Tag: <span>Brian Gamble</span>

Stark County Football Hall of Fame

Three Tigers to be Inducted into the Stark County…

Three Massillon Tigers are to be included in the 2017 induction class into the Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame. The Enshrinee Banquet will be held at Skyland Pines on Friday, July 14, 2017. The Tigers to be honored are Brian Gamble, Devin Jordan and Jack Rose.

Brian Gamble

Brian Gamble was a hard hitting safety and running back for the Tigers from 2004 to 2006. The 2006 Tiger co-captain was named first team all Ohio at safety in that year. He was named The Bob Commings Hardnose award winner his senior season. Defensively he he made a career total of 184 tackles, 21 for loss, 7 interceptions and had 16 pass break ups. Offensively he rushed for 2,487 career yards, 26 TDs, and caught 56 passes for 991 yards and 8 more TDs. After his Tiger career he played a couple years at Illinois where he caught a touchdown pass against the Ohio State Buckeyes. He then transferred to Ashland University where he was named 1st team all American safety for former Tiger coach Lee Owens.

Devin Jordan

Devin Jordan starred at wide receiver for the Tigers in 2001 and 2002 and was named 1st team All-Ohio both years. In 2001 he caught 101 passes for 1,504 yards and scored 18 TDs, which remains a Stark County Record for Yards, Receptions and TD’s in a single season. In 2002 his senior season he recorded 59 catches for 893 yards and 12 more touchdowns. After his Tiger career he received a scholarship to play for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Unfortunately his playing career was cut short by injury, but he became a graduate assistant coach for three years to start his coaching career. He has since returned to Stark County and has been an assistant coach (Wide Receivers) at Walsh University for the past five years.

Jack Rose

Jack Rose enjoyed a long and successful head coaching career in Stark County. Jack was the 23rd Head Coach for the Massillon Tigers, coaching from 1992 to 1997 after being the defensive coordinator the previous season. He starred at wide receiver for Central Catholic and later at Southwestern Oklahoma State. He coached the 1984 St. Thomas Aquinas to the Division IV state championship and was an assistant coach at Kent State before coming to Massillon. Rose guided Aquinas, Massillon and GlenOak each to the playoffs, compiling a record of 132-83-1, including a 9-7 mark in the postseason. Rose’s coaching record at Massillon was 48-17 with a winning percentage of .738. His signature victory came in the historic 100th game vs. Canton McKinley where the Tigers prevailed 42-41 in overtime. Jack twice lead the Tigers to 10 win seasons.

Please join us in congratulating these three Tiger greats. Go Tigers! #TIG

TIGERS IN THE STARK COUNTY FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME
2002
Paul Brown, Massillon coach
Bob Commings, Massillon coach, GlenOak coach
Jim Houston, Massillon player
Chris Spielman, Massillon player
Harry Stuhldreher, Massillon player
2003
Tommy James, Massillon player
2004
2005
Chuck Mather, Massillon coach
John McVay, Massillon player, Central coach
Jim Reichenbach, Massillon player, GlenOak and Tuslaw Coach
2006
Jim Letcavits, Massillon player, Massillon coach
John Muhlbach, Massillon player, Oakwood coach
2007
Homer Floyd, Massillon player
Dennis Franklin, Massillon player
2008
Lin Houston, Massillon player
2009
Horace Gillom, Massillon player
Hase McKey, Massillon player
2010
Steve Luke, Massillon player
2011
Tommy Hannon, Massillon player
Joe Sparma, Massillon player
2012
2013
Travis McGuire, Massillon player
Justin Zwick, Massillon player
Ray Getz, Massillon player
2014
2015
Jerrod Vance, Massillon player
Bob Vogel, Massillon player
2016
Shawn Crable

 

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

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 16, Warren Harding 21

Do or die time for Tigers

Massillon’s loss to Warren puts team in must‑win mode

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@lndeOnline.com

The math is pretty simple for the Massillon Tigers. If they have hopes of playing in the postseason for the second straight year, the Tigers have to put back‑to‑back wins together in their final two games.

No other options remain for Massillon, not after it suffered its fourth loss in the last five games, this one a 21‑16 setback to Warren Harding on Saturday night in front of about 10,000 at Mollenkopf Stadium.

The loss drops the Tigers back to the .500 mark at 4-4, with only Cincinnati Western Hills this Saturday and the Oct. 28 showdown with McKinley left on the 2006 regular‑season schedule. Not that Tiger coach Tom Stacy is looking any farther than this Saturday’s home game with Western Hills.

“We’ve got to win our last two games,” Stacy said outside a quiet Tiger locker room Saturday. “But our kids want to win every game. When you’re at Massillon, you strive to win every game.

“We didn’t go into this week (leading up to the Harding game) thinking we needed to win two out of three, or one out of three to make the playoffs or whatever. We don’t even talk about that. We’re out there to win every game. Unfortunately we didn’t get it done.”

Those looking for the Tigers’ season in a nutshell needed to look no farther than Saturday’s game. Especially on offense, where Massillon racked up 258 yards, but had three turnovers, two of which the Raiders returned for back‑breaking touchdowns.

The opportunity was there for the Tigers, despite falling down 21‑10 at halftime, to win the game. Massillon, which cut it to 21‑16 on a Trey Miller fourth‑quarter touchdown catch, had the ball on the Raider 24 with just over 3:00 remaining.

But a fourth‑down pass to the end zone sailed out of the reach of the intended receiver’s outstretched arms, sealing the Tigers’ fate.

“We’re making too many turnovers, obviously,” Stacy said. “We’re not making a key play and a key point in the game when we need it. That’s what’s hurting us right now. We went through all those turnovers in the first half; all that horsecrap, and still we have an opportunity to win the football game. We’re just not making the play at the end of the game to win the game.”

As valiant as the Tigers’ comeback try was, it wasn’t enough to erase the damage inflicted by the turnovers. More specifically, the two turnovers which Harding returned for scores.

The first, a 49‑yard interception return by Harding’s Sidney Glover, gave the Raiders the lead for good at 14‑10 with 6:08 left until halftime. The second, a 65‑yard fumble return by Lazarus McCrae, capped Harding’s 21‑point second quarter and gave the Raiders a 21‑10 edge with 3:37 remaining until the band show.

“I think it pretty much can be summed up by no turnovers for the Raiders and some turnovers for the Tigers,” said Harding coach Thom McDaniels, whose team is now 6‑2. “I’m certain that’s the difference in the ball game.”

Those turnovers and the Tigers’ inability to get that big play to turn the momentum have marred their four losses. Against Harding, Massillon had more yards’ more first downs and a better third‑down conversion percentage than the Raiders. The Tigers reached at least the Harding 38 on seven different occasions, only to get 16 points out of it.

“It’s not any one thing,” Stacy said. “We’ll make some plays and get a couple of key first downs, and then somebody will break down, and then another part of our game breaks down. We just take turns. That’s what’s frustrating about it. … We just have to make more plays on offense. That’s all there is to it.”

Adding to the frustration was the defensive effort which the Tigers turned in was good enough to win the game. Harding only mustered 126 yards of offense and just eight first downs for the game.

Massillon knew coming in the threat posed by Harding’s Ohio State‑bound tailback Danny Herron, and adjusted their defensive look accordingly. The Tigers rolled outside linebacker Dorie Irvin up to the line of scrimmage to provide a fourman front to aid in stopping Herron.

It worked, as Herron was held to just 75 yards on 30 carries, In fact, the 5‑foot‑11, 193‑pound senior’s longest run of the night was a 9‑yard scamper in the third quarter.

“We gave them a different defense, a little bit different look than what they have seen,” Stacy said. “Like I said, our defensive coaches just did an outstanding job of game‑planning. I thought our kids defensively just played great.

“It’s a great defensive effort. Herron has to be one of the top running backs in the state, a great back. Their offensive line does a great job. I thought our kids just did a great job on defense.”

Warren Harding 21

Massillon 16

Massillon 7 3 0 6 16

Warren Harding 0 21 0 0 21

SCORING SUMMARY

M ‑ Brian Gamble 2 pass from Bobby Huth (Steve Schott kick)

M ‑ Steve Schott 24 field goal

WH ‑ Dan Herron 3 run (James Teagarden kick)

WH ‑ Sidney Glover 49 interception return (Teagarden kick)

WH ‑ Lazarus McCrae 65 fumble return (Teagarden kick)

M ‑ Trey Miller 27 pass from Huth (run failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing: K.J. Herring 4‑73; Gamble 17‑50; Tommy Leonard 4‑14; J.T. Turner 4‑9.

Warren Harding rushing: Herron 30‑75 TD; Glover 6‑41.

Massillon passing: Huth 13‑20‑152 2 TDs, INT, Gamble 0‑1‑0

Warren Harding passing: Matt Straniak 4‑8‑21

Massillon receiving: Gamble 3‑62 TD; Miller 3‑50 TD; Giorgio Jackson 3‑20; Bryan Sheegog 2‑12; Leonard 1‑6; Andrew Dailey 1‑2.

Warren Harding receiving: Chris Rucker 2‑11; Trevis Owens 1‑8; Glover 1‑2.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 27, Akron Buchtel 12

Tigers shake off Buchtel

Massillon overcomes four turnovers to end two‑game losing skid

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@lndeOnline.com

It was anything but an Instant Classic, but when you’re trying to fight your way into the playoffs, anything will work.

Certainly, the Massillon Tigers aren’t about to give back the 27‑12 victory they secured over the Buchtel Griffins on Friday night in front of 7,728 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

Proram Cover

“I’ll tell you what, when you’re playing our schedule, you’ll take them anyway you can get them,” Tiger coach Tom Stacy said. “I thought our kids really played hard. Obviously, the turnovers kept it from being a lopsided game, and our inability to score in the red zone again. We have to continue to work on that. But I thought our kids played hard.”

The win snaps a two‑game-losing streak for Massillon, which is now 4‑3 heading into next Satur day’s road test at Warren Harding. It is also the Tigers’ first win against an Ohio team this season.

But it didn’t come easy, as Massillon turned the ball over four times ‑ three on fumbles. The Tigers also were just 2‑of‑5 in red‑zone scoring chances.

“It feels good, but we’re looking to next week now,” said Tiger senior Brian Gamble, who rushed for a game high 135 yards while also catching a touchdown pass and intercepting a pass. “It’s over with.”

The first half set the tone for the whole game, as both teams struggled with .turnovers ‑ the Tigers had ,.three while Buchtel turned it over once ‑ and missed chances.

Still, the Tigers were able to muster the biggest offensive play of the half when Bobby Huth hit Giorgio Jackson for 62‑yard touchdown with 3:42 left in the first quarter to put Massillon ahead 10‑6 after Steve Schott’s extra point. Jackson caught the pass at about the Buchtel 40, side‑stepped a defender or two, then outran the rest into the end zone for the score only offensive touchdown of the half.

Jackson had 135 yards on eight catches. Many of those were simple out patterns in which he was able to turn it up field and get yards after the catch.

“I love getting the ball to Giorgio,” said Huth, who threw for a season‑high 261 yards. “I can throw that five‑yard out, and he can turn it up for 20 yards. He’ll break a couple of tackles.”

The only other touchdown before the intermission gave Buchtel a 6‑0 lead just 2:17 into the game. On the first play of the Tigers’ second possession, the ball squirted free and was picked up by the Griffins’ Johnny Adams, who simply outran everybody to the end zone for the score. The extra point was missed, keeping it at 6‑0 Buchtel.

The Tigers would hold onto the football on their next drive, which consumed 4:07 off the clock and moved them from their own 33 to inside the Griffin 1. However, while Massillon was lining up to try to punch it in on fourth down, it was flagged for a false start, moving it back past the Buchtel 5. Schott was called to boot the 23‑yard field goal, which he did to cut it to 6‑3 Buchtel with 5:23 left in the first quarter.

With the Tigers up 10‑6, Massillon’s Mike Sampson would force a Buchtel fumble with less than eight minutes remaining in the half, and his teammate Steve Yoder would fall on it at the Griffin 38. The Tigers would pickup 13 yards on the drive to the Griffin 25, but stalled again. Schott padded the Massillon lead by hitting a 42‑yard field goal for a 13‑6 edge with 6:02 left until the band show.

The Tigers would get two more possessions in the half, both of them reaching Griffin territory. But both would result in turnovers, once on a fumble at the Buchtel 40 and the other an interception at the Griffin 5.

“I think it’s a matter of some of them, we were forcing the play,” Stacy said. “Instead of throwing it away and going to the next down, we’re trying to force the ball in there and trying to make something out of nothing. You can’t do that, especially in the red zone. You can’t take points off the board.”

Buchtel would reach Massillon’s 30 on its next‑to‑last possession of the half ‑ the only time in the first half it ran more than one offensive play in Tiger territory ‑ but turned the ball over on downs.

“I think our defense just played hard,” said Tiger linebacker Cody Colly. “I think that’s what it was. We just knew we had to get the job done because there was a lot on the line. We just played our hearts out and that’s what got it done.”

Things would change on Massillon’s first drive of ‑the second half , which started at the Buchtel 40 following a punt. On the fourth play, Huth hit a wide‑open Gamble down the right sidelines, and Gamble ran into the end zone for the touchdown. Schott’s PAT made it 20‑6 Tigers with 9:29 left in the third quarter.

Gamble would give the Tigers good field possession for their second drive when he came up with an interception at the Griffin 49. Four plays later, Huth hit tight end Josh Cross just inside the front right pylon for a 15‑yard touchdown and 27‑6 Tiger lead after the PAT with 7:28 left in the third.

Adams tacked on an offensive touchdown when he caught a 15‑yard scoring pass from Glen Campbell on a fourth‑and‑5 play. The score cut it to 27‑12 with 2:55 left in the third after the PAT kick failed.

Buchtel would get the ball right back at the Tiger 48 after a fumble following a reception. But the Griffins fumbled it right back five plays later at the Tiger 36, a drive which would end in a missed field goal.

“We fought hard,” said Buchtel coach Claude Brown, whose team falls to 3‑4. “We made a couple of mistakes there. We’ve got to catch the ball, we have to hold our blocks and we have to make plays.”

Massillon 27

Buchtel 12

Buchtel 6 0 6 0 12

Massillon 10 3 14 0 27

SCORING SUMMARY

B ‑ Johnny Adams 28 fumble return (Kick failed)

M ‑ Steve Schott 23 FG

M ‑ Giorgio Jackson 62 pass from Bobby Huth (Schott kick)

M ‑ Schott 42 FG

M ‑ Brian Gamble 30 pass from Huth (Schott kick)

M ‑ Josh Cross 15 pass from Huth (Schott kick)

B ‑ Adams 15 pass from Glen Campbell (Kick failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing: Gamble 27‑135; Tommy Leonard 5‑31; Andrew Dailey 1‑0.

Buchtel rushing: Kameron Alexander 12‑58; Ernest Pitts 15‑43; Norman Wolfe 1‑10; Adams 2‑6.

Massillon passing: Huth 16‑25‑261 3 TDs, INT.

Buchtel passing: Campbell 6‑21‑46 TD, INT.; Pitts 1‑1‑25.

Massillon receiving: Jackson 8‑135 TD; Cross 2‑43 TD; Gamble 2‑37 TD; Bryan Sheegog 2‑23.

Buchtel receiving: Adams 2‑25; Ronald Peake 2‑12; Pitts 2‑9; Ken Henderson 1‑25.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 16, Cleveland St. Ignatius 30

Ignatius extends Tiger skid

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

Thanks to the one-man show that was St. Ignatius senior Matthew Merletti, the Massillon Tigers find themselves at a crossroads in their season. One way leads back to the playoffs, the other to an end of the road after the week 10 game with McKinley.

Program Cover

“We need to probably win out, or come close, to make the playoffs,” Tiger coach Tom Stacy said after his team fell to 3-3 following a 30-16 loss to St. Ignatius on Friday night in front of 12,458 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. “Any time you lose a couple of games in a row, you worry about people jumping ship on you. We told our guys, we can’t have any of that happen and win out. We have to have everybody with us – coaches, players, everybody from the third-stringer to the first-stringer. They’re going to have to rally around.”

Merletti single-handedly put the 6-0 Wildcats on his back on this evening, rushing for a game-high 221 yards on 31 carries, while adding a back-breaking 79-yard interception return for a score in the fourth quarter. He finished with 398 yards total between his rushing, receiving and return yards.

“Tony Gonzalez had a pretty big game here a few years ago,” said St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle, whose team is now 6-0. “It was one of those types of things. Tom and I even talked about Matt before the game. He said, ‘That 22 (Merletti) is just a tremendous player.’ And I said, ‘We need him to be.'”

Afterwards, the senior talked about how he and his Wildcat teammates were inspired all week by memories of Massillon’s 29-26 win over Ignatius a year ago. That broke an 0-8 skid against Ignatius by the Tigers.

“We definitely thought about that, no question about it,” Merletti said. “That was a big motivator.”

Now Massillon needs a similar kind of motivation as it heads into the final four games of the season. It starts next Friday night when Buchtel visits Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“We have to coach better and we have to play better,” Stacy said. “If you want to win games, that’s what you have to do.

“It’s going to be our job to pull them together. That’s why you coach. I’m really confident will bounce back next week. I really am.”

The Tigers went back to good, old-fashioned smash-mouth football on their second series of the game, one which ended with Steve Schott kicking a 33-yard field goal to give Massillon a 3-0 lead with 4:32 left in the first quarter. The drive took 15 plays, with 10 of those being running plays, including a 3-yard run by Brian Gamble on fourth-and-1 from the Ignatius 23 to keep it alive.

But the Wildcats answered, thanks in a large part by a 56-yard run by Merletti, who was untouched until Gamble tackled him at the Tiger 6. Two plays later, Merletti gave Ignatius the lead with a 3-yard run with 3:00 left in the quarter, making it 7-3 Wildcats after Nick Yako’s PAT kick.

Gamble again needed to save the Tiger defense on Ignatius’ next possession – but only momentarily. Merletti ripped off a 61-yard run through a gaping hole up the middle to the Massillon 12, where Gamble finally brought him down.

Once again, it took Ignatius two more plays after Merletti’s big run to find the end zone, this time on a 2-yard run by Merletti. Yako’s PAT made it 14-3 Ignatius just 38 seconds into the second quarter.

Massillon’s offense mixed it up on its subsequent possession, balancing a Gamble run with big pass plays in the flats to Trey Miller, Andrew Dailey and Bryan Sheegog to move to the Ignatius 6. However, a big sack on third-and-5 pushed the ball back to the Wildcat 15, and Schott was called on to hit a 32-yard field goal to cut it to 14-6 with 6:04 left in the half.

The Tigers would again move the ball on their next drive, boosted by a big 29-yard pass from Bobby Huth – who was 11-of-14 for 139 yards in the second quarter alone – to Miller to the Wildcat 31. But a fumbled pitch short-circuited the drive, which ended with an incomplete pass on fourth down from the Ignatius 26.

Massillon would get a final shot at points in the half when an Ignatius punt was downed at the 50. Two quick passes moved it to the 29, where Schott hit his third field goal of the half – a 46-yarder – to cut it to 14-9 Ignatius at halftime.

Merletti again prevented the Tiger defense from getting off the field on the Wildcats’ first drive of the second half. This time, it was a 43-yard catch-and-run on a simple swing pass that turned a third-and-7 from the Ignatius 41 into a first-and-10 at the Tiger 16.

As was the case the first two times Merletti ripped off a big play, it took the Wildcats just two more plays to find the end zone. This time, it was a 16-yard run off right end for a touchdown with 8:22 left in the third quarter to lift St. Ignatius to a 21-9 lead after the extra point.

The Tigers’ evening may have been defined by their two third-quarter possessions. The first, which reached the Ignatius 32, ended with a fumble.

But it was the second which may have left the mortal wound. After Kevin Massey returned an interception for Massillon to the Wildcat 10, the Tigers were able to move to the 3, where they faced fourth-and-goal. But the pass into the end zone was high and broken up, leaving the score at 21-9.

“I had some really bad calls in the red zone I wish I had back,” Stacy said. “I blame myself for that. I really believe that was a turning point in the game.”

Ignatius would tack on a 28-yard Yako field goal seven plays after it recovered a muffed punt on the Tiger 32 midway through the fourth quarter to make it 24-9. Merletti would then cap the night with a 79-yard interception return for a score with 5:09 remaining that made it 30-9 Wildcats after the extra point was blocked.

Huth would provide the final margin with a 2-yard run with 2:47 remaining.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 7, Mentor 19

Mentor stymies Massillon

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

Six plays into the second half, the Massillon Tigers had grabbed control of the momentum and the lead in its game Friday night at Mentor. By the time the third quarter ended, the lead – if not the momentum – had shifted to the Cardinals.

Five plays into the fourth quarter, a Tiger fumble left little question who held the momentum. That momentum eventually carried itself over into a 19-7 Mentor win over Massillon in front of approximately 9,500 at Jerome T. Osbourne Sr. Stadium.

Program Cover

“We score a touchdown, and we think the game’s over,” said Tiger coach Tom Stacy, whose team falls to 3-2. “It’s like we stopped playing. I don’t know what the problem is. We have to look at the tape, see what the problem is and get them corrected.”

After both teams failed to mount any sort of scoring threat in the first half, the third quarter turned into a shoot-out. It started when the Tigers’ Chris Thornton recovered a pooch kick at the Mentor 35.

Six straight carries by Brian Gamble put Massillon into the end zone, the last of which covered three yards. Steve Schott’s extra point with 9:24 left in the third quarter gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead.

Gamble – who finished with 115 yards on the night – looked like he was venting some of the pent-up anger he had from the first half. He was screaming into the air as he walked off the field at halftime, part of it due to an official’s negation of an apparent Tiger touchdown.

“I thought he played well,” Stacy said of Gamble. “I can’t fault the kids’ effort. I thought we played hard. They just made more plays than we did.”

Bobby Huth appeared to hit Giorgio Jackson on a 50-yard “Hail Mary” pass on the final play of the half. However, the official behind the play came in and ruled the pass incomplete.

Television replays appeared to back up Massillon’s contention. Still, the ruling stood, and it was 0-0 at the intermission.

“They said he rolled over and didn’t have the ball,” Stacy said.

After Gamble’s touchdown, the Tigers didn’t have the ball much more in the third quarter. That’s because Mentor would chew up 79 yards on 15 plays on its subsequent possession, taking off over five minutes of clock time before Bart Tanski hit Brandon James on a 7-yard touchdown strike with 3:54 left.

The extra point kick was wide right, and Massillon kept the lead at 7-6. But not for too long.

“After nearly shutting them down in the first half … obviously they just executed better than we did,” Stacy said. “We scored, and it’s like it lit a fire under them.”

Massillon would go three-and-out on its next possession, and punt it to the Cardinals at their own 49. It would take only six plays for Mentor to march over that distance, thanks to a 30-yard quarterback keeper by Tanski to the Tiger 12.

Bill Deitman would give Mentor the lead for good, bull-rushing his way in from two yards out with 1:40 left in the quarter. The PAT pass was no good, keeping the Cardinal lead at 12-7.

“I think after that (Tiger touchdown) drive, we challenged our team on the bench,” said Mentor coach Steve Trivisonno, whose team is 4-1. “We felt we were a little soft on that series. After that, I thought we controlled the game real well.”

The Tigers would put together one final legitimate scoring threat in the game, starting after Deitman’s run. From its own 35, Massillon moved down to the Mentor 15 – with help from a big 31-yard Huth-to-Gamble strike on the final play of the third quarter.

However, the drive – and most likely the Tigers’ hopes – would end when the Cardinals’ Shane Molder popped the ball loose from the Massillon ballcarrier and Nate Wilson fell on the ball for Mentor at its own 5.

“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Tiger coach Tom Stacy said. “We killed ourselves with penalties. We put the ball on the ground. We shot ourselves in the foot. Supposedly we didn’t catch the ball in the end zone at the end of the half, I don’t know. We just didn’t make any plays. They made more plays than we did.”

The final nail would be driven in the Tiger coffin with 1:58 remaining as Tanski capped a short four-play, 19-yard scoring drive with a 3-yard run. Kevin Harper’s PAT provided the final margin.

Not that the Tigers have long to dwell on the setback.

“We better get back to work, because we’re playing a better football team next week,” Stacy said, referring to next Friday’s home game with St. Ignatius. “It doesn’t get any easier.”

Mentor 19

Massillon 7

Massillon 0 0 7 0 7

Mentor 0 0 12 7 19

SCORING SUMMARY

Mas – Brian Gamble 3 run (Steve Schott kick)

Men – Brandon James 7 pass from Bart Tanski (Kick failed)

Men – Bill Deitman 2 run (Pass failed)

Men – Tanski 3 run (Kevin Harper kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing: Gamble 26–115, K.J. Herring 4-29, Tom Leonard 1-1.

Mentor rushing: Deitman 19-78 TD, Tanski 19-75 TD

Massillon passing: Bobby Huth 13-30-108

Mentor passing: Tanski 11-18-102 TD

Massillon receiving: Bryan Sheegog 4-27, Andrew Dailey 3-21, Gamble 2-36.

Mentor receiving: James 4-33 TD, Mike Popelas 3-51.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 35, Hamilton (Chandler), AZ

Massillon bounces back

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

A year ago, the Massillon Tigers often turned to their seniors to lead the way when the going got tough. That approach worked well enough to help the Tigers reach the state championship game.

Coming off of a disappointing loss to Moeller, the Tigers once again turned to their seniors to right the ship as they navigated their way through the treacherous seas created by a rugged stretch of the schedule. And those seniors – specifically, but not exclusively, Brian Gamble and Andrew Dailey – served as a rudder for the ship as Massillon returned to the even keel of victory on Saturday night, coming from behind to knock off nationally-ranked Arizona power Hamilton 35-26 in front of a boisterous Paul Brown Tiger Stadium crowd of approximately 10,500 in the final game of the Herbstreit Challenge.

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“When you have seniors who show that kind of leadership and take charge on the field and make plays,” said Tiger coach Tom Stacy, whose team is 3-1, “and these two guys (Gamble and Dailey) just made plays all over the field, that’s a big key. We had seniors do it last year, and these guys are just taking over. That was a big win.

“We needed that win. That was a very good football team. They were better than Moeller. They were faster, they were very well coached. It’s a really good win for us.”

Gamble, who garnered game Most Valuable Player honors, did it on both sides of the ball. On offense, he rushed for 159 yards on a season-high 35 carries with a 1-yard touchdown plunge in the first quarter, as well as a 10-yard touchdown reception which pulled the Tigers to within 17-14 just before halftime. He later added a 21-yard touchdown reception midway through the fourth quarter to give Massillon a 35-20 lead.

Just as big was Gamble’s defense, most notably a key interception which set up the late second-quarter touchdown. The senior safety grabbed the overthrown pigskin and returned it to the Husky 20, and three plays later, quarterback Bobby Huth found Gamble, who found the end zone for the score with eight seconds left before halftime.

“I think the quarterback and the receiver weren’t on the same page, because it wasn’t thrown anywhere near him,” Gamble said. “It came right to me, I didn’t really have to make the play. That was real big, and then punching it in on offense helped a lot.”

What also helped the Tigers prevail was Dailey’s biggest contribution of the night late in the third quarter, when he stepped in front of a Hamilton pass and returned it 20 yards for the score. The touchdown and subsequent extra point gave Massillon a 28-20 edge with 1:25 left in the third quarter.

“I just read my keys real tightly,” Dailey said. “I just broke down. The guy was actually going to try to get outside of me, so I just turn and ran and saw the ball thrown and I just grabbed it.”

And helped the Tigers grab a stranglehold on the momentum.

“I thought two plays in the game were big,” Stacy said. “Our score (by Gamble) right before halftime was big and then Andrew’s interception. I think those were the two big keys in the game.

“These guys (Dailey and Gamble) both were instrumental in one each. Again, big-time players make big plays, and these guys are what did it for us last year, and they’re doing it for us this year.”

They needed to, because Hamilton came out ready to give Massillon all it could handle. After the Tigers – set to a 66-yard halfback pass from Gamble to Sheegog on the first play of the game – jumped on top 7-0 just under two minutes into the game, the Huskies came right back and scored on their first play as Kerry Taylor – who had 11 catches for 181 yards in the game – caught a 66-yard pass of his own for a touchdown to tie it at 7-7.

“All it was was an assignment mistake and something that can be corrected,” Gamble said of the Hamilton score. “That was all it was. We knew that if we just read our keys, it won’t happen again. They made some other big plays, but not enough.”

Hamilton would push the lead to 17-7 thanks to a pair of second-quarter scores. One was a 27-yard field goal by Brent Blaylock, and the other was an 80-yard run by Nathan Jeffery.

But Massillon, refusing to see a repeat of the loss to Moeller, kept fighting. The Tigers cut the deficit to 17-14 prior to halftime, then took the lead for good with 8:43 left in the third quarter when Sheegog hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Huth.

Huth showed no effects of the helmet-to-helmet hit which knocked him out of the Moeller game. The senior completed 15-of-24 passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns.

“It was Midwest football,” said Hamilton coach Steve Belles, whose team dropped to 2-1. “It was pound it and make the throws that you had to. I thought the quarterback did an extremely good job of just hitting the quick out routes tonight. I thought that was real key. He let his receivers do some damage out there after they caught it, and we didn’t play quite tight enough in some of our coverages.”

Now, Massillon turns its attention to another rugged test, this one coming at Mentor Friday night. The Cardinals suffered their first loss of the season Saturday, falling to St. Ignatius – the Tigers’ Week Six foe – 27-14.

“I think Massillon is going to have a very good season,” Belles said. “I don’t think what you saw against Moeller is indicative of how good this team could be.”

Massillon 35

Hamilton 26

Massillon 7 7 14 7 35

Hamilton 7 10 3 6 26

SCORING SUMMARY

M – Brian Gamble 1 run (Steve Schott kick)

H – Kerry Taylor 66 pass from Brad Gruner (Brent Blaylock kick)

H – Blaylock 27 field goal

H – Nathan Jeffery 80 run (Blaylock kick)

M – Gamble 10 pass from Bobby Huth (Schott kick)

M – Bryan Sheegog 29 pass from Huth (Schott kick)

H – Blaylock 27 field goal

M – Andrew Dailey 20 interception return (Schott kick)

M – Gamble 21 pass from Huth (Schott kick)

H – J.T. Dixon 4 pass from Gruner (run failed)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing:

Gamble 35-159 TD; K.J. Herring 5-33; Tommy Leonard 4-12.

Hamilton rushing:

Jeffery 3-82 TD; Justin Salum 1-49; Covaughn Deboskie 4-14; Taylor 1-11; Tony Sims 5-10.

Massillon passing:

Huth 15-24-175; 3 TDs, Int; Gamble 1-1-66.

Hamilton passing:

Gruner 18-31-250 2TDs, 2 Int.

Massillon receiving:

Sheegog 5-116 TD; Gamble 4-43; Trey Miller 2-27; Brendon Baker 1-11.

Hamilton receiving:

Taylor 11-181 TD; Dixon 3-28 TD, Sims 1-30; Deboskie 1-4.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 14, Cincinnati Moeller 48

Massillon QB Huth knocked out as Moeller rolls to 48‑14 victory

By CHRIS EASTERLING

Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

The Massillon Tigers hoped Saturday’s late afternoon game with Moeller inside Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati would answer some questions about themselves. Instead, the 48‑14 loss at the hands of the Crusaders simply opened up many more queries in search of answers.

“I thought we were better than that.” Tiger coach Tom Stacy said. “We didn’t get tested the first two weeks. But we’re going to have to find out where our weaknesses are, maybe make some personnel changes and go from there.”

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It was a potentially costly game for the Tigers, as quarterback Bobby Huth was knocked out of the game on the next‑to‑last play of the third quarter on a passing play. He spent the remainder of the game in an apparent daze on the bench.

Stacy would not speculate on the nature of the injury. The Tiger coach didn’t expect a diagnosis until today at the earliest.

“I don’t know to what extent he’s hurt without the doctors looking at him first,” Stacy said.

No one questioned the fact the Tigers were going to face their first legitimate test of the season when they teed it up against Moeller. Massillon outscored its first two foes ‑ North Park (Ont.) and H.D. Woodson (D.C.) ‑ by a 127‑13 margin, but neither boasted a rugged, tough, hard‑hitting defense like the Crusaders.

But what transpired on Saturday afternoon was a splash of cold water in the face for the Tigers, who felt they had an offense which could still score points against Moeller’s 3‑3‑5 defense.

Outside of the Tigers’ second‑quarter scoring drive and a last‑ditch possession at the end of the game, Massillon snapped the ball just once on the Moeller side of midfield in accumulating just 198 yards off offense.

“We need to try to get better and do what we do‑best.” Stacy said. “Maybe there are some things we’re doing that we shouldn’t doing. Maybe we got some false information from playing two opponents in those first two games who weren’t very good’. We’ll have to regroup and look at the tape and try to get better.”

Things don’t exactly get easier for Massillon, with or without Huth. The Tigers return to the friendly confines of Paul Brown Tiger Stadium this Saturday, but the opponent is nationally ranked Arizona power Hamilton.

The Tigers will hope the return home can bring with it a better start than the one they had against Moeller. The Crusaders scored four times – three touchdowns and a field goal ‑ in a span of 5:30 late in the first quarter to jump on top 24‑0 after a Ryan Sunderland 37‑yard field goal with six seconds left in the stanza.

That fast start by the Crusaders was as much a result of Massillon miscues as it was Moeller plays. The Tigers surrendered a punt return for a score by Chedrick Cherry, an interception return for a touchdown by Dean Gaier and then set up the Crusaders’ third touchdown with a fumble at their own 21.

For the game, Moeller had more return yards ‑ punt and interception – than ‑ it had offensive yardage. The Crusaders had 245 return yards ‑ 146 of those punt return yards by Cherry – compared to 205 offensive yards.

“We’ve been working our tails off on special teams,” Moeller coach Bob Crable said. “Our special teams came through.”

A year ago, Massillon had to hold off a furious Elder rally after jumping on top 35‑7 before eventually prevailing 35‑31.

The Tigers tried to pull off one of their own, cutting the deficit to 24‑7 on a 3‑yard Brian Gamble run with 6:29 left in the second quarter.

Massillon cut it to 24‑14 when Corey Hildreth blocked a punt off the foot of the punter, and without breaking stride, grabbed the ball and raced 24 ‑ yards for a touchdown just 1:39 into the second half.

“There’s no question,” Stacy said of his faith in a comeback. “I always believe our kids and their ability to comeback. We have enough guys who played last year who believe the same things. We just didn’t execute.”

Nor did they have much of a chance to in the third quarter. Massillon ran all of eight plays in the third stanza, compared to 20 for Moeller, which led 27‑14 after three.

Any Massillon comeback attempt was negated by three Crusader scores on fourth‑quarter possessions. Two of those touchdowns were set up by turnovers by the Tigers, who gave the ball up five times on the day.

“I thought defensively we played well,” Stacy said. “We just gave them short field after short field. You have to give them credit.”

Moeller 48

Massillon 14

4

Massillon 0 7 7 0 14

Moeller 24 0 3 2 48

SCORING SUMMARY

Moe ‑ Chedrick Cherry 49 punt return (Ryan Sunderman kick)

Moe ‑ Dean Gaier 50 interception return (Sunderman kick)

Moe ‑ Cherry 11 pass from Ross Oltorik (Sunderman kick)

Moe ‑ Sunderman 37 field goal

Mas ‑ Brian Gamble 3 run. (Steve Schott kick)

Mas ‑ Corey Hildreth 21 blocked punt return (Schott kick)

Moe ‑ Sunderman 45 field goal

Moe ‑ Oltorik 9 run (Sunderman kick)

Moe – Oltorik 11 run (Sunderman kick)

Moe – Bemary 4 run (Sunderman kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing:

Gamble 11‑55 TD; J.T. Turner 6‑34; K.J. Herring 4‑21; Tommy Leonard 1‑7.

Moeller rushing:

Patrick Blanks 17‑54.

Massillon passing:

Huth 10‑19‑69 2 INTs; Steve Ryder 1‑3‑6

Moeller passing:

Oltorik 12‑20‑142 TD 2 INTs.

Massillon receiving:

Bryan Sheegog 4‑70; Andrew Dailey 3‑17; Giorgio Jackson 2‑8; Trey Miller 1‑8.

Moeller receiving:

Brian Albrink 3‑53; Patrick Curtin 3‑28; Cherry 2‑26 TD; Blanks 2‑2.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 59, H.D. Woodson, Washington D.C. 7

Tigers onto the main course

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

Perception is oftentimes reality, and such is the case with the Massillon Tigers’ schedule.

The perception is, the first two games on the Tigers’ slate – the opener against North Park (Ont.) two weeks ago and last Saturday’s tilt against H.D. Woodson of Washington, D.C. – were mere warm-ups for the main event, which begins this Saturday at Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Tiger Stadium against Moeller.

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The reality of the situation is, the final scores of those two games reinforced that perception, including last Saturday night’s 59-7 win over Woodson in front of nearly 9,000 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The problem is, Tiger coach Tom Stacy and his players can’t deal in perception. And Stacy – ever the perfectionist at heart – knows his team may have out-talented their first two foes, and that Massillon still has room to grow as it moves from the appetizers into the meat-and-potatoes portion of the slate.

Still, he was more than pleased with the way the Tigers performed against the Warriors.

“I think we made some improvement,” Stacy said. “I told the kids I thought we got better. Of course, (Woodson) was a better football team. … We had a good week of practice.

“We still have some things we need to shore up. Defensively, we missed some tackles and some pass defense. We made some steady improvement from our Fremont scrimmage to last week’s game to this week’s game.”

Certainly, there was more than enough for the Tigers to like on Saturday night. And one needed to look to no farther than the offense, which continues to score at an eye-popping rate.

After the Tigers’ offense scored on eight of 11 possessions against North Park, they were even more proficient against the athletic Warriors last Saturday. Massillon scored on all six first-half possessions in building up a 38-7 advantage at the intermission.

The Tiger attack would not finish a drive without putting points on the scoreboard until the fourth and final drive of the second half – at which time the score was 59-7. And even that drive reached the Woodson 1 before Massillon let the clock run out.

“They played a solid football game, everything worked for them,” said Woodson coach Greg Fuller, whose team was coming off of an upset of West Virginia Class AAA state champion Morgantown a week prior.

Once again, it was a balanced offensive attack which led the way, as the Tigers racked up 549 yards of offense, with 368 coming on the ground and 181 through the air. In the first half alone, Massillon had 317 yards offensively – 158 passing and 156 rushing.

“I’m starting to get amazed by what this offense can do,” said Tiger quarterback Bobby Huth, who completed 14 of 21 passes for 181 yards and a pair of touchdowns. “

We’re starting to rack up the yards and score some points. But we’ll see what happens against better competition.”

Brian Gamble – who had 104 rushing yards in the first half on his way to 164 yards for a game – and K.J. Herring (one rushing and one receiving) each scored a pair of first-half touchdowns, while Trey Miller broke the scoreless deadlock with 8:21 left in the first quarter with a touchdown catch. Gamble would add two more rushing touchdowns and 60 more yards on four third-quarter carries, while Herring tacked on 71 more yards onto his total of 97 along with another score of his own in the third quarter.

“We still made some mistakes, but nothing major,” Gamble said. “I think we took a big step forward.”

Steve Schott added a 35-yard field goal in the first half, which made it a 24-0 Tiger lead with 8:16 remaining until intermission. That was the only Tiger scoring drive which didn’t end with Massillon reaching the end zone.

On defense, may have been where the Tigers made the biggest improvement from Week One to Week Two. Massillon permitted a Woodson team which featured Division 1-A recruits in tailback D’Andre Johnson, wide receiver Tony Coleman and offensive lineman Carl Russell to accumulate just 158 net yards, which was just five more yards than what North Park accumulated in the first half alone.

Of those 158 yards, 66 came on Woodson’s lone scoring drive of the game, which came with less than three minutes remaining in the first half. The Warrior touchdown – a 9-yard Gabriel Prophet-to-Coleman pass – made it a 31-7 Tiger lead with 2:28 showing until the band show.

“It’s been a slow improvement, but I think we’re almost there,” Gamble said. “We had a great week of practice last week and a very physical practice, and it carried out onto the field. We tackled a lot better.”

And now it must carry over into the meat of the Tigers’ schedule.

GAME STATS

 

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2006: Massillon 68, North Park, ON Canada 6

Tiger skill shines through

Massillon has too much of just about everything for overmatched visitors

By CHRIS EASTERLING

Chris.Easterling@lndeOnline.com

The gifts were exchanged by the two teams prior to the Massillon Tigers’ 2006 opener against North Park Collegiate out of Ontario. Once the game began, the Tigers weren’t nearly as giving, rolling to 68‑6 victory over the Trojans in front of approximately 9,000 fans at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

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As little as the Tigers gave North Park, many gave even less credit to themselves for the lopsided rout. Massillon senior Brian Gamble shouted to no one in particular, “We got to get better,” as he walked across the field for the postgame handshake.

“It was like a morgue in here at halftime,” said Tiger coach Tom Stacy, whose coaching staff received hockey sticks from the North Park coaches during a pregame ceremony. “I told them after the game that’s good. That means your expectations are high. We have enough veteran guys who know if they’re playing well or not.”

And to think the Tigers led 35‑6 at the intermission.

“The thing is, when you look at the score, how can you complain,” Stacy asked rhetorically. “A young football team, and we knew going in that it was going to take some time to develop. I think this was a good building block for us.”

The Tigers weren’t a finished product entering the game, and head into next Saturday’s home tilt against Washington, D.C., Woodson still searching for some of those answers. Most of the questions remain on defense, which despite scoring twice on interception returns in the first half, gave up its share of yardage as well to a North Park team which suited up only 29 players for its third appearance in Tigertown.

The Trojans accumulated 153 yards in the first half alone, including a 56‑yard run by bowling ball like running back Matt Socholotiuk which set up the Trojans’ first score of the game with less than two minutes left in the first half. Socholotiuk finished with a game‑high 147 yards rushing.

“Our defense, we feel we can do better every game,” said outside linebacker Michael Porrini. “So we feel like we could have done better. We could have wrapped up a little better. It was pretty good overall.”

However, Massillon held North Park to just 64 yards in the second half.

“Are we happy with how we tackled at times? No,” Stacy said. “But it’s a start.”

The Massillon offense, meanwhile, left little question in anyone’s mind that it has a chance to live up to the high hopes expressed by Stacy.

The Tigers scored on seven of their first nine possessions, and the first time they couldn’t change the number in the scoring column was due to a field goal which just slipped wide right from 26‑yards out on their second possession. The other time was the final play of the first half.

By the time the Tigers went to their backups with 5:17 left in the third quarter, it was 49‑6 Massillon. The first‑unit offense racked up 319 yards in just over a half of football, with 194 yards of that coming through the air on Bobby Huth’s arm and another 85 yards rushing on the legs of Gamble.

“I thought it went pretty good,” said Huth, who connected on 12‑of‑18 aerials. “I thought the offensive line played pretty well. I didn’t play the way I should have played. The first play should have been a touchdown, but I underthrew it. I felt like I didn’t throw the ball very well tonight.”

The Tiger offense was explosive, but also methodical. Of the first six scoring drives, none were completed in fewer than six plays, even though they had three drives of 54 yards or less.

“I thought the second half, we had some bigger plays, and that’s what we’re kind of looking for,” Stacy said. “We had some good drives, and we didn’t rip off as many big ones in the first half as we would have liked. But you know what? Give them credit, too. Their kids were playing hard.”

Stacy said before the season he wanted to showcase Gamble and Andrew Dailey, and the Tigers did just that. Gamble put Massillon in the lead for good with 8:15 left in the first quarter when he took a handoff to the right, skirted off tackle and outran the defense to the end zone for a 12yard touchdown.

Dailey, meanwhile, hauled in a pair of touchdown passes as part of a three‑catch, 80‑yard evening. The first was a 20‑yard strike in the end zone with 7:40 left in the second quarter, which gave Massillon a 21‑0 lead.

He then added a 51‑yard catch and run on a post pattern to make it 42‑6 with 9:58 remaining in the third quarter.

K.J. Herring wrapped up the Tigers’ stretch of scoring with a pair of touchdown runs, the last a two‑yarder which gave the Tigers a 56‑6 lead with 2:00 left in the third quarter. Justin Turner and Cody Nickels added fourth-quarter touchdown runs.

“It’s a start,” Stacy said. “I’m never going to complain when you win like that.”

Massillon 68

North Park 6

North Park 0 6 0 0 0

Massillon 14 21 21 12 68

SCORING SUMMARY

M ‑ Gamble 12 run (Schott kick) 8:15,1st

M ‑ Massey 26 int. return (Schott kick) 8:03, 1st

M ‑ Dailey 20 pass from Huth (Schott kick) 7:40, 2nd

M ‑ Leonard 9 pass from Huth (Schott kick) 4:14, 2nd

M ‑ Gamble 36 int. return (Schott kick) 2:22, 2nd

NP ‑ Dandle 9 pass from Maddock (McDonell kick blocked) :15, 2nd

M ‑ Dailey 51 pass from Huth (Schott kick) 9:58, 3rd

M ‑ Herring 10 run (Schott kick) 6:33, 3rd

M ‑ Herring 2 run (Maylor kick) 2:00, 3rd

M ‑Turner 29 run (Nickels kick failed) :41, 4th

M ‑ Nickels 43 run (Nickels kick failed) 1:50, 4th

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing:

Gamble 12‑85, 1 TD, Herring 9‑64, 2 TDs.

North Park rushing:

Socholotiuk ing:

Massillon passing:

Huth 12‑18‑194, TDs, Ryder 3‑6‑27.

North Park passing:

Maddock 7‑15, 1 TD, 2 INTs.

Massillon receiving:

Dailey 3‑80, 2 TDs, Gamble 3‑28, Miller 3‑23.

North Park receiving:

Padmore 4‑32.

GAME STATS