1946: Massillon 35, Dayton Chaminade 12

Tigers Pluck Feathers Of Chaminade Eagles 35-12
Massillon Gridders Find Caliber Of Dayton High Football Isn’t Too Tough

By LUTHER EMERY

The Dayton Chaminade Eagles which had expected to roost this year on the state high school throne, was a featherless bird today, fully aware that its flight to Massillon Friday evening was a sorry mistake.

The ambitious Eagle had its feather picked by a mightier Tiger to the tune of 35-12 while a near capacity crowd of 18,000 fans looked on.
String of Victories Snapped
The Eagle had flown from it’s nest into strange territory and had paid the penalty for it
— the loss of any opportunity to claim the state title and the end of a long winning streak of 16 consecutive games.

Dayton schools are not playing the same type of football that is played in northern Ohio, and Chaminade now knows it. Chamindae was perhaps, the poorest team the Tigers have met this year. Either that, or Massillon was sharper than it has been in other games.

We would like to think the latter true, and feel convinced that the Massillon eleven did show an improved brand of football over previous performances in past weeks, but we also believe that most any opponent the Tigers have faced this year, could have beaten Chaminade last night.

The Massillon eleven appeared sharper on the attack, especially in the take off on the line which beat the Dayton forwards to the jump most of the time and opened the way for two blocked punts, one of which led to a safety and the other to a touchdown.

Give the linemen the credit. Though badly bruised from wing to wing as a result of bumps received in games the past weeks, they refused to baby their bruises and out charged their visiting opponents from start to finish.

The ball carriers did their part too, but it was the long, accurate passes of Dan Byelene that produced three of the touchdowns including the most sensational one of the day, a 35-yard peg to Gene Zorger, who caught the ball on the 25-yard line and hot-footed it the rest of the way across the Chaminade goal.
Five times the local team crossed the Dayton goal line and twice the Eagles flew into Massillon pay dirt. The first Chaminade score was wrapped in three sheets of tissue paper. The first was on a first down awarded the visitors when the ball was actually a yard and a half short of a first down. The second was a Massillon player’s muff of a Dayton pass with an open field ahead of him. The third was the fact that the Eagles scored with only 10 seconds remaining of the half. It seemed as though the visitors were pre-destined to get that one, and it looked big until the Tigers began pouring more points on their own score in the second half.

The officials later admitted they had erred on the first down play. What had happened was this: Ralph Fleischman, after catching a pass from quarterback Bill Hoban, was thrown out of bounds on the Tiger 34 yard line and one line carrier pulled the stick back from the sideline to keep Fleischman from hitting it and possibly hurting himself. An official saw the stick, and not noticing it had not been returned to the line though Fleischman had made his yards and awarded a first down. Otherwise it would have been fourth down, and Chaminade would have been faced with the decision of punting or running another play.

The decision furnished the cause for the big boo that was heard between halves. It was not intentional but an oversight that could have been costly in a close game.

The game was a whole was held in control, at all times by the officials when it easily could have gotten out of their hands. While the visiting fans took their defeat gracefully, flashes of temper on the playing field resulted in two Dayton players being expelled from the game for unnecessary roughness.

When it appeared that the boys might try boxing instead of football, Coach “Bud” Houghton yanked his first stringers and sent in his second team to finish most of the game.

This was the fist time this season that the first stringers were able to gain the rest they need so badly, and it should do them good, as well as provide the second team with needed experience. In fact the third team finished the game as Houghton cleared the bench of all players.

It was because of this fact that Chamiade statistically does not appear as many as 23 points inferior to the Tigers.

The Dayton gridders scored one of their touchdowns and a lot of first downs while the second team was in the game, but the latter, by pushing the ball over in the fourth period, managed to keep on a par in points.

Statistically, each team made nine first downs and Massillon gained a net total of 283 yards to Chaminade’s 214.

Of the yards gained by Massillon, 104 came on pass plays, while Dayton gained 116 yards on passes.

The local team’s passing attack was sharper than usual, as you can judge by its completion of five of nine passes, three of them for touchdowns. Byelene was even hurried on some of his throw.

That too was Hoban’s chief difficulty. He had little time in which to pick out his receivers and get the ball away. Given a little more time he could be a deadly passer.

It was evident from the opening kickoff, however, that Dayton had stepped out of its own backyard and “into the major leagues,” as one of its city’s sports writers wrote.

Several thousand Chaminade fans, who had traveled by special train or driven to Massillon for the game saw the Tigers rip their team apart from the start.

Had Dan Byelene been a little faster, he would have gotten away for the works on the first kickoff. His teammates had cleared the alley for him, but one Dayton tackler managed to sneak in and drop him. Only two plays later Zorger got loose for a dash to the Dayton 25, where he was tackled by Hoban, the Chaminade safety man.

The touchdown opportunity was lost on downs on the 18-yard line, however. Dayton’s offensive weakness was revealed on the next series of plays when it was thrown back to the eight-yard line in three ball carrying attempts. When Jack Schneider, crack fullback, attempted to punt on the fourth down, Tom Brooks broke through and blocked the ball as hard that it rolled into and out of the end zone for an automatic safety. That put Massillon ahead 2-0 and that was the score at the end of the first period.

The Tigers scored their first touchdown with a 64-yard march that ended with Giloff tossing on fourth down to Jack Zeller in the end zone for 22 yards. Zeller dropped a pass from Byelene for the extra point.
An Easy One
Dayton received, and two plays after the kickoff Hoban fumbled while trying to pass and Jim Young was Johnny on the spot to cover the ball on the Dayton 26. Zorger and Giloff moved it down to the one-yard line and Zorger took it over, only to have the ball called back because Massillon was offside. That didn’t stop the local drive however, for on third down Byelene tossed to Zeller for a touchdown and this time Al Brown came in and kicked the extra point. That swelled the score to 15-0.

Chaminade had courage still, however, and came right back from the kickoff to move the ball on a series of passes to the Tiger 31, where Hoban passed to Ralph Fleischman in the end zone for a touchdown. Schneider then tried to kick the extra point but it was wide of the uprights and the half ended 10 seconds later.

The third period was only a couple of minutes old when Brooks broke through to block another of Schneider’s punts and recover the ball on the two-yard line. Byelene legged it across on second down, but Brown’s attempted placekick was wide.

Chaminade marched right back with the next kickoff to the Tiger 36, where Giloff gathered in one of Hoban’s passes and got back to his own 40. On the very first play, Byelene caught the Dayton secondary in close and fired a long pass to Zorger who ran for a touchdown. Paul Cary, who hasn’t seen any action since the Canton Lincoln game last September, went in and kicked the extra point from placement.

That made the score 28-6 and that’s where it stood at the end of the third quarter.

Came the fourth quarter and Coach Houghton sent in a second team. The kids responded by shoving over a touchdown with Ben Roderick toting the leather from the two-yard line. A 15-yard penalty on Dayton for unnecessary roughness put the ball there. Cary again kicked the extra point and boosted the score to 35-6.

Chaminade took the following kickoff and made touchdown scoring look easy as Bernie Faulkner sub halfback ran from his 24 to the Massillon 44 before John Badarnza closed in and hauled him down. Otherwise he would have gone for a touchdown. But Dayton got it anyway, for Dan Fulwiler moved the ball 12 more yards nearer the goal and Hoban tossed to Larry Zugelder for a first on the 18 and then repeated with a peg to Tom Zimmerman for a touchdown. Schneider’s kick was low and the score stood at 35-12; neither team threatened the rest of the game and the Tiger third stringers finished out the last two minutes.

The victory should add considerable prestige to the Tigers in the weekly football poll for Chaminade in some pools had been ranked at the top of the scholastic standing and was among the leaders in all of them.

Toledo Waite’s 31-7 triumph over Mansfield last night, however, will keep the Toledo boys near the top and their game with Massillon here next Friday night will have an even greater influence on the scholastic standings than last night’s clash with Chaminade.

Good Hunting
Massillon Pos. Chaminade
Zeller LE Kremer
Young LT Kramer
Uliveto LG Hemmelgarn
Darrah C Stachler
Brooks RG Meineke
Dowd RT Smith
Eberhardt RE Zimmerman
Byelene QB Hoban
Giloff LH Fulwiler
Zorger RH Zugelder
Yost FB Schneider

Score by periods
Massillon 2 13 13 7 – 35
Chaminade 0 6 0 6 – 12

Substitutions:
Massillon – Brown, qb; Schludecker, re; Takacs, fb; Ellison, rh; Hill, lh; Pedrotty, fb; Johnson, le; Ceckler, t; Cary, qb; Angstadt, g; Morrow, e; Ebert, g; McVay, c; Edie, t; Paul, g; Bush, qb; Houston, t; Roderick, lh; Williams, t; W. Krisher, c; Bishop, re; Badarnza, fh; Farris, b.
Chaminade – Krug, le; Koepnick, fb; Russell, g; Bolton, t; Angerer, g; Bulpin, hb; T. Zimmerman, hb; Faulkner, hb; Stachler, c; Fleischman, re; Schamel, le.

Touchdowns:
Massillon – Zeller 2; Byelene; Zorger; Roderick.
Chaminade – Fleischman; Zimmerman.

Points after touchdown:
Massillon – Brown (placekick); Cary 2 (placekick).

Safety – Massillon.

Referee – Slutz.
Umpire – Boone.
Head Linesman – Jenkins.
Field Judge – Long

Statistics
Mass. Dayton
First downs 9 9
Passes attempted 9 22
Passes completed 5 9
Had passes intercepted 0 6
Yards gained passing 104 116
Yards gained rushing 299 120
Total yards gained 303 236
Yards lost 20 22
Net yards gained 283 214
Times punted 2 3
Punts blocked 0 2
Average punts (yards) 36 16
Punts returned (yards) 9 24
Times kicked off 6 4
Average kickoff (yards) 45 47
Kickoffs returned (yards) 85 93
Fumbles 8 2
Lost ball on fumbles 2 2
Times penalized 2 6
Yards penalized 25 50

Massillon Tigers
No. Name Pos. No. Name Pos.
10 Yost, G. FB 52 Ebert, Pat G
11 Uliveto, T. LG 54 McVay, J. C
15 Takacs, M. FB 55 Byelene, D. QB
22 Zeller, J. LE 57 Krisher, W. C
22 Houston, J. T 65 Zorger, G. RH
25 Young, J. LT 66 Edie, W. T
28 Hill, J. HB 66 Paul, W. G
28 Ellison, H. HB 67 Bush, E. QB
30 Schludecker, G. E 72 Kutz, S. T
33 Pedrotty, J. HB 75 Roderick, B. HB
35 Brown, A. QB 76 Williams, R. T
36 Johnson, E. E 77 Giloff, A. LH
37 Ceckler, W. T 81 Dowd, Dave C
40 Krisher, G. RT 85 Schumacher, L. G
42 Wittman, J. T 87 Bishop, Jim RE
44 Cary, P. QB 88 Badarnza, J. HB
45 Eberhardt, M. E 95 Farris, E. FB
47 Angstadt, R. G 98 Brooks, Tom RG
50 Darrah, Merle C James, A. HB
51 Morrow, William E Pizzino, Tony T

Merle Darrah