Tag: <span>Danny Robinson</span>

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2014: Massillon 31, Canton McKinley 21

NICE RING TO IT
Victoery Bell chimes For Tigers after 125th meeting with archrival

By Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

MASSILLON It was familiar territory for Massillon at halftime of the 125th game against McKinley on Saturday afternoon at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. The Tigers were sitting with a lead – a 10-point one, in this case – with a chance to secure the win.

Twice before, though, that halftime lead dissolved into losses. The memory of those games was a big reason why Massillon’s seniors were doing something they had done before at the end of the game as well: ringing the Victory Bell after beating the Bulldogs.

“We had yet to play a strong four quarters of football,” senior running back J.D. Crabtree said after Massillon’s 31-21 win over McKinley. “We really stressed that this week. We stressed that in the locker room at halftime that we can’t come out flat. We’ve been in this situation before; we’ve been up. We have to come out and do our jobs. We came out fired up, and we did what we were supposed to.”

What Massillon did was post its fourth consecutive win in the series against the Bulldogs, including its third straight regular-season win. The win improved the Tigers to 7-3 and sent them packing for Perrysburg to meet the 10-0 Yellow Jackets in a Division II Region 4 quarterfinal Friday night.

While the playoff berth was secured long before kickoff – only the opponent, – Perrysburg or Nordonia was up in the air – Massillon came out looking like a team trying to pull out all the stops on its rivals. The Tigers recovered an onside kick to start the game, although that ended up in a missed 51-yard field goal.

That proved to be the only time Massillon would get inside the McKinley 40 and not put points on the board. The Tigers’ second possession ended with Crabtree scoring the first of his four touchdowns on the day, a 5-yard run with 6:56 left in the first quarter.

McKinley pulled even with Massillon only once after that point. The Bulldogs tied the game at 7-7 on a 3-yard Eric Glover-Williams run with 9:06 left in the half.

Massillon scored on two of its final three possessions of the half, though, to take a 17-7 halftime lead. Crabtree’s 1-yard plunge and Andrew David’s 41-yard field goal with 1 second left in the half provided the Tiger margin.

“We just needed to play our game,” senior running back/linebacker Danny Robinson, whose fourth-down run with less than 40 seconds left picked up the game-clinching first down. “We came in at halftime and everybody knew we were the better team in that locker room. We just needed come out and execute and stop them.”

Massillon grabbed a 24-7 lead on Crabtree’s third score, a 16-yard run just 2:15 into the second half. It was part of the senior’s 34-carry, 131-yard performance.

“The Massillon people would say that’s the J.D. Crabtree they know,” Tigers coach Jason Hall said.

McKinley, though, had a little life left in it. A Lee Hurst-to-Bryce Short touchdown pass in the third quarter, followed by a Hurst quarterback plunge pulled the Bulldogs within 24-21 – after a Glover-Williams-to-Short two-point conversion – with 10:43 remaining.

Both were set up by special-teams plays. A 22-yard fake-punt run by Devion Jenkins helped keep the former scoring drive alive, while the latter was set up by a muffed punt by Massillon at its own 30.

Massillon, though, wouldn’t let another double-digit lead slip by it as it did against Austintown Fitch in Week 6. With a little help from a pair of McKinley penalties, the Tigers marched down the field on their next possession to punch in the insurance score on Crabtree’s fourth score of the day with 9:35 remaining.

“I think we’ve learned from (Fitch) when we had that lead and we lost it,” Tiger senior tackle Devin Williams said. “There’s no point in the game where you should be flustered. … No matter what the score is, whether we’re up, down, it’s always the same.”

Which is why Massillon’s seniors got the oh-so-familiar experience of ringing the Victory Bell again Saturday afternoon.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2014: Massillon 46, Warren Harding 24

Massillon overcomes slow start to roll past Warren Harding

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

MASSILLON The start continues to be an issue for Massillon. The finish, though, remains exactly what the Tigers want to see.

For the third game in a row, Massillon found itself slowly coming out of the gates as it welcomed Warren Harding to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for its home opener. The Tigers found their second gear, though, after falling into an early deficit, and used it to race past the Raiders for a 46-24 win Friday.

The win improves Massillon to 3-0, with Canadian visitor St. John Collegiate paying a visit next Friday.

“It was our home opener, and Massillon, you’re not going to lose your home opener,” said senior Danny Robinson, who had a touchdown run and a team-high four catches.

“We’re not going to come out there and lose to Warren. They’re a great team, and their running back (Keemari Murry) is really good, but we weren’t going to lose our home opener.”

Early on, the momentum certainly favored the visitors. The Raiders used a 82-yard touchdown run by Murray and a field goal after recovering a Tiger fumble to lead 10-0 midway through the first quarter.

Massillon, though, seemed to get angry at that point. And when it got angry, it found a second gear.

The Tigers finished the first half by scoring on its final five possessions. What started with a Andrew David field goal with a minute left in the first quarter ended with a 17-yard Austin Jasinski scoring run with 1:22 remaining in the half.

When it was all said and done, Massillon owned a 29-10 halftime lead.

“We didn’t come out crisp at all offensively,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “It took a bit to gather our thoughts. They hit us with a big play.”

The big play was the bulk of Warren’s offense on the night. And Murry was the key to that.

A year after rushing for 201 yards against the Tigers in Warren, Murry gained an even 200 yards on Friday night. Of that, though, 154 yards came on his two touchdown runs – the 82-yarder and a 72-yarder early in the second half that pulled the Raiders to within 29-17.

Quindez Stubbs added a 68-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter for Warren.

Outside of those two touchdown runs, Murry had 46 yards on 15 carries. He had rushed for over 320 yards in the first two games.

“I’ll watch it on film, but I think we just rolled wrong a couple times,” Robinson said. “It’s fixable mistakes. Other than that, I think our defense and our offense played great.”

Once again, that offense featured a heavy dose of J.D. Crabtree running the ball. Crabtree topped the 100-yard plateau for the third straight week, gaining 161 yards on 27 carries and scoring three touchdowns.

But maybe the bigger plus was the way various others stepped up, especially in the passing game. Quarterback Danny Clark had his best night throwing the ball of the season, completing 13 of 16 passes for 203 yards.

Those 13 completions were spread around to seven different receivers, which didn’t even include leading receiver Reggie Rogers, who did not play – along with safety Mike Smith – for disciplinary reasons. Despite that, Todd Fichter caught three passes, while Jasinski grabbed two and James Hendricks, Chase Piatko, Dylan Henderson and Tre’on Vance each caught one.

“Todd, Austin are coming along,” Hall said. “Austin was hurt in the preseason, and this was a great game for him. Starting next week we get our guys back and we keep plugging along.”

GAME STATS

History

2013: Massillon 33, Nordonia 17

TURNING IT ON
Massillon puts it together after half to defeat Knights

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON When Massillon and Nordonia met in a first-round playoff game last year at Paul Brown Tiger
Stadium, the Tigers wasted no time laying waste to the Knights’ hopes for an upset. They led by 14 after one
quarter, and 35 at halftime after they scored 63 points in the win.

On Friday night, the two teams met against in a first-round playoff at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, this time as
Division II members. And matching the division they reside in now, it took until half No. 2 for the Tigers to hit
the accelerator.

Still, hit the accelerator Massillon did, as it once again ended Nordonia’s season with a 33-17 win in front of
6,371 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“I think this game was a wake-up call,” said Tiger linebacker Danny Robinson, whose fourth-quarter
interception helped set up Massillon’s final score. “I think we were taking them lightly at the beginning. The
second half, we turned it on, and that’s how we have to play the rest of the playoffs.”

Next up for Massillon, which is now 9-2, is a regional semifinal Friday night against top-seeded Highland at a
site to be announced Sunday. The Hornets improved to 11-0 by beating Avon Lake in a first-round matchup.
But it was a while before the Tigers could start thinking about next week. First, they had to take care of a
Nordonia team that had plenty of experience back from last year’s team, which had suffered a 63-34 loss to
Massillon in the Division I playoffs.

Massillon had its own pair of adversaries in the first half, which ended with the Tigers leading 16-14. One was
an injury bug that left the Tigers shuffling players around on the offensive line, which lost Ronnie Humphrey to
a leg injury while playing without center Nathaniel Devers due to illness.

“We handled some adversity,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “We had Ronnie go down; Nate’s sick. So, I’m
just really proud of our guys and that depth that came in and played on that offensive line. I was proud of them.”
The second adversity was some miscues that opened the door for the Knights to twice hold leads. The first, after
the Tigers netted minus-3 yards on a first-drive punt, resulted in Nordonia taking a 7-0 lead when David Murray
hit Alex Alders in stride for a 31-yard touchdown.

The second came after the Knights jarred the ball loose after a Massillon completion for a fumble. Alders
picked it up and ran it back 25 yards to give Nordonia a 14-13 lead 4:55 left in the half.

Those two scores, though, were basically all the Tigers allowed Nordonia’s explosive offense to get. Massillon
limited the Knights to 232 total yards, the second-lowest four-quarter yardage total for the Knights this season,
while they were only 18-of-42 passing for 145 yards.

The Tigers also forced three Knights turnovers in the game, including a pair of interceptions in the second half.
Two of those turnovers ended up turning into points — a fumble that led to Andrew David’s 29-yard field goal
with 1:06 left in the half for a 16-14 lead; and Robinson’s pick that was turned into a J.D. Crabtree’s second
touchdown run for a 33-14 lead with 11:19 remaining.

“We prided ourselves on our defense the whole year,” Massillon linebacker Devon Ingram said. “We knew we
just had to come out and play Massillon ‘D’ like we usually do. We knew we’d be all right.”

It also didn’t hurt the Tigers one bit that, even with all the line shuffling, Lyron Wilson continued his torrid end
of the season. One week after gaining a combined 289 yards against St. Vincent-St. Mary and McKinley, the
senior rushed for 149 yards against Nordonia.

Crabtree added 89 yards and a pair of second-half touchdowns for the Tigers.

“We continued to run the ball,” said Wilson, who gave Massillon a 13-7 second-quarter lead with a 1-yard run.
“We continued to run the ball well. A big shout-out to the ‘O’ linemen, because they helped us do it.”

And what the Tigers did was once again move past Nordonia and into the second round of the playoffs

GAME STATS