Tag: <span>Keyshawn Watson</span>

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2017: Massillon 16, Canton McKinley 15

Massillon rallies to take out archrival McKinley
Oct 28, 2017 5:54 PM

 

CANTON The last time Massillon played archrival McKinley, in the last game at Fawcett Stadium, it saw its heart ripped out by a late Bulldog score. The first time the Tigers played in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, their archrivals’ sparkling new home, they weren’t about to allow lightning to strike twice.

Massillon emerged from the 128th meeting against McKinley with a 16-15 victory which wasn’t completely secured until Sam Snyder’s 45-yard field goal with 90 seconds remaining was pushed wide left.

Tre’Von Morgan

“It was swinging back and forth, back and forth,” said Massillon running back Jamir Thomas, who rushed for 124 yards and a touchdown on 42 carries. “It was a hard-fought game, really. They’re a really good team; they’re top-10 in the state in Division I. Us coming in and beating them, that’s a good thing.”

The Tigers, who will take a 7-3 record into Friday’s Division II Region 7 quarterfinal against Boardman at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, took the lead for good on Tre’Von Morgan’s 8-yard touchdown catch – and Klay Moll’s point-after kick – with 6:02 remaining. For both Morgan and Moll, there was a bit of redemption.

Morgan dropped a sure touchdown catch on Massillon’s first possession of the second half, which would have extended its 9-7 halftime lead. Moll, meanwhile, suffered his first missed PAT kick of his career after the Thomas’ 2-yard run in the second quarter put the Tigers in front.

Morgan, though, atoned on the go-ahead drive with a 52-yard catch-and-run to the McKinley 25, then with the touchdown which tied the game at 15-15. Moll, then, gave Massillon the lead with the point-after kick.

“It’s was very big,” said Morgan, who had a team-high 77 yards on four catches. “I dropped one in the end zone, and they just kept telling me to keep playing. So I kept playing.”

One part of Massillon’s team which kept playing the entire game was its defense, which never allowed McKinley’s high-octane offense to get into a consistent groove. The Bulldogs did gain 267 total yards to the Tigers’ 248, but the explosive plays weren’t there.

The biggest play for McKinley was a 40-yard run by Javon Lewis to the Massillon 31 on the final Bulldogs drive of the game. However, that drive netted just three yards before Snyder’s field-goal try.

“A lot of it was heart,” Massillon linebacker Logan Anania said. “It was just who wanted it more. I feel like we did.”

McKinley’s two scoring drives accounted for 127 of the 267 yards. The first, a 55-yard march, put the Bulldogs in front 7-0 with 8:13 left in the first quarter on Keyshawn Watson’s 13-yard touchdown run.

The second, a 72-yard drive, ended on a Josh Chandler 1-yard run with 9:15 remaining. Sio Saipaia ran in the two-point conversion on a counter play for a 15-9 McKinley lead.

Chandler, playing just his second game after missing four with an injury, ran for a team-high 107 yards on 18 carries for McKinley. Watson, the former Tiger playing in his second game for the Bulldogs, was limited to just 32 yards, while also having a kickoff return for a touchdown negated by a hold and then muffing a punt.

McKinley rushed for 242 yards as a team on 38 attempts.

“We felt we were able to run the ball on them,” said McKinley coach Dan Reardon, whose team enters the playoffs at 8-2. “And we really did a good job. I don’t know what the yardage was, but we felt like our ability to run the ball never wavered. (But) we put ourselves in some long yardage situations with some penalties.”

If there was an Achilles’ heel for McKinley all day, beyond the Tiger defense, it was those penalties. The Bulldogs were flagged 13 times for 110 yards, including nine for 65 in the first half alone.

“Cost us the game,” Reardon said of the flags.

One negated Watson’s kickoff return for a score immediately after Massillon went ahead 9-7. The Bulldogs also help set up the Tigers’ first touchdown when it was flagged for holding on the kickoff, then hit for a hold and a false start to force them to put from their own 10.

A 30-yard punt by McKinley put Massillon on the Bulldog 40. Seven plays later, the Tigers scored on Thomas’ 2-yard run for their first lead of the day.

It wouldn’t last the remainder of the game. However, Massillon would still have the last lead of the game.

GAME STATS


Redemption story: Morgan’s TD catch keys Massillon win against McKinley
Oct 28, 2017 6:30 PM

CANTON Redemption is available in high school football.

Seizing it is another matter entirely.

Massillon’s Tre’Von Morgan snatched his Saturday afternoon. McKinley’s Sam Snyder came painfully close to grabbing his own.

Tre’Von Morgan

Morgan’s 8-yard touchdown reception and Klay Moll’s ensuing extra point midway through the fourth quarter rallied Massillon to a 16-15 win against McKinley at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in the 128th edition of this rivalry.

A crowd of approximately 14,000 braved wet, cold conditions to christen Benson Stadium in a matchup that dates back to 1894.

Saturday wasn’t a masterpiece, but as is usually the case it was close at the end, with the game being decided by two points or less for a third straight year.

Junior Jamir Thomas, who two years ago had McKinley’s Dominque Robinson flip over him for the winning score and last year helped bleed out the clock in a Massillon win, called the feeling “incredible” after the Tigers beat the Bulldogs for the sixth time in the last seven meetings and improved to 70-53-5 in the series.

No one would have been surprised if he had described the feeling as “dead tired,” considering he carried the ball a season-high 42 times for 124 yards and a touchdown Saturday.

“I feel good. I feel real good,” said Thomas, a Canton native, who waved good-bye at the McKinley stands after the game. “We lift and prepare for this and we come out here and wear teams down. That’s our motto and that’s just what we do.”

Morgan, a 6-foot-6 junior, dropped what would have been a 29-yard touchdown pass midway through the third quarter. That would have put the Tigers up two scores. They eventually turned the ball over on downs, and then found themselves trailing early in the fourth quarter when McKinley’s Josh Chandler scored on a 1-yard touchdown run.

“They just told me to keep playing,” Morgan said about his teammates, “so I kept playing.”

Good thing.

With Massillon down 15-9, it was Morgan’s 47-yard catch and run that flipped the field. The Tigers eventually faced a fourth-and-3 from the McKinley 8. After a timeout, sophomore quarterback Aidan Longwell found Morgan wide open on a fade route for the score with 6:02 left.

Moll, who missed a point-after try earlier in the game for the first time in his career, knocked this one through to give the Tigers the 16-15 lead.

“Roll the dice. Big game,” Massillon head coach Nate Moore said about his decision. “We thought about playing for field goal-field goal, but how often do you get that close with a chance like that? We took a chance and the kids executed.”

Morgan finished with four catches for 77 yards, while Austin Kutscher added six catches for 37 yards. Longwell, who had been knocked out of the game briefly in the first half with a leg injury, returned to complete 11 of 17 passes for 121 yards, the one TD and no interceptions.

“That shows a lot of guts,” Moore said about Longwell.

McKinley got two shots after Morgan’s touchdown.

The first one was short-circuited by a penalty — a theme throughout the day for the Bulldogs.

The second one had life when Javon Lewis broke loose on a 40-yard run.

McKinley eventually faced a fourth-and-7 from Massillon’s 28 with 1:30 left. After a timeout, Bulldogs head coach Dan Reardon elected to have Snyder, his senior kicker, try a 45-yard field goal for the lead.

It was Snyder who missed from 37 yards last year in the fourth quarter against Massillon with his team down 21-19.

“I felt good about Sam kicking it,” Reardon said about Saturday. “A bunch of kids said, ‘Yeah, give him a chance. He’ll make this kick.’ And we went with it. He felt good about it.”

But Snyder’s attempt sailed just to the left of the uprights. Massillon ran out the clock from there.

Massillon dominated the time of possession 31:00 to 17:00 thanks in part to its running game with Thomas and clutch play on third down (9 of 17), but also because the Bulldogs couldn’t get out of their own way.

McKinley was penalized 13 times (which matched a season high) for 101 yards. A holding penalty in the first half negated Keyshawn Watson’s 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and the flags plagued the Bulldogs throughout.

“Cost us the game,” Reardon said, the disappointment seeping out of him.

McKinley (8-2), which has lost two straight after starting 8-0, did not look like the No. 8-ranked team in the state in Division I. Junior QB Alijah Curtis completed only three passes for 24 yards and was intercepted once. Watson muffed a punt.

Chandler, in his second game back after missing four straight because of a knee injury, carried 18 times for 107 yards. Watson, the former Massillon player, had a 13-yard touchdown run on the game’s opening drive. McKinley finished with 242 yards on the ground.

Both McKinley and Massillon had clinched playoff spots entering Saturday. The Tigers (7-3) will host Boardman next week in the first round of the Division II, Region 7 playoffs, according to JoeEitel.com’s projections. Official pairings will be announced Sunday by the OHSAA.

McKinley could have earned a home game in Week 11 by beating Massillon. Now the Bulldogs will go on the road to either Cleveland St. Ignatius or Lakewood St. Edward next week.

SCALZO: In gritty game, Tigers ride workhorse to victory

Joe Scalzo – Canton Repository
CANTON The upset was complete, the victory bell was ringing, the party was starting, but before he joined his teammates, the Tiger at the end of the postgame handshake line wanted to leave a parting message for his arch-rivals.

So Massillon junior Jamir Thomas jogged over to the nearly-empty home stands at Tom Benson Hall of Fame stadium, formed a “W” with his hands and waved goodbye.

Jamir Thomas

Two years after McKinley quarterback Dominique Robinson dove over Thomas’ body and into the end zone in the final game at the former Fawcett Stadium, Thomas was leaving Canton’s iconic field in a much better mood.

“This definitely feels better,” he said moments after singing the alma mater with his teammates in front of Massillon’s student section following the 16-15 victory. “Two years ago, him (Robinson) diving in the end zone really killed everything, especially coming in the last moments of the game.

“This year, we were able to run the ball, control the line of scrimmage and control the game clock. We came out here to win, and that’s what we did.”

In a game that had all the beauty of a construction site, the 6-foot-1, 212-pound Thomas repeatedly pounded away at the inside of the McKinley defense, chipping paint off his helmet and precious seconds off the clock, 3.0 yards at a time.

He carried the ball 42 times for 124 yards — exactly half of the Tigers’ total offensive output — as Massillon controlled the ball for 31 of the game’s 48 minutes.

It was the type of game only Jim Tressel (or Mike Fratello) would love, but it was the type of game Massillon needed to play.

“We had a plan going in and we were able to see that through in a lot of ways,” said Tigers coach Nate Moore, who improved to 2-1 in the rivalry against McKinley coach Dan Reardon. “We felt it was important to help our defense out.”

At times, the Pups seemed to feel the same way. They were flagged 13 times for 101 yards. They muffed a punt. They made attempting a forward pass seem as risky as buying junk bonds.

It was all the more mystifying considering this is a team that has more seniors than the Hartville Kitchen at lunchtime.

Massillon, meanwhile, was supposed to be a year away from contention after graduating four FBS recruits, a two-year starter at quarterback and its most dynamic wide receiver. But the Tigers’ young team kept getting better, while the Bulldogs’ experienced team — one that looked like state championship contenders just a few weeks ago — seems to have stalled.

“That team is good and we were definitely the underdogs,” Thomas said. “But in this game, it really doesn’t matter. You can be 0-9. Anybody can win.”

McKinley still finishes the regular season with an 8-2 record. It still has a share of the Federal League title. It still has its third straight playoff berth. But all that seems empty as the Pups stumble into the postseason for the second straight year.

Instead of hosting a first-round playoff game, the Bulldogs will likely travel north to play one of Cleveland’s two Catholic powerhouses. If they win, the other one likely awaits.

Anyone like those odds?

Massillon, meanwhile, benefits from playing in Division II, Region 7, the same region Perry rolled through over the past two years en route to back-to-back state championship game appearances. With the Panthers stuck in Division I and no frightening foe looming in the first three rounds, does anyone think the Tigers can’t do the same?

But all that can wait. The playoffs should never overshadow high school football’s biggest rivalry. Saturday’s game may not have been an instant classic — more like a distant throwback — but it was everything the city’s fans come to expect.

Meaningful. Emotional. Consequential.

Oh, and physical. Boy, was it physical.

“A lot of it was heart,” Tigers linebacker Logan Anania said. “It was just who wanted it more.

“We feel like we did.”

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2016: Massillon 21, Canton McKinley 19

Tigers battle adversity, bring back victory bell

Chris Easterling
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON Nothing seemed too easy for Massillon on Saturday afternoon.

The yards – and the points – didn’t quite come as effortlessly as they had in other games. McKinley, conversely, moved the ball as well as any Tiger opponent had moved it on them in weeks. Nothing, though, is supposed to be easy about a game between archrivals Massillon and McKinley. That’s why the wins are celebrated as heartily as they are, as was the case after the Tigers’ 21-19 win over the Bulldogs in front of roughly 14,000 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“That’s a Massillon-McKinley game,” Tiger defensive lineman Malcolm Robinson said. “The thing that won this game for us was that we pulled for each other until the last minute and the last seconds of the last quarter. That’s what this Massillon Tiger football team does. When you do that, you win football games.”

Massillon will now take an 8-2 record into the Division II playoffs, which will start next Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. The Tigers, who will be the No. 2 seed, will face No. 7 seed Dublin Scioto, although the official pairings won’t be set until Sunday.

The record will show the winning points for Massillon came on a 10-yard run by Keyshawn Watson – who was making his season debut – with 10:05 remaining. That gave the Tigers a 21-13 advantage. It will also show McKinley had multiple chances to make things even more difficult on Massillon than it already was. The Bulldogs pulled within 21-19 on a 4-yard Dominique Robinson run less than a minute after Watson’s run.

Having already had a point-after kick blocked, McKinley went for the 2-point conversion to try and tie the game. That attempt was fumbled, keeping the Tigers in front by two.

“We were chasing that point from early in the game,” McKinley coach Dan Reardon said after his team fell to 6-4 heading into the Division I Region 1 playoffs. “We had to go for two, and we didn’t get it. When you get behind by a PAT or whatever, you’re always chasing it. That was the difference.”

Likewise, McKinley’s subsequent – and final – drive offered a chance to not just tie, but take the lead. However, a 37-yard field goal try with 4:32 left was pushed right, keeping Massillon ahead.

“It’s all about the brotherhood,” Tiger senior linebacker Jacob Risher said. “We all do it for the guy next to us. We all wanted it as bad as the other, and we pulled through.”

McKinley, despite an afternoon in which it gained 339 offensive yards, never saw a chance to change the score after that. That’s because Massillon milked the rest of the clock by running it nine straight times to end the game. That running game was boosted by the return of Watson, who had missed the first nine games due to
being academically ineligible. The junior, who rushed for 1,000 yards a year ago, gained 167 yards on 31 attempts and scored the Tigers’ final touchdown.
Watson’s effort helped Massillon run for 261 yards on 54 carries as a team. It was Watson’s 35-yard run – with an additional 15 tacked on for a McKinley personal foul – which moved Massillon from secondand-7 at its own 5 to first-and-10 at the Bulldog 45.

That drive, which included a 9-yard Jamir Thomas run on fourth-and-1, culminated in Watson’s scoring run.

“We knew Keyshawn was a good football player,” said Tiger quarterback Seth Blankenship, whose only two completions on the day were a pair of touchdown passes to Austin Jasinski. “We knew he had to change to get back out there. Once he fixed that up, it’s was just Keyshawn being Keyshawn. He didn’t lose any form, because we made him work himself back into it.”

McKinley, which had come into the game having scored just one offensive touchdown in its previous two games, scored one in each of the first two quarters to take a 13-7 halftime lead. The Bulldogs picked up a 79-yard Robinson-to-Prayer Wise touchdown in the first quarter to pull within 7-6, then a 12-yard Robinson run with 9:33 left in the half to take the lead.

The Bulldogs threw virtually everything at Massillon, from Reggie Corner getting his first four rushing attempts of the season – for 62 yards – to a formation where backup quarterback Alijah Curtis lined up by himself behind center, with everyone else lined up in a swinging-gate-like look.

That’s how seven of McKinley’s 11 possessions were able to reach Massillon territory. However, an interception and a fumble lost ended two drives, while the Bulldogs also failed to convert on fourth and-1 at the Tiger 22.

“It was nuts,” Risher said. “All the formations they ran, it was not on film. We watch a ton and a ton and a ton of film. We had to read our keys, learn on the go and we got the job done.”

That’s why, despite all the adversity, the Tigers were ringing the Victory Bell in joy when the game came to an end.


GAME STATS

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2015: Massillon 28, Canton McKinley 30

NOT QUITE THERE
Bulldog QB flips into endzone with 20 seconds left, winning game and ending Tigers’ season

Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

CANTON Massillon struck first. McKinley struck last.

That final blow by the Bulldogs also was enough to end the Tigers’ season. Dominique Robinson helicoptered his way into the end zone on a 1-yard run with 20 seconds left, carrying McKinley to a 30-28 win over Massillon in the 126th meeting between the two rivals in front of about 10,000 Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Massillon, which ended the game at the Bulldog 35 after a reception, would have qualified for the Division II playoffs with a win. Instead, the Tigers head home with their first losing season (4-6) since 2004.

“Our kids fought hard,” Massillon first-year coach Nate Moore said. “Obviously, they’re really disappointed right now. … It’s tough to say goodbye, but you don’t get second chances.”

Robinson may have begged to differ. The McKinley quarterback – who played at Timken last season prior to the merger – had put his team in a 28-24 hole when, while being grabbed by the rushing Tiger defensive line, he threw an ill-advised pass right into the hands of Massillon
defensive end Dakota Dunwiddie.

Dunwiddie picked the ball off at about the Bulldog 15 and returned it for a Tiger touchdown with 3:50 remaining. Three-and-a-half minutes later, Robinson was redeeming himself with the go-ahead touchdown, capping an 11-play, 69-yard McKinley scoring drive.

“I just had to regroup,” said Robinson, who rushed for 50 yards and two touchdowns in his first appearance in the rivalry following the merger. “I had to get back. … When I play, I play for my seniors, and I was leaving them out. I had to get them a win.”

Robinson also threw for 272 yards on the day, while McKinley finished with 292 total passing and 418 total offensive yards. On the go-ahead drive, he hit passes of 18 yards on fourth-and-6 to Shaquille Perry and 13 yards on third-and-7 to Tre’On Vance.

The junior also had a pair of third-quarter scoring passes: 23-yards to Zay’Breyon Perry for a 18-14 lead and 5 yards to Vance – who played at Massillon last season – for a 24-21 edge.

The dramatic finish closed out a game that started with almost as big a flourish. Keyshawn Watson took the opening kickoff for Massillon and, after faking a handoff, raced 95 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 Tiger lead 15 seconds into the game.

Robinson led McKinley on an answering drive, capping a 10-play, 54-yard drive with a 5-yard run with 7:44 left in the first quarter. He also perfectly executed the swinging-gate play on the two-point conversion, giving the Bulldogs an 8-7 lead.

McKinley led 11-7 after a Sam Snyder field goal, but another big return for Massillon – this time a 40-yard punt return by Lee Hurst II to the Bulldog 31 – set it up to take the lead at the half. Watson capped that drive with a 1-yard run with 8:39 remaining in the half, giving the
Tigers a 14-11 lead.

Watson, who topped the 1,000-yard plateau for the season, finished the day with 113 rushing yards. He accounted for Massillon’s only offensive touchdown of the game with that run, while his rushing yardage accounted for 60 percent of its total yardage.

Massillon only was able to muster 187 yards on 53 plays on the day. It also was stopped late in the first half on a fourth-down play from the Bulldog 11.
“We weren’t able to get into an offensive rhythm,” Moore said. “We missed some throws; we had some missed assignments up front with protection. I think we had some dropped balls. Just can’t do those things.”

What helped the Tigers was their return game. They returned two kickoffs for touchdowns in the game – Deionne Harper’s 89-yard return with 10:38 remaining in the third gave Massillon a 21-18 lead.

Massillon averaged 55 yards on five kickoff returns. Hurst’s big return was the lone punt return.

“Here’s the thing, I can’t tell you how much time we spent on special teams this week,” said first-year McKinley coach Dan Reardon, whose team heads into the Division I playoffs at 7-3.

“We normally spend a lot of time on special teams. We spent extra time on it this week.”

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2015: Massillon 31, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary 56

SLOWDOWN
Irish stall Tigers’ momentum, rattle playoff hopes for third year in a row

BY CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON Big plays were a big problem for Massillon on Friday night against St. Vincent St.Mary. Because of that, the Tigers’ precarious playoff hopes took a big hit.

The Irish once again jumped on Massillon early for a double-digit lead for the fourth consecutive year.

For the third year in a row, they had all the answers when the Tigers would challenge that lead as they won 56-31 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“It just seemed like, we’d get going and then we’d sputter,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said. “Everybody was taking turns making mistakes. You can’t do that against good teams. You have to put multiple good series in a row together on both sides of the ball.”

St Vincent-St. Mary, which jumped to a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter, led by as much as 18 in the first half. Massillon got within seven in the second quarter, and 11 early in the fourth, but couldn’t get closer.

The loss drops Massillon to 4-5 entering the Week 10 showdown at McKinley next Saturday. The Tigers – No. 9 in Division II Region 5 this week – could very well go into the game with no shot at the postseason, depending on other results. “We have good, tough kids who I think are resilient,” St. Vincent-St. Mary coach Dan Boarman said. “We made some mistakes, obviously.

We’re going to have to shore some of those things up. Our kids keep playing.”

St. Vincent-St. Mary’s penchant for getting the big play started on the game’s first play, when Dom Davis hit DeAmonte’ King for a 48-yard pass to the Tiger 17- On the next play, Davis hit Myles Williams for a 17-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Irish lead 20 seconds into the game.

After Massillon was stopped on fourth-and-inches at the St. V 36, the Irish were pushed into a third-and-20 situation. But Davis and King connected again, this time a 45-yard pass to the Tiger 28.

Next play, Markus Hurd took off for a 28-yard touchdown run and a 14-0 Irish lead. Massillon had its share of big plays also. The problem for the Tigers, though, was that they spent the remainder of the game trying to chase down the Irish after their big opening salvo.

The first five Tiger drives reached St. V territory, the last three of which resulted in points. Lee Hurst II caught a pair of touchdown passes – 50- and 21-yarders – while Klay Moll kicked a 28-yard field goal in the first half.

All of that, however, left Massillon staring at a 35-17 halftime deficit.

After the Tigers pulled within 14-10 on Moll’s field goal, the Irish answered with a six-play drive to take a 21-10 lead on Kurd’s 9-yard run. After Massillon got within 21-17 on Hurst’s second touchdown catch with 2:40 left in the half, St V answered with a six-play drive – aided by a Tiger personal foul – to make it 27-17 with 1:03 left in the half. On the very next play by Massillon, the Irish got the ball back at midfield on an interception. A 33-yard pass from Donte Taylor to Davis would set up a 21-yard Davis touchdown run with 20 seconds left in the half, followed by a two-point conversion for an 18-point cushion at the intermission.

Massillon would pull within 42-31 on a pair of Keyshawn Watson scoring runs, the last of which was a 47-yarder with 11 minutes left. However, Kurd’s 73-yard kickoff return set up Davis for a 1-yard scoring plunge to push the Irish back up to 49-31 just 19 seconds later.

Kurd added a 13-yard run with 3:58 left to provide the final margin.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2015: Massillon 28, Cincinnati Mt. Healthy 26

TIGERS RECOVER
Massillon edges fighting owls to reach 4-4, claws back to .500 for the season

BY CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON When the play needed to be made, Massillon made it. When the defensive stop needed to be made, the Tigers were able to come up with it.

Because of that, like a cat with nine lives, Massillon’s season – and beyond – is all very much alive.

Thanks to Friday night’s 28-26 win over Cincinnati Mount Healthy, the Tigers find themselves back at .500 for the first time since after Week Two at 4-4. They also find themselves in control of their own destiny in terms of whether or not their season goes beyond the regular-season finale in two weeks at McKinley.

“We found a way to pull it out,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said afterward. “I’m proud of our kids. They fought hard to the end.” The Tigers, who led 21-7 at halftime and 28-20 with two minutes left, needed two big plays to secure their second consecutive win and third win in their last four games. One came on
defense, the other on offense.

The first came courtesy of a defense that had trouble all night trying to slow down Owl quarterback David Montgomery, who rushed for 281 yards on 32 carries. The final one of those carries was a 36yard touchdown run – his fourth scoring run of the night – with 1:57 remaining that pulled Mount Healthy to within 28-26. However, the two-point conversion play never really was able to get on track for the Owls, and Massillon intercepted the pass attempt to preserve the lead.

“That was a good football team; great player,” Moore said. “The Montgomery kid, No. 7 the quarterback, is really good. Probably one of the best players in Southwest Ohio, if not the state. He’s a real good player. We got the stop with the two-point that was huge.”

Almost as huge was the subsequent possession. After Lee Hurst II recovered the onside kick, Massillon went to work trying to kill off the final 1:56. On the second play of the Tiger possession, Keyshawn Watson got loose for a 32-yard run down to the Owl 15. From there, Massillon took a knee to run out the clock on the win.
It was one of two huge runs by Watson over the final 4:30 of the game. The other came with 4:20 remaining, when, with the Tigers clinging to a 21-20 lead, the sophomore got loose for a 45-yard touchdown run.

The score, plus the fourth Klay Moll point-after kick of the night, gave Massillon an eight-point cushion at 28-20.

“It was huge; it was huge, “Moore said of Watson’s two runs. “We were sputtering on offense. He’s was the spark we needed.”

Watson finished with 128 yards on 16 carries.

Massillon never trailed after it took the first possession of the game and marched 50 yards on six plays to take a 7-0 lead 1:15 into the game. Mike White’s 9-yard run provided the score for the Tigers.

Mount Healthy did tie the game at 7-7 after it recovered a muffed punt by Massillon at the Tiger 30. Montgomery’s 21-yard run with 7:18 left in the first quarter provided the equalizer.

The muffed punt was one of three turnovers for the Tigers on the night. The Owls turned two of those into touchdowns, including taking an interception and converting it into a Montgomery scoring run with 2:38 remaining in the third quarter.

Mount Healthy missed the PAT, though, keeping Massillon in front at 21-20.

The Tigers would take the lead for good when Seth Blankenship connected with Hurst for a 36-yard touchdown pass with 2:20 left in the first quarter. The junior quarterback and senior quarterback-turned-receiver hooked up nine times for 187 yards on the night.

Blankenship was 13-of-23 for 234 yards on the night.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2015: Massillon 43, Toledo Bowsher 13

SLUMP BUSTER
Tigers snap 3-game skid in return home

By Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

MASSILLON It might not have been the most aesthetically pleasing game in the history of Massillon’s football program. It was, though, just the salve the Tigers needed Friday night.

Massillon returned home for the first time since Week 2 and was able to put to bed its three game losing streak by routing overmatched Toledo Bowsher 43-13.

“We came out and we took care of business the way we wanted to,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said. “We sputtered a little bit in the second quarter. All in all, we handled that game the way it was supposed to be handled.”

The Tigers improved to 2-3 with the win. The Rebels went home with a 1-4 record.

Massillon will look to get back to the .500 mark Friday when it travels to meet 3-2 Austintown Fitch.

“Now we have to put (the win) behind us and move on and get ready for Week 6,” Moore said. When one is stuck in a losing streak the way Massillon was during the previous three games, the quality of the win isn’t something to necessarily quibble over. The Tigers certainly were far from flawless on this night, but the result on the scoreboard was more than enough to make  those things secondary.

The game started out almost exactly how Massillon would have scripted things. Three possessions by the Tigers led to three touchdowns and a 20-0 lead with 4:52 left in the first quarter.

Two of the three Massillon scores came on Foster Jones receptions. Jones, who had six catches for 70 yards, had touchdown catches of 13 and 24 yards from quarterback Seth Blankenship.

Massillon hit a bumpy patch late in the first quarter and start of the second. The Tigers threw an interception, missed a 30-yard field goal and then threw an interception that Delonte Brown returned 74 yards for Bowsher’s lone first-half score, making it 20-6 Tigers.

That pick-6 – the fourth such one by a Massillon opponent this season – seemed to be the slap to the face that woke the Tigers back up.

After that Bowsher score, Massillon scored on its final four possessions of the half to take a 43- 6 lead into the locker room at the break.

“I think it was a little bit of a wake-up call,” Moore said. “They may have started feeling a little good about themselves.”

Keyshawn Watson – who had his third 100-plus-yard rushing performance with 149 yards on 27 carries – scored twice on those final four drives. He had a 1-yard run to make it 34-6, then added a 22-yard scoring reception from Seth Blankenship to make it 43-6.

Mike White also scored in that stretch, a 2-yard run to make it 27-6. Brian Corbin also hit a 20-yard field goal to make it 37-6.

The field goal was both Corbin’s first of his career and the Tigers’ first of the season. They hadn’t even attempted one until the first quarter Friday.

Meanwhile, Massillon’s defense came to play from the start. In the first half alone, the Tigers limited Bowsher to minus-14 yards rushing on 11 attempts, while the Rebels completed just 2-of-15 first-half passes for 14 yards.

Bowsher had just 33 total yards for the game. The Rebels finished with minus-52 rushing yards.

In fact, Bowsher completed as many passes in the first half to Massillon players – Dillon Delong and Kordell Ford had interceptions – as it did to its own players. Ford and Andrew Creger both had second-half interceptions for the Tigers, who picked off four passes.

“I thought our guys in the secondary played really good,” Moore said. “We were able to get some heat on the quarterback and force him into some bad throws. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2015: Massillon 21, Steubenville 48

TIGERS STUMBLE
Mistakes costly in loss to D-IV No. 1 Big Red

By Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

STEUBENVILLE You can’t make mistakes and expect to beat most teams. Make mistakes against a very good team, and you’re giving yourself no chance to win.

Massillon made mistake after mistake Friday night at Steubenville. The result was exactly what one would expect it to be, as the Tigers were beaten 48-21 by Big Red – the No. 1-ranked Division IV team – in front of a near-capacity crowd at Harding Stadium.

“We just couldn’t get out of our own way tonight,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose team falls to 1-3 with a home game against Toledo Bowsher on Friday. “We just couldn’t do it.”

The Tigers turned the ball over five times on the night, including four in the first half alone.

The last of those first-half giveaways was a 58-yard interception return by Steubenville’s Jeremy Blue that gave Big Red a 35-7 halftime lead.

It’s the largest halftime deficit for Massillon since it trailed St. Ignatius 49-0 in Week Six of the 2008 season.

That was one of two pick-6s for Steubenville. Dujuan Jones had a 67-yard return that made it 42-7 Big Red with 1:07 left in the third quarter.

“Everybody’s making mistakes,” Moore said. “Attention to detail has to be better.”

In the last three games, the Tigers have turned the football over 13 times. In the last two games, Massillon has seen five of its turnovers turned into opposing points.
The interesting thing was, it was a 14-7 Big Red lead midway through the second quarter after Keyshawn Watson took a pass and outran the defense for a 59-yard catch-and-run from Seth Blankenship. That score was set up when Jeff Koch stepped in front of a Steubenville pass in the end zone for an interception.

That was one of the few big plays Massillon’s offense could muster. The Tigers, after posting 548 yards on 90 plays in a 48-41 loss to Warren Harding last week, finished with 366 yards on 61 plays Friday night.

Watson also had an 18-yard touchdown run with 10:19 left to make it 42-14. Austin Jasinski also caught a 70-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth to make it 42-21.

Big Red responded after the Tigers pulled within seven in the second quarter with a quick four play drive, the final 46 of those coming on a Dimitri Collaros-to-Niko Petrides touchdown pass to make it 21-7 with 6:28 left in the ‘half. Petrides got behind the Tiger secondary and ran essentially untouched into the end zone.

It was one of two such scoring catches for Petrides in the first half. He scored Steubenville’s first touchdown on a 20-yard catch on post pass on its first drive,
Petrides had all six of his catches for 124 yards in the first half.

Collaros hooked up Charles Reeves for a 53-yard touchdown to make it 28-7 Big Red with 1:17 remaining in the half. That score was set up after Steubenville recovered a Tiger fumble at the Big Red 18.

Collaros finished the first half with 253 passing yards, completing 15-of-25 attempts. For the game, he was 16-of-26 for 264 yards with four touchdowns and one interception.

Steubenville finished with 436 total yards. Johnnie Blue, who had a 5-yard touchdown run in the first quarter for a 14-0 Big Red lead, finished with 167 rushing yards on 21 carries.

“They were close to 50-50 (run-pass coming into the game),” Moore said. “I thought we were a little better in the run game than we have been in the past. That was probably a factor.”

Steubenville also recovered a squib kick that hit the back of a Massillon player after Reeves’ touchdown. That drive was stopped on downs at the Tiger 37, but Big Red would get the pick-6 to change the scoreboard right before half.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2015: Massillon 41, Warren Harding 48

Stopped Short

Chris Easterling
Independent Sports Editor

WARREN Three games into the season, Massillon coach Nate Moore is still waiting for a full four-quarter football game from his team.

The latest example came Friday night at Mollenkopf Stadium. Despite falling into multiple two-score deficits, the Tigers continued to fight back to take a lead at one point. They were also tied two other times in the second half.

The problem for Massillon was that the final counterpunch belonged to Warren Harding, which emerged with a 48-41 win to drop the Tigers to 1-2 on the season.

“We need to put a complete game together,” Moore said after his team saw a last-ditch attempt intercepted in the end zone by Warren with 45 seconds left. “You’ve got to tip your hat to Harding; they’re a good football team. They were the better football team tonight, the scoreboard shows that.”

The scoreboard showed that because Raider quarterback Lynn Bowden almost single-handily put his team on his shoulders in the second half. It was his 20-yard touchdown run with 3:04 remaining that broke a 41-41 tie.

Bowden, who rushed for 212 yards on 13 carries, scored all three Raider second-half touchdowns. One came on a 90-yard kickoff return 14 seconds after the Tigers had forged a 34-34 tie on a Seth Blankenship-to-Todd Fichter touchdown pass with about eight minutes left.

The transfer from Liberty finished with four touchdowns on the night, three rushing. He also threw a 31-yard scoring strike to Juwan Pringle to give Warren a 26-13 halftime lead.

“I would put him in the category of Mario (Manningham) and (Maurice Clarett),” said Warren coach Steve Arnold, whose team is now 3-0. “People who make plays and electrify the crowd.

Whatever adjective you want to use, he’s that. – He’s a fierce, fierce competitor.”

Twice Bowden hurt the Tiger defense by turning a broken play or a cutback into a long touchdown run. His 62-yard run that opened the game’s scoring in the first quarter came on a broken tackle, then a cutback against the grain.

His 63-yard run in the third quarter that gave Warren a 34-27 lead just over a minute after the Tigers had taken a one-point lead came on a broken play where he reversed field in the backfield and outran the defense.

“We knew what we were getting into going in,” Moore said. “He’s a very good player. He hurts us on a lot of broken plays.”

Bowden’s big night overshadowed Keyshawn Watson’s breakout performance at running back for the Tigers. Watson, who had lined up at receiver in the first two games, started at running back and finished with 239 yards on 37 carries.

Watson scored twice. His 1-yard run – plus Brian Corbin’s point-after kick- put Massillon ahead 27-26; his 2-yard run plus the PAT tied the game at 34.

“We thought he was a dynamic player and we needed to put him in the backfield where we could get him more touches on the football,” Moore said.

Massillon had plenty of chances in the game, reaching Warren territory on 11 of 13 possessions. However, only six of those results in scores.

The Tigers also turned the football over four times – including three interceptions – with two of those being turned into Warren touchdowns.

“We had opportunities,” said Moore, whose team travels to meet unbeaten Steubenville next week. “We just have to put a game together. That’s it.”

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2015: Massillon 21, Canton Glenoak 37

HARSH LESSON
Tiger errors add up to Game 2 loss to Eagles

MASSILLON Nate Moore hoped his team had learned its lesson in Massillon’s season-opening win over Perry. He hoped his team had managed to figure out it couldn’t just show up and expect to win without having to suffer a loss to hammer the point home.

Unfortunately for Moore and the Tigers, they couldn’t dodge lightning twice. This time, the errors that Massillon had gotten away with in Week 1 came back to hurt in Week 2, as it suffered a 37-21 loss to GlenOak on Thursday night at Paul Brown “Obviously, we weren’t prepared today,” Moore said after his team fell to 1-1. “Our kids weren’t ready to play. You have to give credit to (GlenOak coach Scott) Garcia and his staff and their kids, because they played a great game. This is 100 percent on me; I have to get our kids better prepared. Tonight’s unacceptable.”

For the second week in a row, Massillon gave up more than 430 yards, and surrendered 37 points in consecutive games. Last week, it was a 432-yard performance by Perry; on Thursday, it was a 494 yard effort by GlenOak.

As was the case against Perry also, the Tigers surrendered a pair of 100-plus-yard rushers.

Golden Eagle quarterback Brennon Tibbs rushed for 154 yards and two scores, including a 70-yard run with 13 seconds left in the third quarter that made it 30-21.

“That was big,” Garcia said of the 70-yard run. “Brennon made a big play. That’s what a senior leader is supposed to do.”

C.C. Cubilla added 131 yards and a game-clinching 11-yard run with 1:09 left. Beyond that, the Tigers also killed themselves with ill-timed turnovers despite accumulating 409 total yards.

They gave the ball up four times, two times on fumbles and twice on interceptions.

Massillon turned the ball over twice on its final two drives of the first half. Both came inside the GlenOak 30, including a fumble as the running back appeared to have a clear path to the end zone.

“We’ve got to find the weaknesses and mistakes we have in the game and we have to find a way to get those applied in practice and get those fixed,” said Moore, whose team travels to Warren Harding next week ‘We can’t continue to do this.”

Adding injury to insult was another injury to senior quarterback Lee Hurst, who left the game with an arm injury just as he was establishing a rhythm running the football. Hurst, who was injured on a 13-yard run that gave Massillon a first down at the GlenOak 17 early in the fourth quarter, rushed for 202 yards on 20 carries in the game. The senior quarterback had two touchdowns also: an 11yard run that tied the game at 7-7 midway through the first quarter and a 13-yard run that pulled Massillon to within 20-14 with 6:21 left in the third quarter.

“I’m worried about Lee; we’ve got to find out what’s going on,” Moore said. “I heard he was on his way to the hospital, but other than that, I don’t know. He was making plays for us with his legs. It’s a huge loss.”

GlenOak stunned Massillon from the start by being the team that established the fast pace on offense. It took the Golden Eagles just 3:22 to travel 65 yards in nine plays to take a 7-0 lead on the opening drive thanks got a Tibbs’ run.

After the Tigers tied the game at 7-7 on their first drive, GlenOak came right back with a sixplay, 65-yard drive that took just 2:02 of clock time to take a 13-7 lead on the first of two Robert Peterson touchdown runs. Peterson would add a second scoring run for a 20-7 Golden Eagle lead with 10:54 remaining in the half.

“Our offensive line came off the ball,” said Garcia after his team improved to 1-1. “They dominated the line of scrimmage. That’s what we asked them to do and they got it done.”

That scoring drive took just 56 seconds to go 90 yards. It was one of four sub-three minute scoring drives for GlenOak on the night.

GAME STATS