Tag: <span>Fawcett Stadium</span>

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2013: Massillon 34, Canton McKinley 7

Blocked kick changes momentum
Massillon’s Dailey returns it for huge TD vs. McKinley

BY CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

CANTON McKinley was poised to get the momentum during Saturday’s 124th meeting against Massillon at Fawcett Stadium.

The Bulldogs, despite a one-touchdown deficit, were lining up for a half-ending field goal. They also were in line to get the opening kickoff of the second half as well, which could have completely altered the look of the game.

In one of the most bizarre plays in the series’ history, Massillon took the momentum back from McKinley when Alex Dailey returned a blocked field goal 45 yards for a touchdown. And the Tigers would never let it go in rolling to a 34-7 win.

“That’s something we work on, our special teams,” Massillon head coach Jason Hall said. “Anybody who comes to our practices, the first 30 minutes of the day is just special teams. From blocking to scooping and all that, it’s all built. Not quite rolling around, ball bouncing around like that, but we work it.”

The Tigers were looking at, at best, a 7-0 halftime lead before the field-goal try on a fourth-and 2 from their 20. Instead, Bailey’s return gave Massillon a 14-0 advantage, a multiscore margin it maintained the rest of the way.

“It’s a great feeling, but I’ve got to owe it all to Marcus Whitfield for making the block and Malik Dudley for keeping the play alive,” Dailey said. “He could’ve picked it up, and he probably would’ve been tackled. Instead, he laid a block for another teammate to get it, and their guys just tried to pick it up. In the end, I just ended up with it.”

The sequence all started with the block. With the Bulldogs lining up for the 37-yard field goal try, Whitfield swooped in and got the kick almost before it got airborne.

“It was just a presnap thing,” Whitfield said. “This whole game, I was just wanting to go (all out). That was just one of those things, just a big effort and heart play.”

Things began to get crazy as the ball rolled toward midfield. For a moment, it seemed as if both teams froze, thinking it was a dead ball as would be the case on a blocked point-after touchdown try.

Then, both teams began the wild chase to get the loose pigskin. Massillon’s players were trying to pick the ball up to score. McKinley’s players, instead of just falling on it to lull the half, also seemed to be trying to make a play on the ball.

Dudley and Nathaniel Devers – like Dailey and Whitfield, Tiger captains – both picked up key blocks to keep Bulldog players from getting the ball. Dailey finally got his hands on it, avoided touching his knee to the ground before gaining total balance and racing to the end zone.

“It just uplifted everybody’s spirits,” Devers said. “It was just a (heck) of a play.”

The sequence had a negative impact on the Bulldogs. They would get no points there, then went three-and-out coming out of halftime.

“From an emotional standpoint, it was bigger than the points,” McKinley head coach Todd Filtz said. “That was a devastating blow that we had to recover from.”

And one McKinley never could recover from.

GAME STATS

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2011: Massillon 20, Canton McKinley 23

Nine seconds changes everything for Massillon

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

The offseason arrived early for the Massillon Tigers. That‟s because the McKinley Bulldogs scored late in Saturday‟s showdown at Fawcett Stadium.

When Alex Winters scored on a 43-yard touchdown run with 1:13 remaining, it seemed to give the Tigers the win, as well as their fourth straight playoff berth. Except that the Bulldogs had an answer, and marched down to get a 4-yard Tyler Foster touchdown run to give them a 23-20 win.

“That was an emotional game,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after his team concluded a 7-3 season. “You‟re up, you‟re down. Both teams had to handle adversity. I guess from a fan‟s perspective, it‟s everything you‟d want from a rivalry game.”

Except, of course, for the Tigers, a win. And because of that, there won‟t be an 11th game for Massillon.

The last time the Tigers weren‟t playoff participants, it was 2007. And the final score of the Tigers-Bulldogs showdown that day — also in Canton — was 23-20.

Only that one was a Tiger win, in overtime. On this day, the three-point margin favored the Bulldogs.

And because of that, it will be McKinley, and not Massillon, heading to this weekend‟s first round of the playoffs.

“It feels great,” said McKinley safety Ruben Burrows, whose last-play interception sealed the game. “It‟s great. They‟re our rivals. Any time you can stop a rival from doing anything, it‟s amazing.”

The thing was, it could have just as easily been a Tiger player saying the same thing as Burrows was after the game. That‟s because it seemed as if both teams had their chances to be the one ringing the Victory Bell.

Massillon twice took the lead in the fourth quarter. The first came just 36 seconds into the quarter when Tre Hendricks caught a 28-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Kempt to give the Tigers a 14-10 lead.

The second came when Winters ripped off his 43-yard run with just 73 seconds remaining. That put Massillon in front 20-16.

“I thought our kids played tough on both sides of the ball,” Hall said.

The only problem for the Tigers on this day was that McKinley just seemed to have an answer every time. And it wasn‟t the answer Massillon wanted to hear.

So, just before 5 on Saturday afternoon, the Tigers found themselves somewhere they haven‟t been under Hall. That‟s left with nowhere to go after the McKinley game but into the offseason.

For some Tiger players, the reaction was tears. Others reacted with blank stares. Yet others tried to help console their distraught teammates, left with nothing but memories for 2011.

All because the final momentum swing in a game full of them went McKinley‟s way. And it swung Massillon into an offseason that arrived all too early for its taste.

McKinley scores in final minute to top Massillon

Chris Easterling
Chris.Easterling@IndeOnline.com

CANTON A minute-and-a-half can be an eternity in the game of football. It certainly was Saturday afternoon at Fawcett Stadium as Massillon and McKinley met for the 121st time in their storied history, and it ended up costing the Tigers a trip to the playoffs.

In that time span, the Tigers appeared to secure their first regular-season win over the Bulldogs since 2008.

Except that, they didn‟t, as McKinley managed to wrest the Victory Bell back to their side — along with a playoff berth — with a heart-pounding 23-20 win.

Massillon took a 20-16 lead with 1:13 remaining when Alex Winters tore off a 43-yard scoring run. However, Tyler Foster capped a five-play, 74-yard drive with a 4-yard run with nine seconds remaining to put McKinley head for good.

“We had 1:13,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said after his team finished the season 7-3. “We just had to play defense. Unfortunately in a crucial situation, we missed tackles, got a personal foul penalty. … They had a good play call to what we were running.”

Foster‟s go-ahead score was set up by a 41-yard catch-and-run by Jeff Richardson on the second play of the Bulldog drive. Richardson caught an out pattern, then turned upfield, breaking a tackle before finally being dragged down at the Tiger 19.

Massillon, though, was flagged for a personal foul at the end of the play, moving the ball to the Tiger 8.

“I just had to make a big play,” said Richardson, whose five-play, 82-yard receiving day also included a second-quarter touchdown as well. “I saw the corner bite on the pass. He tried to tackle me, and I ran through the tackle and ran up field.”

The frenetic finish was just part of a back-and-forth fourth quarter between the two rivals, one in which each team took the lead twice. Such a finish couldn‟t have been pictured at halftime, when the teams were tied at 7-7.

Ultimately, though, the only lead that mattered came when the scoreboard clock hit 0:00. And that lead belonged to McKinley, which had entered the fourth leading 10-7.

“We were just going up and down the field going, „You‟ve just got to believe,‟” said McKinley coach Ron Johnson, whose team will take an 8-2 record into the playoffs, while he improved his own personal mark against the Tigers to 3-2 while at McKinley. “Our kids did not doubt.”

Massillon took its first lead of the game on its second offensive play of the fourth quarter, when Kyle Kempt hit a wide-open Tre Hendricks for a 28-yard touchdown to give the Tigers a 14-10 lead at the 11:14 mark of the fourth. It was the second wide-open 28-yard scoring pass Kempt threw in the game, as he also hit Winters on one to tie the game at 7-7 in the second quarter.

Kempt was 10-of-18 for 149 yards with two scores and one interception.

“They were playing man defense,” Hall said of the two Tiger touchdown passes. “When you do hit the middle of the field, there‟s no one there. It‟s a track meet. Those two plays, that‟s what it boiled down to.”

McKinley answered with a scoring drive of its own, marching 63 yards in 10 plays to lead 16-14 on a Foster-to-Terrance Burt 5-yard pass at the 7:27 mark of the fourth. The score came on a fourth-down play.

Foster finished 13-of-20 for 144 yards with two TDs and an interception.

“He manages the game well,” Hall said of Foster. “He doesn‟t turn the ball over. For the most part, he had a game-winning drive there and he threw some crucial balls there for big plays.”

The Tigers needed their own fourth-down conversion on what they thought was their winning drive. Facing fourth-and-2 from their own 42, Kempt hit Ernie Baez on a crossing pattern for a 15-yard gain to the McKinley 43.

“We just ran what we call a whip route — misdirection route — to their man coverage,” Hall said. “Ernie got enough space to get open.”

On the next play, Winters ran through the McKinley defense as if it had been parted like the Red Sea. By the time Winters crossed the goal line, the orange-clad faithful in the stands were in a delirium, thinking the Victory Bell was coming back to Massillon.

Instead, it was merely the prelude to one final swing of momentum, one that left those in red and black, and not orange and black, savoring a win on this afternoon.

GAME STATS

History

2009: Massillon 10, Twinsburg 7

Geier’s kick lifts Massillon past Twinsburg

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

CANTON, OH – It was as good a time as any for Jeremy Geier to attempt – and hit – the longest field goal of his two-year Massillon Tiger career.

With the score tied and 28 seconds showing on the clock Saturday night, Geier connected on a 40-yard field goal to lift Massillon past Twinsburg 10-7 in a Division I regional semifinal in front of 7,621 fans at Fawcett Stadium.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Geier, whose previous career long – both for an attempted and a made field goal – was 39 yards. “That was awesome.”

The win sends Massillon, now 9-3, to the regional championship game for the first time since 2005. Standing in the Tigers’ path is archrival McKinley, which is 8-4 after routing GlenOak 48-7 earlier Saturday afternoon at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

The fifth playoff meeting between the two rivals will be held at the University of Akron’s new InfoCision Stadium. The previous four playoff meetings were all at the Rubber Bowl. It wasn’t nearly as easy for the Tigers to earn their rematch with the Bulldogs, who won the regular-season meeting 35-21 at Fawcett Stadium. In fact, Massillon found itself in a dogfight with another group of Tigers – these from Twinsburg – for almost 48 solid minutes.

“I can’t say enough about the character of this team and the way they handle adversity,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “They never give up. You think they’re down, and they just keep fighting. It’s a bunch of fighters. I’m just proud of these kids. I’m happy to be a small part of it.”

The only scoring prior to Geier’s field goal was a touchdown pass for each team. Twinsburg’s came on a 38-yard screen pass from Andrew Collier to Dion Johnson with 3:39 left in the first half for a 7-0 lead, while Massillon matched that with a 41-yard strike from Robert Partridge to Devin Smith with 8:46 remaining in the third quarter.
While both teams’ touchdowns came through the air, it was the running games for both which really set the tone. Twinsburg rushed for 216 yards, while Massillon gained 140 on the ground.

For Massillon, much of that rushing total came in the second half, when it made a concerted effort to utilize its size advantage up front with a variety of unbalanced looks to pound the ball against Twinsburg. The biggest benefactor was Jake Reiman, who had 19 of his game-high 26 carries and 78 of his game – and career – high 125 yards in the second half.

“I couldn’t have done it without my line or my fullback,” Reiman said. “They block their (butts) off today. … I’m just glad I got my opportunity and I’m trying to do the best I can with it.”

Both teams had plenty of chances to add to their totals. All eight of Massillon’s possessions in the game had at least two snaps on Twinsburg’s side of the 50, including a pair of drives – beyond the Tigers’ two scoring drives – which moved inside the Twinsburg 30.

But Massillon turned the ball over three times on Twinsburg’s side of the field, including a pair of interceptions, one of which came in the end zone.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Hall said. “It was not pretty. We made mistakes and I said it at halftime, we were killing ourselves. It wasn’t like they were smashing us at the line with a lot of negative plays. We killed ourselves.”

Twinsburg had its chances as well. The Summit County edition of the Tigers had seven of their nine possessions reach the Massillon side of the field, including three drives inside the Massillon 30.

Two of those drives were turned away by fourth-down stands by Massillon, and another was squelched when Bo Grunder got the first of his two interceptions on the night. Grunder also put the final nail in the Twinsburg coffin with a pick with 17 seconds left.

Twinsburg also had an 83-yard touchdown pass late in the first half negated by a holding penalty.

“This is the same problem we had last year against Hoover (in the second round of the playoffs),” said Twinsburg coach Mark Solis, whose team bows out in the second round for the second straight year, this time at 10-2. “I have to go back and work my (butt) off as a coach and figure it out. We have to do a better job when we get down in the red zone. What it is, when we get down there and people put pressure on us, we don’t handle it
well.”

GAME STATS

Massillon 10
Twinsburg 7

Massillon 00 00 07 03 10
Twinsburg 00 07 00 00 07

SCORING SUMMARY
T – Johnson 38 pass from Collier (Russell kick)
M – Smith 41 pass from Partridge (Geier kick)
M – FG Geier 40

Mas Twi
First downs 20 17
Rushes-yards 34-140 37-216
Comp-Att-Int 13-27-2 12-22-2
Passing yards 226 132
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-0
Penalty yards 7-48 6-50
Records 9-3 10-2
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 26-125; Nalbach 3-14.
Twinsburg – Nero 7-95; Johnson 15-65; Collier 12-43; Hiller 3-
13.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 13-27-226 TD, 2 INTs.
Twinsburg – Collier 12-22-132 TD, 2 INTs.
Receiving:
Massillon – Olack 4-104; Smith 4-64 TD; Grunder 4-41; Allman 1-
17.
Twinsburg – Johnson 3-56 TD; Comar 3-30; Nero 3-24; Grant 2-16;
Francisco 1-6.

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2009: Massillon 21, Canton McKinley 35

Bulldogs’ big plays take down Tigers

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

Massillon came into Saturday afternoon’s game against archrival McKinley as the team boasting the big-play ability. But it was the Bulldogs who seemed to make the biggest plays when needed in the 118th meeting between the two storied programs.

And those big plays – be it on offense, defense or special teams – proved to be the difference as McKinley snapped a four-game losing streak to the Tigers with a 35-21 victory over Massillon in front of 15,555 at Fawcett Stadium Saturday afternoon.

McKinley had three touchdowns of 25 yards or more in the game. None of the Tigers’ three scoring plays were by more than two yards.

“They made a lot of big plays,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said. “You have to take your hat off to them. They really made some big plays, just too many for us to recover from.”

The Tigers now head into the playoffs with a 7-3 record. Massillon will be hosting a first-round game next Saturday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, likely against Hoover, the same team which beat the Tigers in the first round last year in North Canton.

McKinley, meanwhile, likely earned a trip to the playoffs with its first two-game win streak of the season. The Bulldogs, who are now 6-4, are expected to head to Toledo to meet Whitmer next weekend.

The Bulldogs set the big-play tone on their third play after a missed Tiger field goal, as quarterback Kyle Ohradzansky hit Angelo Powell on a post pattern for a 66-yard touchdown pass with 5:09 left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead after the point-after try.

“It really got the nerves off our shoulders,” said Ohradzansky, who was 7-of-10 for 136 yards with a pair of touchdowns to Powell. “They shut us out last year 17-0. So when we come out and score right away, it gave our guys a real sense of confidence, like ‘Hey, we can score on these guys and we can do it really, really fast.”

Ohradzansky would add a 1-yard plunge for a 14-0 Bulldog lead 1:36 into the second quarter. But the Tigers would come back with a 1-yard Jake Reiman plunge to cut it to 14-7 with 3:46 left in the half.

Reiman, who finished with 50 yards on 16 carries and three scores, came into the game after Alex Winters suffered an apparent knee injury on the first play of the Tigers’ second possession. That’s when McKinley would get big play No. 2, and maybe the biggest play of the game.

Taron Montgomery would take the subsequent kickoff at McKinley 2, run straight ahead, cut to the left and then took off. He wouldn’t be touched until he was tackled well after crossing the goal line by a Massillon player, but the score stood and the Bulldog lead was 14 again at 21-7 with 3:33 left until halftime.

“It’s a momentum swing,” said Hall, whose team trailed 21-14 at halftime. “In big games, special teams a lot of times are the factor. That was a big play for them.” Massillon offense reached McKinley’s territory on all nine
possessions of the game. But the Tigers were turned away on five trips inside the Bulldog 35, once on a missed field goal, another on an interception on their second drive, twice on downs and a final time when time expired in the game.

“We were just relentless,” McKinley defensive lineman Jamaal McClain said. “We went through practice all week talking about going hard. … We just wanted to play hard and relentless. That’s all we did. We were just focused and ready to play.”

Both of the turnovers on down came in the third quarter after McKinley moved ahead 28-21 on Ohradzansky’s second touchdown pass of the game. The first came from the Bulldog 24 on fourthand-10, the second from the McKinley 17 on a fourth-and-8.

“Sometimes in these big games, we were down and trying to get momentum back,” Hall said. “You don’t know when you’re going to get back again. We tried one early and we didn’t hit. We just decided we were in that tweener area. A couple times they made plays and a couple times that’s when we got scores.”

Massillon seemed to have a chance with just under six minutes remaining after Reiman’s third scoring run – a 2-yard run – cut it to 28-21. But McKinley answered, as Bryce Wilder ripped off a 25-yard touchdown run with 1:17 left to cap a nine-play, 81-yard drive.

Wilder finished with 119 yards on 17 carries. “Bryce Wilder and Elijah Farrakhan, unbelievable,” McKinley
coach Ron Johnson said. “They took care of the football. They squeezed it up and they made plays.”

And plays – big ones – were the reason why the Bulldogs were the ones celebrating with the Victory Bell on Saturday afternoon.

GAME STATS

McKinley 35
Massillon 21

Massillon 00 14 00 07 21
McKinley 07 14 07 07 35

SCORING SUMMARY
McK – Powell 66 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)
McK – Ohradzansky 1 run (Forsythe kick)
Mas – Reiman 1 run (Geier kick)
McK – Montgomery 92 kickoff return (Forsythe kick)
Mas – Reiman 1 run (Geier kick)
McK – Powell 5 pass from Ohradzansky (Forsythe kick)
Mas – Reiman 2 run (Geier kick)
McK – Wilder 25 run (Forsythe kick)
Mas McK
First downs 18 15
Rushes-yards 33-127 42-228
Comp-Att-Int 13-34-1 7-10-0
Passing yards 235 136
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Penalty yards 4-50 8-64
Records 7-3 6-4
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing:
Massillon – Reiman 16-50 3 TDs; Partridge 8-48; Winters 7-26;
Robey 2-3.
McKinley – Wilder 17-119 TD; Farrakhan 12-77; Ohradzansky 11-26
TD.
Passing:
Massillon – Partridge 13-34-235 TD.
McKinley – Ohradzansky 7-10-136 2 TDs.
Receiving:
Massillon – Olack 5-107; Allman 2-41; Grunder 2-40; Reiman 2-19.
McKinley – Powell 3-83 2 TDs; Parton 2-10; Wilder 1-31; Ogletree
1-12.

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2008: Massillon 24, Jordan, UT 27

Tigers suffer controversial heartbreaker at Herbstreit

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

CANTON, OH —

It is said true character doesn’t truly show itself until it is put under adverse situations. If that is the case, then Massillon head coach Jason Hall is about to find out just what kind of character his Tiger football team has this week.

In Saturday night’s finale of the Herbstreit Challenge quadruple-header at Fawcett Stadium, Massillon suffered its first loss of the season in a most controversial fashion when Jordan (Utah) stunned the Tigers with a 36-yard field goal by Garrett Blaisdell at the end of regulation for a 27-24 win.

“Right now, it’s just hard for the Tigers to accept this loss,” Hall said after his team fell to 1-1.

“It’s a situation where I think the team’s pretty close,” Hall added. “We’re going to suck it up, let it sink in. We’re going to get right back to work. That’s part of us, coaches and adults and the people who are around these kids, to be positive role models in their support group. It’s our job to teach them how to handle situations and keep fighting. And that’s what we’ll do.”

Whether the Beetdiggers should have ever even had a chance to get the kick off is sure to raise the blood pressure of Hall, his players and those Tiger fans among the crowd at Fawcett Stadium for years to come.

Jordan moved from its own 20 – following a missed 39-yard field goal by Massillon – to the Tiger 37 in a span of 33 seconds, leaving just 12 ticks left on the clock. Beetdigger quarterback Alex Hart hit Braden Hammond for an 18-yard pass to move the ball to the Massillon 19.

And this is where things really entered the Twilight Zone.

By rule, the clock stops as the chains move for a first down. However, the clock also is supposed to be wound as soon as the ball and chains are set.

It appeared when the whistle blew the play down, there was one second left on the clock, leaving no time for Jordan to get the kick off. But first the officias never started the clock up initially, then put the clock at five seconds remaining, but again, didn’t start it up.

In the confusion, about 20 different players were running on and off the field as Jordan frantically tried to get the kick off. In the end, Blaisdell did get the kick away, and it was true, leaving the Tigers distraught and angry.

“I tell our kids, sometimes life’s not fair,” Hall said. “Sometimes the ball bounces your way, sometimes it doesn’t. We just have to get back to work (Sunday) and Monday and prepare to play Normandy.”

Jordan coach Alex Jacobson, amidst his jubilant players, admitted his team might have caught a break at the end.

“I don’t feel good about what happened with the clock at the end of the game,” Jacobson said. “I felt like we should have been playing for overtime. I’m man enough to admit it.”

The end-of-the-game fiasco wasn’t the only time an official’s call left the Tigers scratching their heads and altered the complexion of the game.

With just under eight minutes remaining and the Tigers leading 24-21, Michael Clark threw a pass to an open receiver. At about the same time the ball hit the receiver’s hands, he was hit by the defender.

The hit jarred the ball loose at the Massillon 31, with a Jordan player falling on it. The official closest ruled it immediately as a fumble, although the Tiger sidelines vehemently argued the receiver had never actually gained possession before the ball came loose.

Nevertheless, the call stood, and five plays later, Blaisdell kicked a 32-yard field goal to tie the game at 24-all with 5:48 remaining.

“They just said he had the catch,” Hall said. “Catch, hit, fumble. They said he had possession of the ball.”

The fourth-quarter officiating controversies left a black mark on what was easily the most entertaining of the four games at Fawcett on Saturday, the closest of which beforehand had been a pair of 21-point games.

Neither team was able to get more than a seven-point lead at any point in the game, with Jordan’s spread offense helping it to first-half leads of 7-0 and 14-7.

The Beetdiggers were able to hurt Massillon throughout the game by running crossing patterns, which Hart would feed the ball to for big gainers. Hart finished with 294 yards on 31-of-42 passing.

“The crossing routes were big, weren’t they,” Jacobson said. “It kept drives alive and we converted on third down in a big way. Anytime you can do that against a great football team, that’s big.”

Meanwhile, the Tigers also methodically ground their way down the field in response, tying the game at 7-7 on a six-yard Clark run midway through the second quarter, and then at 14-14 on a J.T. Turner one-yard plunge with 1:41 left in the first half.

Turner once again asserted himself on the ground, finishing with 128 yards on 23 carries. He had 106 yards in the second half.

“We just made a few adjustments,” Hall said. “They were really blitzing us hard, and we just started locking our guys on and running some zone iso. Pretty much try to get hat on hat and try to get J.T. to be a great athlete. I thought he ran extremely hard.”

Massillon took its first lead at 21-14 when Clark hit Robert Partridge – who was playing his first game at receiver – for a 21-yard touchdown pass with 7:25 left in the third. After Jordan tied the game at 21-21, the Tigers took their final lead when Jeremy Geier booted a 32-yard field goal 45 seconds into the fourth quarter.

And thus was set up one of the wildest – and most controversial – final 11 minutes in Tiger history.

GAME STATS

Jordan (Utah) 27,

Massillon 24

At Fawcett Stadium

Jordan 07 07 07 06 27

Massillon 00 14 07 03 24

SCORING SUMMARY

J – Hart 20 run (Blaisdell kick)

M – Clark 6 run (Geier kick)

J – Dimond 4 run (Blaisdell kick)

M – Turner 1 run (Geier kick)

M – Partridge 21 pass from Clark (Geier kick)

J – Spillman 11 run (Blaisdell kick)

M – Geier 32 FG

J – Blaisdell 32 FG

J – Blaisdell 36 FG

Jor Mas

First Downs 23 17

Rushes-Yards 30-129 42-174

Comp-Att-Int 31-42-1 8-10-1

Passing Yards 294 169

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2

Penalty Yards 70 7

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing:

Massillon

Turner 23-128 TD;

Reiman 6-29;

Clark 10-8;

Price 1-4;

Partridge 1-3;

Ivan 1-2.

Jordan

Hart 17-74 TD;

Spillman 8-41 TD;

Dimond 3-10 TD;

Hunt 1-7;

Hammond 1-(-3).

Passing:

Massillon

Clark 8-10-169 TD, INT.

Jordan

Hart 31-42-294 INT.

Receiving:

Massillon

Gaines 2-40;

Grunder 2-28;

Adkins 2-26;

Price 1-54;

Partridge 1-21 TD

Jordan

Hunt 10-79;

Hammond 7-79;

Jones 5-40;

Brown 4-52;

Spillman 4-38;

Dimond 1-6.

Records:

Massillon 1-1;

Jordan 1-1.

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2007: Massillon 23, Canton McKinley 20

Tigers work extra for win. Willoughby’s QB sneak gives Massillon victory over McKinley in OT

By CHRIS EASTERLING
The Independent

The track record wasn’t good for the Massillon Tigers. Four times in the first nine weeks of the season, they trailed in the fourth quarter. All four of those times, they ended up on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

So as the Tigers entered the fourth quarter Saturday at Fawcett Stadium looking at a 10-point deficit, they had two opponents staring back at them: history and the McKinley Bulldogs. And they decided to disregard both, sending the orange-clad portion of the 14,642 in attendance home jubilant with a 23-20 overtime victory.

It marked just the third overtime game in the 116 meetings between the rivals. The Tigers have won all three – in 1988, 1994 and Saturday.

The Tigers would not hold the lead in the game until Chris Willoughby fought his way in from a yard out in overtime to give Massillon the win and a 6-4 final record.

“When it was 17-7, we knew there were 12 minutes left in the game,” said Willoughby, who said it was his first quarterback sneak attempt since his freshman year. “We knew we still had time to come back. We had to keep together as a team and play hard and good things would happen, and it did for us.”

The good things were mostly happening for McKinley in the first three quarters, starting with an 83-yard Christian Griffin touchdown run for a 7-0 first-quarter lead. The Bulldogs seemed to have the big-play magic in the third, when Jordan Evans hit Ramon Brown for a 23-yard touchdown for a 17-7 lead with 50 seconds left in the half.

Justin Turner would begin to turn momentum in Massillon’s favor with a kickoff return to the Bulldogs 41. A McKinley personal foul penalty on the play pushed the ball closer to the goal line, at the Bulldog 26.

Buoyed by the short field, Massillon made it a one-possession game on a 5-yard DeVoe Torrence scoring run at the 10:38 mark of the fourth quarter. Torrence finished with a game-high 134 yards on 35 carries, with a pair of touchdowns.

“Boy, you’re down 17-7 over here, it didn’t look good,” said Tiger coach Tom Stacy, whose team was tied 7-7 at half. “J.T.’s kick return was big. It was really a turning point. We were able to come back from that and score, that was big.”

Massillon appeared to see its chances disappearing when it was stopped on a fourth-and-1 at the McKinley 25. But that’s when the second good thing happened for the Tigers.

Faced with third-and-9 from its own 26, McKinley attempted a short sideline pass. Tiger cornerback D.J. Spencer read the play perfectly, jumping the route and intercepting the ball at the Bulldog 31.

All of the sudden, Massillon’s hopes were resuscitated with 3:36 showing on the fourth-quarter clock.

“I felt like I had an opportunity to get it,” Spencer said. “I missed the first one down there around the 20. I seen that (the quarterback) was kind of floating the ball, so I felt like I could get it.”

Massillon would get a shot at a 37-yard field goal to tie, but was whistled for a false start as the kick was going through the uprights. Moved back to a 41-yard try, Steve Schott calmly knocked the ball through to square things at 17-all with 1:10 remaining.

“I kind of knew after I made the first one before the penalty that I wasn’t going to miss the second one,” said Schott, whose fourth-quarter field goal a year ago lifted the Tigers past McKinley. “I was kind of in the zone there. My confidence was up after making the first one. I just knew that once I got the second opportunity that it was going to be good.”

McKinley struck first in overtime, as Andrew Gage – whose 37-yarder in the third quarter gave the Bulldogs a 10-7 lead – kicked a 35-yard knuckleball for a 20-17 edge. But the Tigers came back, moving to the Bulldogs 2 when Willoughby, with a defender in his face, hit Torrence on a swing pass for a 21-yard gain.

“That play’s worked for us in the past,” Willoughby said. “Coach Stacy calls great plays. That was a great call, and it turned out good.”

Not as good as two plays later, when Willoughby plunged into the end zone and set off the Tiger celebration.

Turner’s return is ‘special’ play for Massillon

By CHRIS EASTERLING

The Massillon Tigers had just given up a big play to fall behind by 10 late in the third quarter, and all of the momentum was swinging on the side of the McKinley Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon. But as soon as the subsequent kickoff nestled into the hands of Justin Turner, the momentum shifted back more toward Massillon with each yard he picked up.

By the time he was forced out of bounds, he was at the Bulldogs 41. An extra 15 yards tacked on for a personal foul penalty against McKinley gave the Tigers the ball at the Bulldogs 26.

The Tigers would convert that drive into seven points, cutting their deficit to just three with over 10 minutes left in regulation. They would go on to force overtime, where they would prevail 23-20.

“I gave up a big play on defense and they scored off of it,” Turner said. “I wasn’t reading my keys. Then I looked at the clock and realized I had to go out and make a big play.”

That Turner did. Then again, Turner – and the rest of the Tiger kickoff return team – was doing that just about all season long.

Turner came into the game with 252 yards on seven returns, an average of 36 yards per return. As a team, the Tigers were averaging over 27 yards per return,

For much of the game up to that point, McKinley had kept Turner in check on kickoffs. The best starting field position the Tigers had until then following a Bulldog kickoff was their own 30 to start the game.

“I just had to be patient,” Turner said. “We’ve been returning kicks all year. It was just that time, I had to do it.”

While McKinley had kept Turner under wraps for much of the game, Massillon’s coaches felt like he was on the verge of getting free at least once before.

“We told him the one before, we said ‘You hit it too quick,’” Tiger special teams coordinator Jamey Palma said. “We said ‘Be patient and let you’re wall set up. Just be patient, find your seam and go.’ He just did a great job of being patient and making a big play.”

When it came time to make that big play, Turner did so. And because of that, the Tigers brought the Victory Bell back to Massillon with them after the game.

Torrence answers call for Massillon

By CHRIS EASTERLING

When DeVoe Torrence transferred from Canton South to Massillon last spring, it was for moments like the one he experienced on Saturday afternoon at Fawcett Stadium playing in the 116th edition of the Massillon-McKinley game. Once he got his chance, he wasn’t about to not capitalize on that opportunity.

Torrence gained 134 hard-fought yards on 35 carries, yards which helped the Tigers pull out a 23-20 overtime victory over the Bulldogs.

“It was wild,” Torrence said. “Just being my first time being a Massillon Tiger playing in the McKinley game, it meant a lot to me. We went out there, I stepped up, Steve Schott stepped up, I mean, we all stepped up. We just got it done.”

For all the big-name opponents Torrence faced for the first time this season, teams like St. Ignatius and Mentor, there is still nothing like the atmosphere surrounding a Massillon-McKinley game. But he wasn’t about to let that effect him.

“There were no jitters,” Torrence said. “(Tiger coach Tom) Stacy got us coached up and had us ready to play.”

The Ohio State-bound senior came into the game needing just 72 yards to top the 1,000-yard plateau. He did that by halftime, when he had 81 yards on 17 carries as the two teams went into the locker room tied at 7-7. He finished with 1,062 yards and 11 touchdowns, after scoring a pair against McKinley.

“DeVoe is just a heck of an athlete,” Tiger center Blake Seidler said. “I give him all the credit in the world. He got over that 1,000-yard mark today, so what’s that tell you.”

Torrence did so despite the fact McKinley was attempting to key on him every time he touched the ball. He only had three plays over 10 yards or more, as he had to fight – like the rest of his Tiger teammates – for just about every yard.

“DeVoe’s a warrior,” Tiger quarterback Chris Willoughby said. “He has heart and he runs the ball hard every play. He did a great job.”

Not that Torrence and the Tigers weren’t used to seeing a defense keying on the run. While the Bulldogs kept Massillon’s offense out of the end zone on all but two drives in regulation, there was little they were doing differently than what the Tigers’ nine previous opponents had been doing.

Still, Massillon was able to gain 233 yards on the ground as a team.

“It was just a case of more guys in the box,” Torrence said. “That was what teams have done all year. They’ve just put guys in the box.

“It came down to who was going to be the most physical,” Torrence added. “We felt like we showed that.”

Torrence and Willoughby burned that defensive scheme for the biggest play of the game in overtime. After Torrence had been dropped for a 3-yard loss on the Tigers’ first play from the McKinley 20, Willoughby threw a swing pass to the tailback – just ahead of the Bulldog pass rush – which turned into a 21-yard gain to the Bulldogs 2.

Two plays later, Willoughby ended the game with his game-winning touchdown plunge.

“We almost didn’t get it off,” Torrence said. “Chris, he got it up there in time. I was just thinking ‘I’ve got to catch this ball.’ I just caught it.”

And the Tigers – and Torrence – have the win to show for it.

Spencer is latest Tiger to step up in big game

By CHRIS EASTERLING

Five weeks ago, D.J. Spencer wasn’t even in the Massillon Tigers’ starting lineup. Today, he is just the latest in a long line of unlikely heroes to emerge in the ancient rivalry that is Massillon-McKinley.

With 5:15 left in regulation in Saturday’s 116th installment of the rivalry at Fawcett Stadium, things looked bleak for the Tigers. They had just given the ball back to McKinley on downs at the Bulldog 25 down by three points.

However, Spencer – a senior cornerback – jumped an out pattern on third-and-9 to get an interception at the McKinley 31. That would lead to the game-tying field goal, and Massillon went on to get the 23-20 overtime win.

“My team needed a play, and it was clutch time,” Spencer said. “We had to buckle down. Coach was telling us that that was the time and the crucial point.”

Spencer hadn’t seen a whole lot of time through the first half of the Tigers’ season, as he was behind Kevin Massey at cornerback. However, when Massey was sidelined for the Buchtel game in Week Seven due to a concussion, that opened the door for Spencer to get his chance.

The senior has more than held his own since getting the chance. He hasn’t left the starting lineup since that game, even though Massey returned to action the very next week.

“He didn’t start for us at the beginning of the year,” Tiger defensive backs coach Jamey Palma said. “I remember it was about Week Four or Five, I had a meeting with him, and I said ‘Just hang with us, you’re going to help this team.’”

And he did.

“Right after the St. Ignatius game, we started playing him a lot more. He’s played excellent. He’s going to remember that play for the rest of his life.”

Spencer is just the latest Tiger to go from relative unknown to hero because of what he did in the McKinley game.

A year ago, it was Corey Hildreth getting a blocked punt to help set up a Tiger score. In 2001, it was Craig McConnell whose interception helped to seal a hard-fought Massillon win.

In other years, it has been a Victor Redrick or a Dave Sheegog. Whoever it is, they instantly become immortalized for making a play which turned the tide in favor of the Tigers.

“We’ve got great kids with a great mentality,” Palma said. “They never quit. D.J. is one of those kids. We were down 17-7, we needed to make a play, and he has a great mentality.

“They don’t think about the negative, they’re thinking ‘Let’s make a play’ and go ahead and do it. It’s great for him. He’s a great kid, and people are going to remember him forever here.”

GAME STATS

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2005: Massillon 8, Canton McKinley 38

Showdown turns into a mauling

By DAVID HARPSTER

The Massillon Tigers undoubtedly hope their next encounter with a Federal League team ends up much better than the last.

Program Cover

Massillon qualified for the Division I, Region 2 playoffs with a 9-1 record, but it was that lone blemish – a 38-8 mauling at the hands of archrival and Federal League champ McKinley Saturday in front of 24,242 fans at Fawcett Stadium – that left the Tigers smarting.

They don’t have long to recover, though, as the Tigers will host North Canton Hoover this Saturday at 7 p.m. in a regional quarterfinal matchup. The Vikings finished in a tie for second in the Fed and qualified for the playoffs by virtue of last week’s 10-7 win over Jackson.

Massillon will have to regroup this week after the Bulldogs manhandled them in virtually every conceivable area.

“McKinley outcoached us, they outplayed us and give them all the credit,’ Massillon coach Tom Stacy said. “We knew they were good and they certainly showed it today.”

McKinley got a standout effort from junior tailback Morgan Williams, who rushed for 234 yards and four touchdowns. The 5-foot-11, 187-pounder broke off a 47-yard run – his longest of the afternoon – on McKinley’s second possession to help set the tone for the day. The play, on which McKinley caught Massillon in a blitz, took the ball to the Tigers’ 7. Williams scored on a 2-yard dive three plays later to give the Pups a lead they would never relinquish.

“We just happened to catch them in a blitz with that draw call,” McKinley coach Brian Cross said after his team wrapped up a 10-0 season. “That wasn’t really planning, it was more luck. It wasn’t like we saw something there and called it. We were just lucky. We called it at the right time and we’ve got a great tailback to give it to.”

Massillon’s offense, which entered the game averaging more than 38 points a game, was stuck in neutral most of the first half against a swarming McKinley defense. The Tigers went three-and-out on their first three series and didn’t record their initial first down until 5:33 remained in the opening half. By that time McKinley led 14-0 after quarterback Dan Grimsley hit Mark Jackson on a 21-yard scoring toss over the middle. Jackson made a splendid one-handed diving catch and landed in the end zone.

“That was a beautiful grab and we’d been trying to set that up before by cracking on the safety,” Grimsley said. “We ran a new play that we put in this week and Mark got open in the middle. He just went up and made a great play.”

The Bulldogs took the 14-0 lead into the locker room, as Williams piled up 192 of his yards in the first two quarters.

“Our line did a nice job, especially in the first half,” Cross said. ‘We kind of had Massillon guessing up front and our line really came off the ball well. Our running back was running the ball hard.”

A 32-yard punt return by Joe Morgan set up McKinley’s third score of the day, which came when Williams took a toss and found the end zone from 6 yards out to make it 21-0 McKinley with 8:40 left in the third quarter. Zach Campbell, who made all five of his extra points, nailed a 38-yard field goal three minutes later extend McKinley’s lead to 24-0.

The only offense Massillon got all afternoon came courtesy of its defense. Cornerback Troy Ellis picked off a McKinley pass and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown with just 24 seconds left in the third. A two-point run by Brian Gamble brought Massillon to within 24-8, but the Tigers would get no closer.

“I don’t think there was a key point necessarily,’ Stacy said. “McKinley just controlled things early on and we could never get into a rhythm offensively. We didn’t throw the ball well, we weren’t consistent in our running game. We just didn’t play well.”

Williams added a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown runs, from 14 and 4 yards out, to wrap up the scoring.

Massillon was outgained 339-124, as the Bulldogs ran 70 plays to the Tigers’ 47. The Tigers were intercepted four times and turned the ball over five times in all. Gamble found yards tough to come by and finished with just 47 yards on 15 carries. Quarterback Bobby Huth was 8-of-18 passing for 61 yards.

“We didn’t just try to take Gamble out, we had to defend their entire offense because Massillon has a lot of weapons,” Cross said. “We just played a good, sound game, got a little bit of a lead on them. Maybe that took them out of what they wanted to do and we were able to convert.”

In his first season at the Tigers’ helm, Stacy put the responsibility for his team’s first loss squarely on his shoulders.

“We just were outplayed and out coached today,” he said. “I don’t think it had anything to do with physical toughness. I just didn’t have our guys prepared. That’s pretty obvious … I’m the head coach and that’s my responsibility and we were not ready to play for whatever reason.”

GAME STATS

Antonio James
Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2003: Massillon 8, Canton McKinley 40

Bulldogs bottle up Tigers at Fawcett
Brinson’s four touchdowns key McKinley’s 40-8 victory

By JOE SHAHEEN
Joe, Shaheen@ I ndeOnline.com

You had the feeling the Massillon Tigers were in for a long day when they fumbled the first offensive snap of the game, then took a safety on the very next play.

Program Cover

It all pretty much went downhill from there as Massillon absorbed a 40‑8 thumping at the hands of their arch rivals the McKinley Bulldogs in the 111th meeting between the two storied high school football programs on Saturday at Fawcett Stadium in Canton.

The loss marked the first time in the history of Massillon Tiger football the team has dropped five games in a row.

“Well, you know, that would have been a touchdown pass,” Shepas said of the game’s opening play from scrimmage which backed the Tigers to the 1-yard line. “Then we missed another touchdown pass. And we missed a couple of other open receivers. Then we had some interceptions, but that’s the way it goes.

“One way or the other it’s about making plays. They made more than we did today.”

in a tearful post‑game huddle, Shepas apologized to his players, saying he and the coaching staff may not have done as good a job of preparing them for McKinley as they could have.

“I thought our kids fought hard all season,” Shepas said. “We dealt with some different types of adversity and a lot of injuries.

“I’d like to apologize to the Tiger fans. We did not give them a good showing today and I feel responsible for that. One way or the other, I’m the leader of this program. Massillon is a great community. Our community came out and supported us in that parade. It was fantastic. It was just a disappointing day.”

McKinley’s 2‑0 lead held up through the first quarter. But even at that point, McKinley running back Ryan Brinson felt the game belonged to the Bulldogs.

“That first drive, when we got that safety, I knew it was over,” Brinson said. “When we got that safety, I knew we had their hearts.

“We were ready to play. They were scared. They had that sophomore quarterback and he wasn’t ready for this type of game. So we took it to them.”

Massillon penetrated to the Bulldog 22 late in the opening period but gave the ball up on downs following a delay of game penalty.

The Bulldogs began their first scoring drive at midfield after a 15‑yard punt return by Christian Smith. The Pups ran the ball effectively on their first three plays of the march, then junior quarterback Mike Shaffer used play action to freeze the Tiger linebackers and hit tight end Alex Rehfus for 20 yards to the Massillon 14.

On third down, the Tigers dropped a potential interception on a screen pass, and on fourth down Shaffer found Antwon Hight for 16 yards for a first down at the Tiger 2.

Brinson went over left guard and tackle for six on the next play. Zach Campbell tacked on the extra point and McKinley led 9‑0 at 7:11 of the second quarter.

Brinson picked off the Tigers near midfield on Massillon’s ensuing possession, then opened the game up by bursting up the middle for a 49‑yard touchdown at 5:19 of the second quarter. Campbell’s kick made it 16‑0 McKinley.

The Tigers’ second interception of the day ‑ they had four picked off ‑ set up McKinley’s final tally of the first half, a 22‑yard Campbell field goal that made it 19‑0.

“I didn’t think at any one point that we felt that we were going to be out of this football game,” Shepas said. “Even down 19 points I didn’t think so.”

But the Tigers never did get untracked offensively, finishing with 214 total yards, much of it coming after the game was decided. Massillon quarterbacks completed just 10 of 30 aerials for 130 yards.

“The plan that I had was to mix both Steve (Hymes) and Quentin (Paulik) into the game plan,” Shepas said of his quarterbacks. “It just didn’t work out. The idea was to mix up the shotgun run with the pass.”

They were confused on offense,” observed McKinley coach Brian Cross.

“Our defensive coaches did a great job with the game plan. Massillon just couldn’t get into a rhythm. Once they fell behind, we knew they had to throw the ball just about every down.”

Shepas admitted his charges didn’t seem to be at the top of their game mentally.

“I think we could have been more focused,” he said. “But it’s a great lesson.

“Hey, we’ve been on top in most. Sometimes you have to go through this to respect it and work hard to get back on top. We’ve been there before. This team has a lot of young guys. This football team is going to be good down the road.”

McKinley finished with a little more than 300 yards of total offense, but were presented with the short field on several occasions as Massillon’s spate of turnovers continued for the fourth straight week.

Brinson finished with 155 yards in 13 carries, including a 43‑yard touchdown scamper around the right side of the McKinley line. On that play, the 5‑10, 168‑pound junior was virtually untouched and he sprinted down the right boundary.

“I was running and Billy (Relford) was looking inside and I ran right by him so I just kept going,” Brinson said. “It was an excellent call by Coach Cross. I just ran as hard as I could.”

Massillon avoided the shutout on a 16‑yard Paulik‑to-Relford pass play, set up by three fine runs by sophomore Lanale Robinson late in the fourth quarter.

“We’ll be back,” Shepas said. “We’ll be back. We have a lot of young kids who have played.

“We’ll get rid of the distractions that have plagued us and get ready for the future.”

Asked if the brutal schedule his Tigers played this season may have sapped the team, Shepas refused to use that as an excuse.

“You’ve got to deal with it,” he said. “Bottom line, we played a playoff schedule. Our guys are not going to the playoffs. We’ve got to rise above it and that will be taking the next step. It’s all part of the journey.”

McKinley 40
Massillon 8

GAME STATS

Massillon 0 0 0 8 8
McKinley 2 17 21 0 40

SCORING
McK ‑ Safety McK ‑ Ryan Brinson 2 run (Campbell kick)
McK ‑ Brinson 49 run (Campbell kick)
McK ‑ Campbell 22 FG
McK ‑ Brinson 21 run (Campbell kick)
McK ‑ Goodright 1 run (Campbell kick)
McK ‑ Brinson 43 run (Campbell kick)
M ‑ Billy Relford 16 pass from Quentin Paulik (Kurt Jarvis pass from Relford)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Massillon rushing: Lanale Robinson 4‑35, Ramon Kelly 3‑21, Tuffy Woods 12‑20
McKinley rushing: Ryan Brinson 13‑147, 4 TDs, Theo Goodright 13‑64, 1 TD

Massillon passing: Quentin Paulik 8­-21‑108, 1 TD, 1 INT, Steve Hymes 2‑9‑22, 3 INT
McKinley passing: Mike Shaffer 3‑9‑55

Massillon receiving: Eric Copeland 3­-54, Wayne Gates 2‑26, Billy Relford 2‑23
McKinley receiving: Alex Rehfus 1‑20, Tyrone Gillespie 1‑20

Brock Hymes

History

2002: Massillon 23, Massillon Perry 21

It’s up and It’s good

Tigers will face Pickerington; Perry ends year at 10‑2

By CHRIS PUGH
Independent Staff Writer

A pair of Matts gave the Tigers a winning hand.

The Massillon Tiger football team rode the arm of Matt Martin and the foot of kicker Matt Shafer to a thrilling last‑second 23‑21 victory over the Perry Panthers Saturday night. The Ohio High School Athletic Association regional semifinal contest was played before an estimated crowd of 17,000 at Fawcett Stadium.

Shafer kicked a 35‑yard field goal at the game’s final gun, capping a 57‑yard drive sparked by the passing of Martin.

Martin finished the game 21 for 29 through the air for 294 yards and added a 65‑yard punt on a quick kick for good measure.

The Tigers’ heroics were necessary after Perry came back from a 20‑7 deficit in the third quarter with two touchdown runs by Chris Kortis, the second giving Perry a 21‑20 lead with 1:17 left in the game.

The drive was set by a stunning sequence of plays just a minute earlier.

The Tiger defense sacked Perry quarterback Bob Perez on a fourth down to give the team possession with a little over two minutes to play.

The Panthers took the ball back and promptly scored, giving Massillon the final shot.

Martin completed six straight passes on the game winning drive, setting up Shafer’s winning kick.

With the win, the Tigers avenged two recent losses to Perry, including a 23‑6 loss in an opening round playoff game in 1999.

Massillon advances to play Pickerington, who crushed Gahanna Lincoln, 48‑13.

Within 30 minutes of the Victory, fans flooded downtown Massillon. Lincoln Way was closed off as revelers ‑ included Rick Shepas’ charges danced in the streets.

The game gave the Tigers bragging rights over the Federal League, giving them a 2‑0 record over the conference this season.

The Tigers defeated North Canton 31‑0 last Saturday in the opening round of the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Warren Harding, which handed Massillon one of its two losses this season, barely escaped Byers Field in Parma with a 18‑16 win over Lakewood St. Edward, also on a last second game‑winning field goal.

Massillon 23
Perry 21
M P
First downs rushing 2 8
First downs passing 12 6
Firsst downs by penalty 0 1
TOTAL first downs 14 15
Net yards rushing 28 141
Net yards passing 294 117
TOTAL yards 322 258
Passes attempted 29 15
Passes completed 21 7
Passes intercepted 1 1
Punts 5 7
Punting average 42.2 27.9
Fumbles/Lost 5/3 1/1
Penalties 5 2
Yards penalized 52 6

Massillon 00 13 07 03 23
Perry 00 07 00 14 21

SCORING

M ‑ Johnson 3 run (Shafer kick) 9:27
M ‑ Jordan 68 pass from Martin (kick failed) 5:43
P ‑ Cerreta 31 pass from Perez (Perez kick) 1:41
M ‑ Jordan 25 pass from Martin (Shaffer kick) 11:44
P ‑ Kortis 1 run (Perez kick) 6:42
P ‑ Kortis 1 run (Perez kick) 1:17
M ‑ Shafer 35 FG 0:00

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Massillon rushing: Johnson 13‑24, Woods 4‑12.
Perry rushing: Kortis 15‑68, Perez lt29, Schleiden 8‑28.

Massillon passing: Martin 21‑29‑294 TD, INT.
Perry passing: Perez 7‑15‑117 TD, INT,

Massillon receiving: Jordan 7‑170 2 TDs, Ashcraft 4‑44, Relford 4‑32.
Perry receiving: Cerreta 4‑62 TD, Woodard 2‑37.

Shawn Crable
Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2001: Massillon 27, North Canton Hoover 7

Tigers display mettle In topping Hoover
Massillon moves into state semifinals with 27‑7 win

By JOE SHAHEEN
Independent Sports Editor

They might want to change the Massillon Tigers theme song from “Eye of the Tiger” to “We Shall Overcome.”

With three starters missing due to injury and illness, and two others battling to stay on the field despite being hospitalized within the past week, the Tigers dug deep and dealt the North Canton Hoover Vikings a 27‑7 setback to win the Division I Region 2 regional championship in front of a near capacity crowd at Fawcett Stadium, Saturday night.

Rick Shepas knew all week he would be without starting running back Ricky Johnson and starting defensive lineman Marquis Johnson. But on Friday night, as he and his wife were watching her nephew play in a Division IV regional final at Central Catholic High, Shepas got a telephone call from offensive coordinator Dan Murphy and the news wasn’t good.

Starting right guard Tony Thornsberry, possibly the Tigers’ most consistent offensive lineman this season, was hospitalized. He would have his appendix removed at 1 a.m. Saturday.

“I thought God was testing me a little bit,” Shepas said. “I said, ‘I’m going to have a little faith and trust in him and go to sleep and whatever is meant to be is meant to be.’”

Then as the team began to gather later Saturday morning, starting right offensive tackle J.P. Simon turned up sick. He had spent most of the early‑morning throwing up and was taken to the hospital where he was given a couple of liters of fluid intravenously.

“I told J.P., ‘Buddy you’ve got to tough it out,”‘ Shepas said. “We didn’t want to have that whole right side of the line gone. He toughed it out.”

Simon was wobbly but he played. Tim Dewald filled in for Thornsberry and did an outstanding job, according to Shepas.

Meanwhile, cornerback Jamaal Ballard, who didn’t play last week after having surgery on his thumb, returned to the lineup. The junior, his hand in a cast to protect the thumb, came up with not one but two interceptions as the Massillon defense rose to the occasion for the third consecutive week in post‑season play.

“I had to come out tonight and make a statement playing with my team,” Ballard said. “I gave up a touchdown but I picked off two and took one to the house.”

Game Action vs. North Canton Hoover

That interception return for a touchdown was called back because of a clipping penalty on the runback. But Massillon would score just the same as David Hill went around the left side of the line for an 18‑yard touchdown run that put the Tigers up 24‑7 with 6:30 to play in the football game.

“All I saw was an opening from Robert (Oliver) blocking and I just took it to it,” Hill said. “Coach told me at halftime to run like I normally run, which is hard. The team had belief in me and I didn’t want to let them down. So I did what I had to do.”

Hill finished with 61 yards in 11 carries and may become an even bigger part of the offense next week as Oliver, who had 67 yards in 12 carries, suffered a knee injury that did not look good at game’s end.

“We’ve been overcoming adversity for a long time,” Shepas said. “It just seems to be a norm now.”

The Tiger defense held North Canton to 95 yards of offense in the second half as Massillon took control of a 14‑7 game after intermission.

The Vikings rushing total for the entire contest was minus‑1 yard.

“We stuffed the run,” said linebacker Justin Princehorn. “They got us on a couple of pass plays deep in the first half. We put in some adjustments and came out the second half and held them to no points.”

“Coming off the first McKinley game, we don’t want nobody to run on us,” said linebacker Shawn Crable. “So when teams are running on us we get a little mad. We played kind of soft in the first half. The second half we came out with a little more fire and things went our way.”

A 54‑yard quick kick by Justin Zwick helped set up Massillon’s first scoring drive as North Canton was pinned deep in its own territory and was forced to punt when Dan Speicher stuffed a DeAngelo Thomas running play at the Vikings 8‑yard line.

After North Canton punted, two Zwick‑to‑Devin Jordan sideline passes generated 31 yards to give the Tigers a first down at the North Canton 23. Oliver picked up eight yards over left tackle and Zwick found Hill for four yards and another first down at the 11.

From there Zwick tossed a short pass to Oliver in the left flat. The senior snagged the ball at the 9 and went in untouched. David Abdul’s kick made it 7‑0 Massillon at 9:16 of the second quarter.

North Canton showed its mettle on its next possession. Brad Reifsnyder lobbed a perfect pass to Jared Gulling for 22 yards to the Vikings 43‑yard line. On the very next play, Reifsnyder ‑ off play action ‑ went long to Curt Lukens for 57 yards and a touchdown. Reifsnyder tacked on the point‑after and it was a 7‑7 game at 7:45 of the second quarter.

Massillon turned the ball over on an interception on its ensuing possession but the Tiger defense rose up and forced the Vikings to punt, thanks in part to Craig McConnell’s fine open field tackle on Thomas on a second down running play.

Massillon took over at its 14 and embarked on a 14‑play drive that included three Zwick runs that yielded three first downs and 33 yards.

On third‑and‑nine from the North Canton 18, Zwick floated left with the shotgun snap then threw back to Jordan on the right hash mark in the end zone for the score. Abdul’s boot made it Massillon 14‑7 at halftime.

Abdul was true with a 22‑yard field goal that capped a 12‑play, 68‑yard drive to open the second half and the Tigers’ 17‑7 lead held into the fourth quarter.

The Vikings penetrated down to the Massillon 13 in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter but a fourth-and‑two pass to Lukens was ruled incomplete and North Canton’s last, best chance was gone.

“Not coming up with that score, we needed that to make it a 17‑14 game,” said North Canton coach Don Hertler Jr. “We would have been right where we wanted to be.

“We knew they were talented, big and strong. Offensively they can beat you a lot of ways. I was just proud of the way our team fought.”

A few minutes after that big fourth down play, Ballard’s second interception would set up Hill’s touchdown run.

Abdul closed the scoring with a 33‑yard field goal with 3:43 to play, setting up a rematch with St. Ignatius, a 40‑33 winner over Warren Harding in the Region I title game in Akron.

“We’re just warming up fellows, just warming up,” Princehorn shouted in the post‑game Tiger huddle. “It is meant to be.”

MASSILLON 27
NORTH CANTON 7
M NC
First downs rushing 9 3
First downs passing 12 11
First downs by penalty 0 1
TOTAL first downs 21 15
Net Yards rushing 165 (-1)
Net yards passing 252 248
TOTAL yards 417 247
Passes attempted 38 35
Passes completed 23 15
Passes intercepted 2 3
Punts 4 5
Punting average 41.3 43.4
Fumbles/Lost 0/0 1/0
Penalties 11 5
Yards penalized 101 25

MASSILLON 0 14 3 10 27
N. CANTON 0 7 0 0 7

SCORING
M ‑ Oliver 9‑yard pass from Zwick (Abdul kick)
NG ‑ Luken 57‑yard pass from Reifsnyder (Reifsnyder kick)
M ‑ Jordan 18‑yard pass from Zwick (Abdul kick)
M ‑ Abdul 22‑yard field goal
M ‑ D. Hill 18‑yard run (Abdul kick)
M ‑ Abdul, 33‑yard field goal

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Massillon rushing: Oliver 12‑65, D. Hill 11‑57, Zwick 5‑41.
N Canton rushing: Thomas 10‑23.

Massillon Passing: Zwick 23‑38‑252 2 TDs, 2 INTs.
N. Canton passing: Reifsnyder 13‑30‑208 TD, 3 INTs; Savage 2‑5‑40

Massillon receiving: Jordan 8‑105, Oliver 4‑31, Ashcraft 3‑46, Jovingo 3‑38, Williams 3‑29.
N. Canton receiving: Lukens 6‑104, Gulling 6‑97, Saylor 1‑30, Kline 2‑17.

– Statistics courtesy of RICHARD CUNNINGHAM

Justin Zwick