Tag: <span>Ben Wilson</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

1961: Massillon 36, Warren Harding 0

Tigers Plow Through Warren 36-0
Bengals Roll Up 476 Net Yards On Ground In Winning 8th Game

By CHUCK HESS, JR.

It was like a wild horse stampede at Tiger stadium Friday night. The Massillon Tigers galloped up and down the turf like a herd of stallions on some western prairie before 16,443 fans, the second largest crowd of the season.

They ran roughshod over the Warren Black Panthers to the tune of 36-0, gaining revenge for last year’s 19-18 upset. When the final whistle sounded, the Tigers had eaten up 479 yards of real estate. They lost only three yards all night, giving them a net rushing total of 476, the highest yet this season.

In gaining their eighth straight victory without a loss, the Bengals got all of their yardage on the ground. Senior Quarterback Jim Alexander was knocked on the head near the end of the second period and missed two-thirds of the third quarter. But their ground game was so successful the Tigers didn’t need any air relief.

Program Cover

* * *
THE BENGALS threw only once during the first half. Bob Baker, another senior signal caller, who filled in well for Alex, tried on late in the second period. It missed connections. Sophomore Ron Swartz also threw a pass near the end of the first half and two near the end of the game. Ron Schenkenberger, senior wingback, tried one at the end of the game. All were incomplete except one of Swartz’s, which was intercepted.

The Bengals got most of their yardage in the second half. The Washington high eleven gobbled up 299 yards in that segment of the game. The Tigers might have gotten more in the first 24 minutes except Warren had the ball for 34 plays, including two long possession drives. Massillon ran 27 plays, scoring twice but did not hold on to the ball as long.

In the second half Warren had 27 plays and Masisllon 26, but the Panthers turned the ball over four times after the intermission to three in the first half and had no long drives as in the first two periods.

Even though the Tigers ground game was terrific, there was one position they couldn’t run from. That was the fullback spot. Coach Leo Strang said, “We could break their keys but couldn’t break our fullback loose. They were just keying too strongly on Philpott (Fred).”

Being unable to get possession in the first half hurt. “We knew we could move the ball from the first play,” Strang said, “We picked up their keys and defensive philosophy. But we couldn’t get the ball.”
Strang said that Warren Coach Ben Wilson used pretty much the same theory on defense in Friday night’s game as he did last year in the Trumbull county city.

* * *
ONE REASON the Tigers couldn’t get the ball the first half is that the Panthers were trapping substitute defensive tackles Charlie Whitfield and Ed Radel. Both were last minute replacements for Larry Strobel and Jim Ehmer. Strobel had a bad ankle, although he played some offense. Ehmer was out with the flu.

Whitfield and Radel both are normally linebackers. Whitfield played some tackle last week. However, Mansfield didn’t trap as much or as well as Warren did.

By making some adjustments at halftime, the Tigers got their defense going again. They switched from an 8-3 to a 5-4-2 shooting a linebacker through to stop the effectiveness of the Panthers’ trap plays. Likewise they discarded the partial blitz and either all charged or no one charged.

Overall Tiger defenders did extremely well again. They held Warren to 189 yards on the ground, threw them for a loss of 11 yards, and permitted only 15-yard via the air route for a total of 193. The Panthers, however, gained the most yardage of any Bengal opponent this season.

Junior Wil Paisley kicked four more conversion, making eight out of eight in two weeks.

* * *
THE BENGALS scored in every quarter. This was five of the eight times which they handled the ball.

The Tigers won the toss for the first time since the Alliance game, the final Friday in September. Alexander ran five of the first six plays, four down the center and one around the right end. This made Warren switch its normal 5-2-4 to an eagle 5-2-4 putting the linebackers between the tackles and ends, instead of on either side of the middle guard, thus loosening up the middle.

The Bengals carried from their 25, for the first score, in 10 plays with five first downs. Alex got two of them. With 7:10 seconds left, Brown carried through the center from the one for the touchdown. He had set up the score with a 12-yard run from the 15-yard line to the three.

Paisley kicked his first conversion.

Warren took the kickoff 45 yards, from its 30 to the Massillon 17, the Panthers’ longest march of the night. There the Tigers held on fourth down. Outstanding in this series as he was all night, was left halfback Wendell Smith. The speedy Panther picked up crucial yardage, aided by some fine blocking and good ball handling by Quarterback Bart Wilson.

Then the Tigers had what looked like another scoring drive coming up but ran afoul of a holding penalty and got no further than their 32.

In the next series, the first of the second stanza, Warren right halfback Frank Calvin went 36 yards for a touchdown between his right tackle and right guard. But a holding penalty nullified the score.

* * *
THAT WAS THE LAST time Warren got near Massillon territory until the final series of the game when the Bengals intercepted a pass on a first down play on their 27. With Wilson playing with a jammed thumb, re-hurt early in the game, the Panthers were able to go to the air only three other times.

Coach Wilson said, “That lost score took all the steam out of the boys. If we had made that touchdown, things might have been different.”

Massillon ran three plays after the Warren drive bogged down. Alexander ran through the center from his 38 to the Panther seven on the first play. Then Brown ran two plays, the second for a score at 4:01 from the one.

Paisley booted conversion No. 2.

The Tigers took over after a poor 30-yard punt in the third canto and went 70 yards for another score. In five plays and two first downs it was 20-0 at 6:42. Bob Baker burst through the center from 58 yards away, almost getting tripped up twice but following through nicely for the score.

Paisley came onto the field. But Strang changed his mind and Brown swept right end for two points.

* * *
THE TIGERS’ forced a punt again on the next series, moving the ball from their own 49, for the score in six plays and three first downs all in succession. Brown picked up two running from the Warren 44 to the 36 and 18 to the eight. Baker ran the other.

Dean swept left end at 1:25 diving on the goal line flag for the six-pointer. Paisley kicked conversion No. 3.

The final score came at 6:57 of the last quarter. Again the Bengals took over after a poor punt by Jim Levero, this one going only 12 yards. Massillon moved from its 43 to the touchdown in 10 plays and three first downs. There were runs of 21, 17 and 16 yards to help the cause, two by Brown and one by Schenkenberger on a reverse.

Brown got his third TD of the night, between the outside tackle and long side end, again from the one. Paisley converted for the fourth time.

The Tigers almost had a sixth touchdown, Schenkenbergers pass to short end Larry Ehmer during Massillon’s last scrimmage was just beyond Ehmer’s outstretched fingertips on the two.

After the game, Warren mentor Wilson described his boys as “shell-shocked”. He said, “We played good but not good enough to beat a really fine Massillon team.”

Strang praised the Warren squad. He said, “They were really fired up. They have a rough team. Their backs ran harder than at anytime we’ve seen them this year.” He also hastened to add, “Our boys were hungry for this one. They were higher for this game than any other this season.”

Toledo Libbey comes in for the Bengals’ final home game of the season next Friday. Now over the big hump in quest of a third straight state championship, the Tigers can breathe easier for awhile.

Victory No. 8

WARREN
Ends – Ferance, Hammond, Williamson, Lawrence, Snyder and Shannon.
Tackles – Chickerneo, Kearny and Franklin.
Guards – Jamison, Peterson, Windie and Cohen.
Centers – Sanfrey and Kosiraho.
Backs – Wilson, Mancinelli, Smith, Calvin, Levero, Shinn, Thomas and Zupancic.

MASSILLON
Ends – Ivan, Ehmer, Garland, Pierce and Dewald.
Tackles – Maglischo, Spees, Paisley, Mercer, C. Bradley, Clendening and Profant.
Guards – Clendenin, Whiftield, Matecheck, Radel, Relford, Poole, Mickley,
Migge and Caldwell.
Centers – B. Bradley, Strobel, Heine and Heckathorn.
Backs – Alexander, Schenkenberger, Brown, Philpott, Baker, Swartz, Jarvis,
Dean, Snively, Davis, Blunt and Kanney.

Score by Quarters
Massillon 7 7 15 7 36

Scoring
Massillon
Touchdowns – Brown (three one-yard runs); Baker (58-yard run);
Dean (eight-yard run).

Conversions – Paisley’s 4 (placekicks); Brown 1 (run).

OFFICIALS
Referee – Bud Shopbell.
Umpire – Bob Harman.
Head Linesman – Ron Dolson.
Field Judge – Any Chiebeck

STATISTICS
Mass. Warr.
First downs – rushing 16 10
First downs – passing 0 1
First downs – penalties 0 0
Total first downs 16 11
Yards gained rushing 479 189
Yards lost rushing 2 11
Net yards gained rushing 476 178
Yards gained passing 0 15
Total yards gained 476 193
Passes attempted 6 4
Passes completed 0 1
Passes intercepted by 0 1
Times kicked off 6 1
Kickoff average (yards) 46.5 52.0
Kickoff returns (yards) 17 93
Times punted 1 4
Punt average (yards) 34 22
Punt return (yards) 0 0
Had punts blocked 0 1
Fumbles 1 0
Lost fumbled ball 0 0
Penalties 4 2
Yards penalized 40 30

Massillon Statisticians
Junie Studer
Earl O’Leary

Charlie Brown
Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

1960: Massillon 18, Warren Harding 19

Warren Snaps Tiger Victory Streak
Panthers Come From Behind Three Times To Edge Bengals 19-18

By LUTHER EMERY

A team that won’t be beat can’t be beat and Warren’s Panthers was that team Friday night.

By the slim margin of one point the Panthers edged Washington high school’s first place Tigers 19-18 before a roaring crowd of 13,000 at Warren and great was the thunder thereof.

It will reverberate in next week’s state scholastic ranking and where the Tigers will land in the standings nobody knows. Perhaps not too far down, because the margin of defeat was as small as it could possibly be.

Program Cover

* * *
KEYED UP to play by far its best game of the season, Warren had what it took last night. The Panthers beat the Tigers in statistics right down the line except in fumbles and penalties. Here Massillon had the edge, losing more yards in penalties and fumbling more.

But with smarter football Warren might have had one more touchdown and the Tigers one less, so there’s no denying the Panthers their hour of glory.

Yet, Massillon could have won the game, save for a fourth period penalty that kept Warren in possession of the ball which it otherwise would have turned over to the Tigers.

Everybody, the Warren press included, called this the key play of the game.

It happened after the Tigers had rammed over their third touchdown to break a 12-12 tie and go into an 18-12 lead with seven minutes and 10 seconds remaining to be played.

Warren took the following kickoff and the Tigers, bristling to defend their lead, stopped the Panthers who were forced to punt on fourth down…but here a Massillon player in his anxiety to block the punt, and he only missed by inches, brushed the Warren kicker. The officials immediately called roughing the kicker, and the Warren punter took a dive but apparently was not hurt. The 15-yard penalty for roughing the kicker gave the Panthers a first down, so instead of Massillon having the ball on its 35, Warren was given the ball on the Tiger 45.

* * *
SAY THIS FOR the Panthers, they knew what to do from there. They slashed and banged their way to two first downs and with only a minute and 34 seconds left to play and the ball on the Tiger 18, Quarterback Bart Wilson, tossed a lateral to halfback Fred Harris who beat a path around his left end to go into the end zone for six points that tied the score at 18-18.

That set the stage for the dramatic finish.

Fred Caldwell, who had twice missed attempts to placekick the extra point, booted this one high and between the uprights for the deciding point of the game. It was the first placekick for an extra point we have seen since the option of running or passing for extra points was written into the rule-book two years ago – but this time victory rode on the booted ball.

The Tigers tried and tried hard in the last minute and 34 seconds to score again. Warren attempted an onside kickoff but the ball didn’t go the necessary distance to become a free ball and the Tigers took over on the Panther 48. The Tigers, in three plays got a first down on the Panthers 29 but on the next play Quarterback John Larson’s pass was intercepted by End Walter Brooks of Warren and that all but wrapped it up for the Panthers who stalled it out while the Warren student body counted the seconds as they were ticked off to zero.

Pandemonium broke loose.

* * *
WHILE THE TIGERS walked dejectedly off the field, having their first loss after 20 consecutive victories, the Warren fans emptied the stands and turned the turf into a swirling mass of humanity, that engulfed the Panthers players. And while all this was going on the rocket man emptied his arsenal of bombs that must have told all Trumbull County that the Panthers had upset the first-place Tigers.

And long after the game was over, the fine Warren band was still giving out with music while fans and students leaped about and screamed in delight.

The Massillon dressing room was a sad place. The Tigers had been beaten, state championship hopes crushed – at least for the time being – and the victory skein broken.

Players and some of the coaches sobbed while fans attempted to offer some consolation.

Head Coach Leo Strang had little to say. “What can you say,” he asked, “Warren was fired up. The roughing the kicker call was the key play. We probably could have held them off were it not for that.”

The Warren dressing room was a scene of rejoicing and even some tear-shedding – the hysterical kind that comes with the accomplishment of a great effort.

* * *
COACH BEN WILSON, who was an applicant for the Massillon coaching job when Leo Strang got it, was quite happy. He gave all credit to the players. “We came from nothing,” he said. “They won’t be beaten, they won’t quit. They want to play football.”

It was the Panther’s fourth win after a dismal start in which they did not chalk up a victory until their fourth game of the season. They lost to Collinwood 8-6, to Canton McKinley
14-0 and tied Steubenville 12-12.

But Wilson’s ears must have burned from the criticism leveled at him from the stands for decisions he made in the first and fourth periods, both of which led to Massillon touchdowns.

His dramatic victory shows how quickly a fickle crowd can change in its attitude toward the coach.

In the first quarter the Panthers hammered to the Tigers’ two-yard line with third down coming up. They were gaining every time they carried the ball. But on third down the Panthers elected a pass into the flat that Charlie Brown, Massillon defender, picked out of the air and raced the distance of the field for the first score of the game.

Wilson was called everything that isn’t intellectual for that play. Joe Heflin, trying to run over the extra point, fumbled and the Tigers missed the bonus.

A fumble by Art Hastings that Wilson recovered on the Tiger 30 paved the way for Warren’s first touchdown with three minutes and 23 seconds left of the second period.

Fullback Dave Jackson, the workhorse for the Panthers, lugged the ball four straight times for nine, 12, eight yards and then the final yard to pay dirt. Caldwell’s kick went wide and the score was tied 6-6.

* * *
BUT IN THOSE last three minutes the Tigers took the ball from where they were downed on their 36 with the kickoff and marched to the Warren 26. There Larson scooted out and hit End Larry Ehmer in the end zone for a touchdown. Ehmer had just come into the game as a substitute for Charles Royer, who was injured. Art Hastings just barely missed running in for the bonus points but the Tigers led 12-6 with only 30 seconds of the half remaining.

The Tigers started strong in the second half, reeled off a first down but were set back on the next series by a five-yard penalty which was followed by a fumble that Warren recovered on its 39.

There the Panthers ground out yardage by twos and threes. Three times they faced fourth down and one situations. They made their scanty yards by inches the first two times and the third, time with the ball on the Tiger 30 and the Massillon forward wall drawn in, they sent Caldwell scooting to his right and around end for a touchdown that knotted the score at 12-12. Ken Dean and Ed Radel broke though to block Caldwell’s attempted kick for the extra points, and four minutes and 41 seconds remained of the period.

Warren stopped the Tigers’ next march and as the game went into the fourth quarter Warren had the ball on its own 48 with another of those fourth and one situations. Here again, Coach Wilson was the object of criticism from many fans as he sought to try for the first down and failed when Royer broke through and tossed Halfback Wilson for a loss.

The Tigers took over on the Panthers’ 46 and launched a march that took them into the Promised Land. Key plays in the drive were a keeper by Larson good for 22 yards, a
nine-yard pass, Larson to Hastings, and a savage wedge play with Hastings carrying the ball. He scored from four yards out on a wedge.

* * *
AGAIN THE TIGERS failed for the third time to collect their bonus points when Larson was tackled as he attempted to run for the goal line.

You know what happened after that. The locals kicked off and Warren roared back, aided by the roughing the kicker penalty to tie the score and then kick the extra point that won the game.

The Tigers ran into a lot of other hard luck in the game. They played over three-quarters without their No.1 defensive lineman, Lawson White, who was tossed out by the officials late in the first period for unsportsmanlike conduct. They claimed he kicked at a Warren player. (Coach Strang is going to reserve judgment until he sees the films.) Then the outstanding wingman, Jim Houston, was forced out early in the second half with injuries.

Other injured Tigers saw very limited service, Bob Herring. Martin Gugov and Virgil Bukuts, the latter getting in for a few plays in the third touchdown march for the first time this season. Bob Baker, first string defensive man, didn’t play at all.

If you look over the statistics you will see where Warren gained 225 yards rushing to Massillon’s 176 and had 221 net yards gained to Massillon’s 190. First downs were 12-11 in Warren’s favor.

MASSILLON
ENDS – Bodiford, Royer, Anzalone, Ehmer, Ivan.
TACKLES – Spees, Garman, White, Crenshaw, Herbst,
Brugh, Herndon.
GUARDS – Houston, Willey, Radel, Wells, Whitfield, Poole.
CENTER – Demis.
QUARTERBACKS – Larson, Null.
HALFBACKS – Herring, Brown, Dean, Snively, Schenkenberger,
Kurzen, Gugov, Heflin.
FULLBACK – Hastings.

WARREN
ENDS – Keifer, Brooks, Marlotti, Franklin, Plevyak, Shannon, Auble.
TACKLES – Smith, Angelo, Chicernee, Jamison, Zamaria.
GUARDS – Peterson, Rogers, Elkins.
CENTERS – Sanfrey, Baker.
QUARTERBACK – Wilson.
HALFBACKS – Harris, Caldwell, Pannucci, Simoni, Getsay.
FULLBACKS – Jackson, Mink.

SCORE BY PERIODS
Massillon 6 6 0 6 18
Warren 0 6 6 7 19

Touchdowns:
Massillon – Brown (intercepted pass 100 yards), Ehmer (pass 26 yards),
Hastings (plunge four yards).

Warren – Jackson (plunge 2 feet); Caldwell (30 yards end run),
Harris (18 yards, lateral from Wilson).

Point after touchdown – Caldwell (placekick).

OFFICIALS
George Ellis.
Andrew Lindsay.
Clyde Moore.
Paul Tobin.

STATISTICS
Mass. War.
First downs – rushing 9 10
First downs – passing 2 0
First downs – penalties 0 2
Total first downs 11 12
Yards gained rushing 176 225
Yards lost rushing 21 4
Net yards gained rushing 155 221
Yards gained passing 35 0
Total yards gained 190 221
Passes attempted 6 2
Passes completed 2 0
Passes intercepted by 2 1
Times kicked off 4 2
Kickoff average (yards) 35.7 33.2
Kickoff returns (yards) 51 54
Times punted 2 3
Punt average (yards) 29.5 41.2
Punt return (yards) 2 0
Had punts blocked 0 0
Fumbles 4 2
Lost fumbled ball 2 2
Penalties 4 2
Yards penalized 40 5

Art Hastings