night when history was being made with Danny Clark becoming the first freshman to ever start at quarterback for Massillon, a different kind of history was seemed possible as well. Outside of McKinley, no other Stork County team ever had beaten the Tigers in three consecutive meetings, but such an opportunity was there for GlenOak after taking the 2011 and 2012 contests.

It was nearly there, but GlenOak – which led 10-6 in the fourth quarter, as well as 20-13 in the second OT – couldn’t convert a fourth-and-goal from the Tiger 1 in the third overtime. Mike Smith came up to stop Jason Simon for a loss to preserve the win. The stop capped a night in which Massillon, despite a 288-152 edge in yards and an 18-8 first-down edge, shot itself in the foot over and over again. The Tigers turned the ball over five times, missed an extra point and three field goals, allowed GlenOak to pick up six recorded sacks in the game and missed onmultiple opportunities in Golden Eagles territory in the first half.

“We just kept battling and battling,” Hall said. “We didn’t play our best game.” as for Clark, there were times where he looked like exactly what he was, which is a freshman. Yet he gave Massillon a 13-10 fourth-quarter lead when he hit Marcus Whitfield on a 10-yard touchdown strike with 4:46 remaining, then helped send the game into a third OT with a 21 yard TD pass to Reggie Rogers.

Clark finished the game 14 of 24 for 170 yards with three touchdowns, two of which went to Rogers. The two also hooked up for an 18-yard score with 9:31 remaining in the first quarter to give Massillon a 6-0 lead.

“Danny’s a tough kid,” Hall said. “He’s going to learn from this. We’re going to learn from this.” GlenOak would rally twice. Simon’s 2-yard touchdown with 3:44 left in the first half gave the Eagles a 7-6 lead. They would then march down for a game-tying 31-yard field goal with 17 seconds left in regulation to send it to overtime tied at 13-13.

Both teams missed field goals in the first overtime session. Massillon’s was pushed wide left, while GlenOak’s was blocked.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2013: Massillon 35, Massillon Perry 7

Massillon’s “Black Swarm” Defense leads way in win over Perry

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON Much has been made of Massillon’s offensive capabilities. The Tigers boast a massive line and a deep pool of skill players.

Yet, somewhat quietly, they’ve also put together a defense that has a chance to be pretty good as well.

And Thursday night, it was that defense that helped set the tone for Massillon as it opened the season with a 35-7 win over neighboring rival Perry in front of a large crowd inside Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“We just read our guards, followed our keys and made plays,” said Tiger junior linebacker Danny Robinson, whose 23-yard fumble return for a touchdown gave Massillon an 8-0 lead — following the two-point conversion — it would never relinquish.

The Tiger defense lived up to its “Black Swarm” monicker — even while clad in orange and white – by flying to the football on nearly every play. Massillon would limit Perry, which was making its debut in Keith Wakefield’s second tenure as head coach, to just 205 total yard while forcing a pair of turnovers.

“Three fumbles, turnovers,” Wakefield said. “Guys can’t line up right. … That (stuff) ends tomorrow.”

Even on a night when the defense held the key to Massillon getting off to the fast start, the offense became the talk of the town thanks to the debut of not one new quarterback, but two.

Andrew David earned the start after a preseason-long competition, and was 7-of-10 passing for 59 yards, including a 20-yard touchdown pass to Reggie Rogers that made it 22-7 with 2:13 remaining in the first half.

That score came just over two-and-a-half minutes after Perry’s lone touchdown, a 5-yard Braxton Berry score that cut it to 15-7. That score came after the Tigers fumbled a punt at their own 11.

However, David would suffer a severe leg cramp right before attempting the second-half kickoff. That would open the door for highly-touted freshman Danny Clark to take the reins in the second half.

“We have confidence in all our quarterbacks who run our system,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “The offense didn’t change because Danny Clark came in the game.”

And on his first play as the Tiger quarterback, on his first pass, he lofted a perfect pass down the left sideline to Rogers, who ran for the rest of the way for a 59-yard touchdown and a backbreaking 28-7 Massillon lead midway through the third quarter.

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” said Clark, who was 4-of-5 in his debut for 76 passing yards, while adding a 25-yard run. “It was crazy. I wanted to go in there and just stay calm. That was my biggest thing, just staying calm.”

Staying calm may have been the Tigers’ biggest problem, especially early on. Massillon — despite finishing with 416 total yards, including 281 rushing yards, 120 by J.D. Crabtree — was hurt by nine penalties for 70 yards.

The Tigers turned the ball over twice. They also had a couple of misplayed kicks that could’ve been troublesome.

“I think offensively, we were just sporadic,” said Hall, whose team closed out the scoring with a 74-yard Crabtree run in the fourth quarter. “We shot ourselves in the foot with penalties. Then we had penalties and a muffed punt that didn’t. We really have to be more consistent going into next week.”

Massillon will play host to GlenOak next Thursday. Perry travels to Central Catholic next Friday.

GAME STATS

History

2012: Massillon 16, Toledo Whitmer 49

Whitmer football wins third consecutive regional crown

MANSFIELD — For the third straight season, Whitmer will be moving on to the Division I state football semifinals.

The third-ranked Panthers (13-0) earned that berth Saturday night by jumping out early on 10th-ranked Massillon Washington, and cruising to a 49-16 victory over the Tigers in a Region 2 final at Mansfield’s Arlin Field.

“This is unbelievable,” first-year Whitmer head coach Jerry Bell said. “This was our goal, and these seniors have worked so hard. This was the 41st game they’ve played in three years, and this one was for our senior class. Massillon is a phenomenal team and very explosive, and we were able to neutralize them tonight.”

Senior quarterback Nick Holley ran for 116 yards, and was 10-of-17 passing for 137 yards and a touchdown to trigger the Panthers’ attack, and senior running backs Tre Sterritt (14 carries, 71 yards, three TDs) and Me’Gail Frisch (13 carries, 81 yards, two TDs) contributed mightily to Whitmer’s 409-313 edge (272-54 rushing) in total offense.

The rest was up to the Panther defense, which bent but did not break in containing Massillon’s high-powered 43-points-per-game offense. It was the third playoff win by Whitmer over Massillon since 2006.

Now 38-3 overall since 2010, Whitmer will face seventh-ranked Mentor (12-1) in a semifinal Saturday at 7 p.m. at a site to be determined.

Mentor advanced by beating defending state champion Cleveland St. Ignatius 57-56 in three overtimes in Saturday night’s Region 1 final.

In an otherwise superb first half where they could do little wrong, the Panthers spotted Massillon a 7-0 lead 49 seconds into the game.

On their second play from scrimmage, the Tigers scored on a 54-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Kempt to Gareon Conley.

The Tigers would not reach the end zone again until 7:42 remained in the game, and by then they trailed by 32 points.

Whitmer’s first drive stalled at the its 47 after seven plays, but Nate Holley’s punt ignited a furious scoring surge.

Tigers return man Marcus Whitfield muffed the punt at his 10, the ball bounced toward the goal line, Whitfield was knocked away by Marcus Elliott, and Keith Howell recovered in the end zone for a touchdown with 8:30 left in the opening quarter.

After kicking the extra point, Panther placekicker Michael Baldwin executed an onside kick and recovered himself at the Massillon 45.

Whitmer quarterback Nick Holley is hit by Massillon Washington’s Ryan Rambo after picking up a first down.

Holley ran for 35 yards on the next play, a Tigers late hit moved it to the five, and Frisch went around right end the final five yards for a 14-7 Whitmer lead 21 seconds after its first TD.

“When they scored right away it was like, ‘…what did we get ourselves into?’ But we responded, and we just had that fire underneath us,” Nick Holley said. “The momentum changed, and I think we had it for the whole game after that.”

The Panthers’ next drive covered 55 yards on seven plays, with Tre Sterritt carrying for the final yard and a 21-7 Whitmer advantage with 4:29 left in the first quarter.

The offensive surge continued after the Whitmer defense stopped Massillon on a fourth-down play at its 35. Once again the Panthers used seven plays to find the end zone, this time with Sterritt going 12 yards through the middle on the first play of the second quarter.

Massillon briefly interrupted the Whitmer express, marching 61 yards on 13 plays before having to settle for Andrew David’s 29-yard field goal with 7:33 left in the half.

The Panthers traded punts with the Tigers, then launched their fourth offensive scoring drive of the half from their 40.

They used 12 plays to move those 60 yards, and Sterritt capped it on a five-yard TD run over left guard 39 seconds before halftime, which arrived with Whitmer holding a commanding 35-10 lead.

“We knew if we just played our game we’d come back,” Sterritt said. “They’re a great offensive team and have a good defense too. We knew we had to respond and we couldn’t let our heads down.

“The momentum just came from us working hard, and believing we were going to win.”

After a scoreless third quarter, Whitmer added a touchdown on the second play of the fourth, capping a monster 16-play, 80-yard drive on Holley’s five-yard TD pass to twin brother Nate Holley for a 42-10 lead on the Tigers.

Most importantly, that drive took 7:51 off the clock, preventing Massillon from staging any comeback bid.

“The defensive staff and offensive staff were dialed in on the play-calling,” Bell said. “We thought we had to be able to run the football against them, and keep the ball out of the hands of their offense. We were able to do that.”

“Our defense is stingy, and we’ve been playing like that all year,” Panther senior defensive tackle Marquise Moore said. “That’s the mindset you have to have going into any game.”

The Tigers’ second TD came on an 11-yard pass from Kempt to Conley.

Kempt was 19-of-32 passing for 259 yards, and Ryne Moore topped the Tigers in rushing with 52 yards on 17 carries.

“We knew if we stopped the big plays we would have a shot at stopping them and winning the game,” senior third-year starting linebacker Jack Linch said. “We did that throughout the game.

“We’ve played a lot of games the last three years. We’re an experienced football team and I think we can go all the way if we just keep working hard.”

Whitmer closed the scoring on Frisch’s six-yard TD run with 4:24 remaining.

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2012: Massillon 44, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary 23

Pick six turns tide for Massillon

Chris Easterling
The Independent

MASSILLON The Massillon Tigers were looking to find something to get momentum going their way Friday night against St. Vincent-St. Mary. They were locked in a tie game late in the third quarter, and the Irish were knocking on the door to retake the lead.

That’s when Kentrell Taylor came up with the interception of his career. And the subsequent 93-yard return for a touchdown gave Massillon the lead for good, and the Tigers pulled away from there for a 44-23 win on a rainy night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“It was big, because our backs was against the wall,” Taylor said. “It was the red zone. God was just on my side. He put me in the right place at the right time.”

The win improved Massillon to 8-1, the most regular-season wins for the Tigers since 2005.

They will be gunning for their first nine-win season since that year Saturday when they close out the regular-season against archrival McKinley at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The Irish fell to 7-2.

Taylor’s huge return, and the momentum it generated for the Tigers, helped to negate any of the bad feelings that may have been churning after a mistake-filled first half ended with St. Vincent-St. Mary leading 17-13. Massillon had three of its four turnovers in the first half, while committing five penalties for 30 yards.

“I didn’t think we played great,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said. “We turned the ball over. It was a little sloppy for us.”

That all changed in the second half. After gaining 157 yards in the first two quarters, the Tigers finished the game with 388.

“We had each other’s backs,” Tiger quarterback Kyle Kempt said. “Offensive line, running backs, defense, they all had my back tonight. When it counted, I had their backs, too.”

Massillon struck first, as Zach Volzer gave the Tigers a 6-0 lead with 5:35 left in the first quarter on a 36-yard touchdown catch from Kempt. It was one of two first-half scoring strikes for Kempt, the other a 58-yarder to Marcus Whitfield that cut the Tigers’ deficit to 17-13 with 4:20 remaining.

In between those two Tiger scores were 17 St. Vincent-St. Mary points on three consecutive possessions.
Dylan Labbe kicked a 27-yard field goal 1:45 into the second quarter to put the Irish on the board at 6-3. After St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Dante Booker picked off a pass and returned it to the Tiger 19, Williams powered in from nine yards out to give the Irish a 10-6 lead with 8:45 remaining in the half.

Mike Pruiett gave the Irish a 17-6 lead with 5:20 left with a two-yard run. That scoring drive, was all of five plays, was set up by a 34-yard Fransohn Bickley punt return to the Tiger 23.

Bickley also helped St. Vincent-St. Mary turn away a Massillon scoring chance late in the half, picking off a pass in the end zone after the Tigers had gotten the ball on the Irish 29. That was one of three first-half interceptions for the St. Vincent-St. Mary defense.

Massillon surged to a 23-17 lead by scoring on its first two third-quarter possessions. The first was a 14-yard Ryne Moore touchdown run, followed by a 27-yard Andrew David field goal.

St. Vincent-St. Mary, though, tied the game up immediately after the field goal when Parris Campbell Jr. took the subsequent kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown.

The snap on the PAT was bobbled, and Massillon snuffed out the two-point pass attempt to keep it at 23-23 with 5:18 left in third quarter.

The Irish appeared ready to retake the lead after it recovered a Massillon fumble at the Tiger 31.

But on a third-down play from the Tiger 9, Taylor came up with his huge interception.

Moore’s second touchdown run of the game, a two-yard run with 10:07 remaining, made it 37-23 Tigers. Moore finished the game with 176 yards on 33 carries.

“Moore’s a special player,” Hall said. “That’s what we expect out of him. He’s a physical kid, a grinder.”

Gareon Conley’s 31-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter gave Massillon the final margin.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2012: Massillon 24, Canton Glenoak 26

Massillon turnovers halt rally against GlenOak

Chris Easterling
Updated: Friday, August 31, 2012

PLAIN TWP. The scoreboard said the Massillon Tigers lost to the GlenOak Golden Eagles 26-24 on Thursday night at a soldout Bob Commings Field. And they did.

But what ultimately cost them the game wasn’t just the points on the scoreboard. It was also the five turnovers the Tigers had that ultimately prevented them from emerging with the win.

“You can’t have that many turnovers; you can’t play that sloppy and expect to win big football games,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after his team fell to 1-1. “We did not play good enough to win that football game. It might have been (26-24), but the game wasn’t that. We just played so sloppy.”

All five of the Tigers’ turnovers came inside Golden Eagle territory. Twice, they came within two plays after GlenOak – which had four turnovers itself – had turned the ball over itself.

Those turnovers often negated any momentum Massillon was building as it spent all night playing from behind. The Tigers fell behind 7-0 after GlenOak turned the first of their five turnovers – a fumble five plays into the game – into a 13-play, 63-yard scoring drive capped by Justin Smith’s 2-yard plunge.

Massillon, which trailed 7-3 at halftime thanks to an Andrew David 45-yard field goal, quickly fell behind 20-3 after GlenOak scored on its first two possessions of the second half. Tyler Lancaster’s 80-yard run on the half’s first play, and Reid Worstell’s 1-yard plunge to cap a 12-play, 66-yard scoring drive put the Tigers in a 17-point hole with 4:36 left in the third.

The key to GlenOak opening up the lead – outside of the Tigers’ turnovers – was its ability to control the line of scrimmage. The Golden Eagles had 227 rushing yards on 48 carries.

“Both teams have great athletes, but we told our kids that up front’s where it’s going to be won,” GlenOak coach Scott Garcia said after his team improved to 2-0.

The Tigers, meanwhile, found their offense – when it wasn’t turning the ball over – struggling to keep quarterback Kyle Kempt clean. GlenOak brought constant pressure during the game, especially in the first three quarters.

The result was five sacks by the Golden Eagles and several other hurried throws by Kempt, who still completed 29 of 41 passes for 327 yards.

“They blitzed their inside linebackers all night,” said Hall, whose team netted minus-4 yards rushing thanks to those sacks and a 20-yard loss on a bad snap. “They were able to push that line of scrimmage back into Kyle, and at times, he just couldn’t make good plays.”

That passing helped Massillon climb back into the game. But it started with a 4-yard rushing touchdown by Ernie Baez with 7:29 left in the game, a score that cut it to 20-10.

After a GlenOak fumble, the Tigers made it 20-17 when Baez capped a quick three play drive with a 2-yard run with 6:11 remaining. The big play, however, was a 40-yard Kempt-to-Gareon Conley pass to the GlenOak 2.

GlenOak appeared to regain control, methodically marching 80 yards in eight plays – with Worstell rushing three times for 44 yards – to take a 26-17 lead with 3:00 left.

Fullback Vince Cuenot gashed the Tigers for an 18-yard run on a trap play for the score.

Massillon’s final answer came courtesy of a 30-yard Kempt-to-Conley touchdown pass with 2:11 remaining to make it 26-24. However, the Golden Eagles secured the win when Worstell hit Cuenot on a play-action pass into the flat for 15 yards.

“They did well on third down, even on the last drive,” Hall said. “They did well on third down. You have to tip your cap to them.”

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2012: Massillon 52, Akron Buchtel 21

Massillon cruises past Buchtel 52-21 in opener

Chris Easterling
Updated: Thursday, August 23, 2012

MASSILLON – It was expected the Massillon Tigers would be able to score some points this season. And they didn’t waste any time in showing just how easy they could change the scoreboard.

The Tigers turned an early Buchtel turnover into a touchdown, then rolled from there in routing the Griffins 52-21 in Thursday night’s season opener at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“I thought we moved the ball real well at times,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said after his team opened 1-0. “We got sloppy a little bit at times. We put some of our young guys in and they played like young guys. … We’ll get back to work and keep coaching them up.”

The tone was set in the first half, as Massillon scored on four of its first five possessions to take a 28-6 halftime lead. The only one of the five drives that didn’t result in points still crossed the Griffin 25, but ended with a missed field goal.

Massillon came into the season boasting of a new spread offensive scheme that spread the ball around to a variety of different weapons. But the key to that offense was to be senior quarterback Kyle Kempt’s ability to get the ball to those weapons.

Kempt showed why many expect him to thrive in the offense. He connected on eight of his first nine passes – with the only incompletion caused by a devastating hit by a Buchtel defender – and went into halftime already sitting with a stat line of 12-of-16 for 243 yards and a touchdown.

Those 243 yards were just four yards shy of his best passing game of the 2011 season, set in Week Seven against Delaware’s Red Lion Christian. Kempt would finish with a career-high 316 yards while completing 17-of-23 passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

“Kyle showed why he’s a Division I quarterback,” Hall said. “He threw it as well as you could ask him to. He was under pressure at times … he threw a couple of deep balls under pressure that a lot of kids can’t make. Kyle Kempt showed why he’s Kyle Kempt.”

Not only was he efficient, he was also willing to spread the wealth. Out his first eight completions, seven different receivers caught passes, and by halftime, eight receivers had catches.

Kempt found the holes in the Buchtel defense often, hitting Marcus Whitfield on a 32- yard post pattern, Gareon Conley on a 46-yard go route or Zach Volzer on a nifty 20-yard slant pattern. But maybe the best throw came on his lone first-half touchdown, when — on fourth down — he rolled right, found a wide-open Brody Tonn for a 37-yard score to give the Tigers a 21-0 lead with 9:34 remaining in the half.

While the arm of Kempt and the deadly Tiger passing game would draw many of the oohs and ahhs, the Massillon running game would do the dirty work of picking up many of those tough final yards. The Tigers would have just 14 run plays in the first half — four by Kempt — but three would result in touchdowns.

Kentrell Taylor would score twice on the ground before halftime — on runs of 3 and 7 yards. Ernie Baez would add a 1-yard plunge in the first quarter, while Ryne Moore scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter to make it 52-21.

Taylor would finish with three touchdowns while rushing for 52 yards on eight carries. Moore would add 47 on 13 totes, while Baez gained 45 on six carries.

“I think one of our strengths is we can get multiple people to touch the ball,” Hall said. “We make the people defend the field. We have multiple running backs we can put in and carry it around.”

Taylor would help to set up the first Tiger score as well, when he recovered a Griffin fumble at the Buchtel 21 on the third play of the game. Three plays later, he ran it in for a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.

“Anytime you can get a turnover early in the game and get the momentum, it’s going to help the first half go your way,” Hall said.

The senior linebacker would also keep Buchtel scoreless after its second drive reached the Massillon 5. It was his tackle on fourth-and-goal that stopped a potential touchdown, when he stuffed the Griffin ball carrier at the 1 to give the ball back to the Tigers.

Massillon wouldn’t be intimidated by the 99 yards between them and the goal line. The Tigers took eight plays and less than a minute to make it 14-0.

It would be 21-0 Tigers before Buchtel finally figured out the Tiger defense. The Griffins would go 80 yards in eight plays, scoring on Eean Jones’ 2-yard run with 3:04 left in the half to make it 21-6.

Buchtel’s second touchdown would come courtesy of its defense, which returned an interception against Massillon’s second-string offense for a score to make it 42-14 after the two-point conversion with 5:30 left in the third. Elijah Bell scored on a 68-yard pass with 3:20 left in the third to cut it to 42-21, necessitating the offensive starters — who had gone to the bench up 42-6 with around six minutes left in the third — to return to the game.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2011: Massillon 24, Warren Harding 7

TIGERS ROMP
Massillon Waits on Weather Then Starts Quickly During Win

Chris Easterling
The Independent

MASSILLON The Massillon Tigers waited through a nearly hour-long delay before they could get started with Thursday night’s game against Warren Harding. Once they were able to get under way, they didn’t wait around to jump on the Raiders.

The Tigers scored on their first two possessions in rolling to their sixth straight win, a 24-7 victory over Warren in front of 5,997 rain-soaked fans at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“Delays are hard,” Tiger head coach Jason Hall said. “We were getting ready to come out and they come in with a delay. At the end of the day, you have to respond and you have to handle that.”

Massillon will take a 7-1 record into next Friday’s showdown at undefeated Steubenville, the No. 1-ranked team in Division III. The game against Big Red is the first of two consecutive road games to wrap up the regular season for the Tigers, the other being McKinley the following Saturday.

Those two games ultimately will decide Massillon’s playoff hopes. The Tigers were ranked No. 7 in Division I, Region 2 in this week’s computer rankings.

“They’ll respond; they respond to big games,” Hall said. “Steubenville and McKinley are two of the biggest games on our schedule for the tradition and history of these programs playing each other. Our kids will be ready to play next week.”

Before Massillon could think about the critical final two games, it had to tend to business against a Warren team that had just one win coming into the game – and left with the same number of wins as it fell to 1-7. But before the Tigers could take care of the Raiders, they had to wait out a weather delay.

Thursday night’s game was scheduled to kick off at 7:10 p.m. However, lightning delayed the start of the game until almost 8.

Massillon wasted no time in grabbing the momentum once play commenced, as it recovered an onside kick on the opening kickoff. It also forced a turnover on the first play of the initial Raider possession.

Both of those were converted into touchdowns for the Tigers on Kyle Kempt-to-Ernie Baez scoring passes. However, Massillon needed third-and-long conversions in order to get those scores.

On the first Massillon drive, it faced a third-and-13 from the Raider 23. Kempt found Baez on a screen, and Baez raced untouched into the end zone for the score at the 9:51 mark of the first quarter.

After recovering a Raider fumble at the Warren 20, the Tigers found themselves in a third-and 15 situation at the Raider 25. This time, Kempt hit Baez in the right flat, and he once again ran into the end zone for a 14-0 lead at the 8:46 mark of the first quarter.

“They were manning us and playing some cover-4 and really playing off Ernie Baez,” Hall said. “That allowed Ernie to cross the field. We hit him on a middle screen and then a drag route. We were able to convert on those.”

Kempt would finish the game with three touchdown passes, as he added a 30-yard scoring strike to Chris Calhoun on the first drive of the third quarter that made it 24-0 Tigers. Kempt was 14-of-26 for 176 yards on the night.

“The crossing patterns seemed to work,” Hall said. “We hit Chris Calhoun with a deeper crossing pattern later in the game.”

Massillon added a 26-yard field goal by Andrew David in the first half. That came on a drive set up by a partially blocked Warren punt that Ryan Rambo returned 27 yards to the Raider 26.

The Tigers’ 17-0 halftime lead was more than enough against a Raider offense that struggled to get any consistent drives going. At the break, Warren had just 66 total yards – 20 of those coming on its second possession which reached the Tiger 25 – and four first downs.

For the game, the Raiders mustered 214 offensive yards. Warren broke up the shutout bid with
27 seconds left when Jalyn Powell scored on a 10-yard run against Massillon’s reserves.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2011: Massillon 37, Red Lion Christian Academy, DE 14

OLD SCHOOL WIN
Tigers rip highly touted Delaware team

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

MASSILLON There comes a time when hype meets reality. A moment where all the buildup either proves to be true, or just a bunch of manufactured bluster.

That moment came inside Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on Friday. There, a program representing the old money of high school football – Massillon – met a program fancying itself as the much talked-about nouveau rich of the sport in Delaware’s Red Lion Christian Academy.

The reality of this night was that Red Lion’s hype wasn’t enough to take down Massillon, as the Tigers ran over the Lions, 37-14, in front of a crowd of 6,828.

The win, arguably the Tigers’ most impressive of the season, improved Massillon to 6-1 entering next Thursday’s home tilt against Warren Harding.

The loss was the fourth in a row for Red Lion, which – despite a boatload of Division I college recruits – is 2-4.

“We might not have the biggest bunch; they were bigger,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said. “They might have been faster all around, and they might have been stronger. There ain’t no Massillon kids on that team over there.”

Much was made of Red Lion’s defensive line – among other parts of its team – coming into the game.

After all, Red Lion has one defensive end heading to UCLA, and a defensive tackle in Kenny Bigelow who is being courted by some of the premier college programs in the nation.

However, the Tigers came out from the start convinced they could run on the Lions. And they were right, especially with tailback Ryne Moore going right at the Red Lion defensive front.

With Moore churning out the yards, Massillon was able to jump out to a 20-0 lead with 9:07 left in the first half. The 5-foot-8, 175-pound junior accounted for all three Tiger scores, all while rushing for a 79 yard on 13 carries over the Tigers’ first five drives.

Moore would top the 100-yard plateau by halftime – gaining 110 yards on 17 first-half carries – while finishing with 172 yards on 34 carries.

“What can you say about Ryne Moore?,” Hall said. “Ryne Moore is as tough as nails. We knew coming into this game that they averaged 75 snaps a game, so we kind of two-platooned up to keep Alex (Winters) and (Kentrell Taylor) fresh on defense and make Ryne the workhorse.”

Just as critical as the Tigers’ ability to run on Red Lion was the way their defense was able to keep the Lion offense under wraps. A big reason for that was the way Massillon didn’t allow freshman quarterback David Sills – already a USC commit – to get into a rhythm.

Sills only had one stretch of more than two consecutive completions in the first half, and that included Red Lion’s lone first-half score, a 6-yard touchdown pass to Fredrick Canteen II with 5:38 left in the half to cut the gap to 20-7. He finished the half completing just 12 of 21 passes for 126 yards, with the one scoring pass and an interception.

For the game, Sills completed 21 of 38 passes for 252 yards, including a late TD pass against Massillon’s backups. He threw two interceptions.

“Defensively, we put their quarterback in a position where they could only have a little success if they put him under center where we couldn’t disguise as much,” Hall said. “Once you cut their offense down like that, we cut their offense by 75 percent once they went under center.”

Massillon’s passing game had its share of ups and downs as well against the Lions. However, one of those ups proved to be a huge momentum shift for the Tigers with just under 90 seconds left in the half when Kyle Kempt hit a wide-open Tre Hendricks for an 89-yard touchdown to make it 27-7 Massillon with 1:25 left until the band show.

“We had it earlier, but we had some pressure, and Kyle threw it away in the flat,” Hall said. “So we came back to it. Kyle made a great read to see that they were in cover-2. He had enough patience to wait for Tre to come open, and Tre made a great play.”

The Tigers completed 11 of 22 passes for 265 yards. Of those, Kempt accounted for 247 yards on 10-of-21 passing, including a 70-yard TD pass to Montel Harrison with 8:41 left to make it 37-7.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2011: Massillon 38, Akron Hoban 16

Massillon turns five turnovers into rout of Hoban

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

AKRON The Massillon Tigers ventured away from the friendly confines of Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for the first time in the 2011 season Friday night as they faced Hoban. And they weren’t about to be a rude guest when it came time to accept the generosity of their hosts.

Massillon capitalized on multiple Hoban mistakes to blow open a close game in the second half and keep the Knights winless with a 38-16 win in front of a couple thousand fans inside the University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium.

The Tigers scored 17 points off Hoban turnovers, as the Knights gave up the ball five times.

They also converted a blocked punt into a score, while also recovering an onside kick that didn’t result in points.

“We played a good third quarter,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after his team improved to 5-1. “We did some things with the turnovers and the field positions. But we had way too many negative plays for a Massillon football team.”

Leading 10-7 at halftime, the Tigers took the second-half kick and drove 42 yards in nine plays to make it 17-7 on Kyle Kempt’s 2-yard pass to Beau Huffman.

On the second play of the subsequent Hoban possession, the Tigers recovered a fumble at the Knight 28. One play after the Tigers would miss a field goal to end that threat; Hoban fumbled again on its own 20.

This time, Massillon converted. Three plays later, Brody Tonn would just get the ball over the plane of the goal line, giving the Tigers a 24-7 lead – post-PAT with 4:07 left.

“I was pleased with how our kids came out in the third quarter,” Hall said. “Instantly, our defense started playing like we expect them to.”

A fourth-quarter interception ended with Massillon grabbing a 38-10 lead on Jason Boykins’ 5-yard run with 2:25 left.

The second-half burst was merely a continuation of a first half filled with as many missed scoring chances as it was converted chances. Both teams turned the ball over in the first half, and both ended up costing the offending team on the scoreboard.

Massillon capitalized on a pair of Hoban mistakes for both of its first-half scores. The first scoring chance came late in the first quarter, after Eric Copeland blocked a Knight punt at the Hoban 14.

Four plays later, Alex Winters fought his way into the end zone from the Knight 2 for a 7-0 Massillon lead at the 39-second mark in the quarter.

The Tigers’ final score of the half could have been higher, as Garrett Kreiger recorded the first of two interceptions on the night and returned it over 50 yards for a touchdown. However, a block in the back penalty against Massillon took the score off the board with just over a minute left in the half.

It appeared the Tigers weren’t going to get any points out of the chance after a pair of sacks and a procedure penalty pushed the ball all the way back to the Hoban 29, where it was fourth-and 27.

But freshman Andrew David, despite kicking into a hard, swirling wind, put a 46-yard field goal just over the crossbar for a 10-7 lead with 17 seconds left in the half.

“Andrew can kick that; we know he can,” Hall said. “We have no hesitation sending him out there. It was a little concern with the wind … but he has a powerful leg.”

While the Tigers were able to capitalize on Hoban’s mistakes for their points, they also were partially responsible for much of the Knights’ scoring. Massillon turned the ball over two times in the game, resulting in 10 Hoban points.

“We want to win the turnover battle, and we don’t want negative plays,” said Hall, whose team was outgained, 289-218.

Hoban, which outgained Massillon 167-71 in the first half, missed on a 21-yard field goal try at the end of a 13-play, 78-yard drive to start the game. However, the Knights recovered a Tiger fumble at their own 21 midway through the second quarter, which opened the door for their only first-half scoring drive.

Buoyed by a Tiger personal foul penalty, along with a 14-yard completion on third-and-10 from the Massillon 24, Hoban got on the scoreboard on the 13th play of the drive. Hoban’s Dominic Orsini rolled to the left, then threw back across the field to a wide-open Jimmy Martter in the end zone for an 8-yard scoring pass to tie the game at 7 with 4:42 left in the half.

“They came out and they did some funky stuff offensively that we had to adjust to,” Hall said. “We didn’t win the line of scrimmage in the first half. They controlled the time of possession.”

A muffed punt by the Tigers gave Hoban the ball at its own 43 early in the fourth quarter. Nine plays later, Matty McGee booted a 29-yard field goal to make it 24-10 Tigers with 8:41 left.

GAME STATS