Tag: <span>Dante Booker</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2013: Massillon 23, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary 28

AGAINST A WALL
Turnovers costly as Tigers forced to regroup with playoff lives on the line against McKinley

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON Massillon once again found itself in a deficit against an elite football team. And once again, the Tigers found themselves fighting in the fourth quarter with an opportunity to come all the way back.

And once again, that early hole proved to be too much as the Tigers suffered a 28-23 setback to the top-ranked Division III team in the state, St. Vincent-St. Mary, on Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The Tigers found themselves in a 21-3 first-half hole thanks to four turnovers, three of which led to touchdowns for the reigning Division III state champion Irish.

Still, Massillon pulled to within 28-23 with 6:03 remaining on a Marcus Whitfield touchdown catch. But they never got a final opportunity to go for a winning drive as the the Irish chewed up the remainder of the clock.

“As a team, we just can’t do that,” a dejected Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “We gave up a fumble for a touchdown. We had two muffed punts. It’s just mental mistakes in the first half. … We couldn’t score from the 1. We’ve got to play better next week.”

The Tigers have no choice in that matter, whether it was archrival McKinley or somebody else next week. At 7-2, they likely need to beat the Bulldogs – who are 9-0 – on Saturday at Fawcett Stadium in order to qualify for the playoffs in Division II Region 2.

“They might need to dwell on it for about 24 hours,” Hall said. “We get an extra day. It’s definitely do-or-die. As a team, coaches and players, we have to do a better job. We can’t wait until the middle of the third quarter. We can’t kill ourselves with turnovers.”

In both losses, Massillon put itself behind the eight-ball. In Week 7, the Tigers battled back from a double-digit deficit at Austintown Fitch to close to within three points late in the fourth.

Both times, the Tigers couldnt’ finish the deal. The clock ran out at Fitch, while the Irish marched down the field during the last six-plus minutes.

Newman Williams picked up a big eight yards on third-and-3 from the Tigers 34. Then, with just less than two minutes left, he gained seven yards on fourth-and-2 to close things out.

“I knew in my mind we had to get that,” said Williams, who scored a pair of touchdowns and gained 56 yards on 10 carries. “I was going to try my hardest to do whatever I could to get that.”

The very first play set the tone for the Tigers, as Nathan Bischoff intercepted a deep pass for the Irish. That one wouldn’t hurt Massillon, as St. Vincent-St. Mary missed a 32-yard field goal.

But when the Tigers fumbled on their next possession, the Irish cashed in. Three plays and 25 yards later, Williams scored from 6 yards out for a 7-0 St. Vincent-St. Mary lead.

A muffed punt by Massillon set up Williams’ second scoring run, a 2-yarder with 7:49 left in the half to give the Irish a 14-3 lead. That lead grew to 21-3 when Dante Booker picked up a fumble and returned it 71 yards for a touchdown with 4:20 remaining.

“Defensively, we’ve created a ton of turnovers,” St. Vincent-St. Mary coach Dan Boarman said. “That’s really helped us out.”

Booker’s fumble return took the momentum away from Massillon after the Tigers got an interception by Reggie Rogers three plays before. Rogers, though, helped the Tigers take a 21-10 deficit at halftime when he pulled in a 19-yard pass with 15 seconds left in the back of the end zone.

After the Irish took a 28-10 lead out of the intermission with an eight-play, 71-yard scoring drive, Massillon began to wrest control of the momentum. Lyron Wilson’s 16-yard run with 2:02 left in the third pulled the Tigers to within 28-17.

Wilson finished with 105 yards on 21 carries.

The Tigers, who were stopped on fourth-and-goal from the Irish 3 with 5:29 remaining in the third quarter, outgained the Irish 304-239.

“The big negatives out-weighed a lot of positives,” Hall said. “We just have to look at that. It’s going to click for us, and hopefully it translates into a win next week.”

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