Tag: <span>Lynn Bowden</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2016: Massillon 28, Warren Harding 41

ROUGH FINISH
Tigers can’t stop Harding’s Bowden, surrender two-TD lead in setback

By Chris Easterling
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON The first two games, Massillon struggled with getting off to good starts. In the Tigers’ third game, the start wasn’t an issue.

The finish, however, was a major one.

Massillon could neither hold onto a two-touchdown lead nor contain Warren Harding’s Lynn Bowden in a 41-28 loss at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on Friday night.

“I thought that we were going to be able to keep it going on offense,” Tiger coach Nate Moore said after his team fell to 1-2. “I thought we needed one stop on defense, and we got that. I thought we were going to win the game.

We ended up getting two stops on defense, but ended up with two turnovers. That’s a net zero, and that’s the loss right there.

The Tigers had three different two-score leads: 14-0, 21-7 and 28-13. However, those leads slipped through their fingers the way Bowden slipped through would-be tacklers.

The sensational Warren quarterback ran left, right and up the middle for 266 yards on 21 carries. He also had six touchdowns, including a 4-yard scoring run just under three minutes into the fourth quarter that put the Raiders in front 33-28.

He added a game-sealing 3-yard run with 1:18 left.

“When we got down, we didn’t hang our heads like most teams will do,” said Bowden, who rushed for 212 yards in last year’s 48-41 Warren win. “We want to be the best. To be the best, you’ve got to take steps and you go through adversity.”

Massillon, which trailed by two scores in the first quarter of each of its first two games, came flying out of the gate. Sort of.

The Tigers used a methodical 10-play, all-run drive to take a 7-0 lead on Jamir Thomas’ 1-yard run with 7:32 left in the first quarter. They made it 14-0 after recovering an onside kick and then marching 44 yards in six plays, with Thomas taking the final two yards for the score with 5:02 left in the first quarter.

Thomas would score two more times in the first half, on runs of two and four yards. The sophomore finished with 95 yards on 33 carries, 72 of those yards on 23 first-half carries.

Massillon, which led 28-21 at halftime, had 190 first-half yards. The Tigers, who play Ursuline next Saturday afternoon at Mollenkopf Stadium, finished with 99 yards in the second half on 31 plays.

“We were missing some blocks inside,” Moore said of the second-half offensive difference. “It was a team loss.”

Bowden, though, put on a one-man show. He scored on six of Warren’s eight possessions, save for its final one where it took a knee.

The only two times Massillon stopped the Raiders were on the first two second-half drives, both three-and-outs. However, the Tigers turned the ball over on both subsequent possessions – a fumble on the first at the Tiger 33 and an interception at the Warren 30.

Massillon would march to the Raider 22 on its drive after Warren took the lead.

However, a fourth-and-4 end-around pass went incomplete and the Raiders responded with one final scoring drive to seal it.

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