Tag: <span>Marcus Wattley</span>

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo News

2020: Massillon 35, Canton McKinley 7

Massillon roars past McKinley in 131st meeting between rival

GAME STATS

Chris Easterling

MASSILLON In a game that felt a little like a golden oldie, it was one of the youngest players on the field in a starring role.

Sophomore running back Willtrell Hartson ran for 188 yards, Massillon’s defense dominated and the Tigers cruised past McKinley 35-7 Saturday at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in the 131st meeting between the rivals.

With a COVID-limited crowd of 1,700 watching on a beautiful fall day, Massillon and McKinley pounded away at each other with their ground games and only attempted 17 combined passes, completing eight.

The Tigers’ power running and typically stout defense controlled the action as Massillon improved to 5-1.

“Really proud of our guys,” Massillon head coach Nate Moore said. “Came out and played a really good football game against a really good team. The difference in the game was our offensive and defensive lines.”

It is the Tigers’ fifth straight win against McKinley and ninth in the last 10 meetings. Massillon last won five straight against McKinley from 1999-2002 — a stretch that included a Tigers’ playoff win.

“We’re excited to get this one, there’s no doubt about that,” Moore said. “We took the field against a great opponent in the greatest rivalry in high school sports, and we’re just happy we came out, played hard and got the win.”

The 35-7 win Saturday matched Massillon largest margin of victory in the series since a 35-7 win in 1999.

Senior Raekwon Venson missed the game with a leg injury, so the Tigers leaned on Hartson and senior Nick Liebler in the running game. Hartson, who entered with 17 carries on the season, carried 22 times Saturday as the focal point of the offense and scored two touchdowns. Liebler, who hadn’t carried the ball all season, added 11 carries for 69 yards and one TD as Massillon piled up 286 yards on the ground.

“We think he’s going to be a really good running back,” Moore said about the 5-foot-10, 200-pound Hartson. “He came out and proved that today. He ran really hard. He has really good vision. … Really proud of him, (and) really proud of Nick Liebler. He came in and gave us some big carries also for the first time this year.”

Meanwhile, McKinley’s offense gained a net of 103 yards after the game’s opening play, including only 16 through the air. Defensive ends Caiden Woullard and Mike Miller, cornerbacks Martavien Johnson and Andrew Wilson-Lamp, and linebacker Jaidan Wise led the effort for the Tigers, who have a bye next week to open the Division II playoffs.

Counting Saturday, Massillon has allowed a combined 31 points the last five weeks.

“I think when you have corners like they do, that frees you up to do a lot of things inside,” McKinley head coach Marcus Wattley said. “… They play hard and they don’t make mistakes. They don’t miss tackles.”

McKinley (4-2), which missed junior safety Harold Fannin for the second straight week because of injury, hosts Berea-Midpark to open the Division I playoffs next week.

Saturday started with major fireworks.

Wilson-Lamp chased down McKinley quarterback Elijah Wesley and pushed him out of bounds at the 1 after an 81-yard run on the first play from scrimmage. It was a good thing for Massillon, because Brandon Foster fumbled the ball away on the next play, with Massillon’s CJ Harris recovering at the 5.

“That could be in the running for play of the game,” Moore said of Wilson-Lamp. “If he scores off the rip, we could be looking at a whole different ballgame, especially in the first half.”

The third play of the game saw Hartson break off the longest play from scrimmage of Massillon’s season — 61 yards. That eventually led to quarterback Zach Catrone scoring on a 4-yard run to put the Tigers up 7-0.

“We just didn’t capitalize,” Wattley said. “We break one on the first play of the game, then give it up. … You can’t beat good teams when you’re not taking advantage of opportunities.”

Massillon’s next possession went 12 clock-eating plays, none of them longer than 11 yards. Senior Jamacius Portis got his first three carries of the game to start the second quarter and powered in from the 1 to put Massillon up 14-0 with 11:00 left.

Massillon’s Magnus Haines should be credited with some kind of save. With the Tigers punting from their own 39 midway through the second quarter, the snap sailed over Haines’ head. He tracked it down on the run near the 15 and got off a booming punt under pressure.

Instead of field position flipping, McKinley had to start on its own 24.

“That’s as good of an individual play on a punt that I think I’ve ever seen,” Moore said.

McKinley found some life with its ground game in the third quarter. The Bulldogs ran 13 straight times to eat up 87 yards. Mani Powell’s 7-yard TD run capped it and cut McKinley’s deficit in half.

But Massillon answered with a dose of the same medicine.

Ten straight runs — none to the outside — ended with a 1-yard Liebler TD run.

“We felt like we were kind of back on track,” Wattley said about Powell’s TD run. “And then we just couldn’t get off the field. We’re down seven, then we’re down 14 again just like that. And with all the running, the game was kind of quick. Possessions were at a premium.”

After a quick three-and-out by McKinley, Massillon was on the move again. A rare pass on this day — 32 yards to Wilson-Lamp — set up Hartson’s 14-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter. He added a 37-yard TD run a few minutes later, and the rout was on.

Wesley finished with 83 net yards (he was dropped for 36 yards in losses) on 17 carries for McKinley. Rob Jones added 57 yards on 18 carries.

Wesley, who missed last week’s game at GlenOak, stayed down for a few moments after a late hit by Wise in the fourth quarter before exiting the game for good with a leg bruise, according to Wattley.

Asked if he was OK, Wattley said, “I hope so. Hopefully we can get him healthy for next week.”

Reach Josh at josh.weir@cantonrep.com

 

Massillon vs. McK - Throwback (Large) History

2019: Massillon 24, Canton McKinley 14

Late plays help Massillon answer the bell, defeat archrival McKinley
Chris Easterling
Nov 02, 2019 8:00 PM

CANTON Two passes by two teams with two different results.

However, there was just one ultimate result from both of them: A 24-14 Massillon victory over McKinley in their 130th meeting, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on Saturday afternoon, giving the Tigers their second consecutive 10-0 regular season.

The first pass came with just over three minutes remaining and the Tigers clinging to a 17-14 lead. McKinley had moved the ball to the Massillon 17, where the Bulldogs faced fourth-and-4.

Elijah Wesley threw toward tight end Jasper Robinson. However, Andrew Wilson-Lamp, who played his season high in defensive minutes, deflected the pass to turn the ball over the Tigers on downs.

“(Cornerbacks coach Jason Jarvis) always talks to us about staying ready,” said Wilson-Lamp, who did not have a pass break-up all season entering the game. “I stayed ready. My time came today.”

The fourth-down stop still left Massillon with three minutes to burn off in order to preserve a fourth consecutive win over its archrival. The Tigers managed to burn about half that off, but still were left with about 80 seconds and a third-and-6 from their own 21.

With both teams still owning a timeout, conventional wisdom suggested running the ball to force McKinley to use its final timeout. The Tigers, though, threw conventional wisdom — and the ball — into the wind.

The result was a 79-yard game-sealing touchdown pass from Aidan Longwell to Jayden Ballard. It provided Massillon with the first two-score lead of the day at 24-14 with 1:13 remaining.

“We’ve got matchups,” said Longwell, who shook off an injury both in last week’s win over Louisville as well as in the second quarter Saturday to throw for 206 yards and two TDs. “We had Drew and Jayden on that play, just looking for the better matchup. Jayden was the one who had the matchup. We trust him to go make the play.”

It was the perfect book-end on the day for the Tiger passing combo, who had connected on a 12-yard score with 2:21 remaining in the first half to tie the game at 7-7. Ballard finished with nine catches for 114 yards and the two scores.

McKinley, which saw its six-game win streak come to an end to finish the regular season at 8-2, gave Massillon everything it could handle throughout the game.

“It was a great environment,” first-year head coach Marcus Wattley said. “The fans were great. We did some stuff that was out of character and made some mistakes, but the atmosphere was electric. It’s nice that it’s not over, that the season didn’t end on that note. We’ve got to get over it and move forward.”

The Bulldogs, who likely will host Solon in the Division I playoffs Friday, capitalized on a pair of Tiger turnovers for each of their leads.

After a punt bounced off the back of a blocking Massillon player, McKinley recovered at the 50. Seven plays later, Wesley threw a perfect 34-yard strike to Xavier Black in the end zone for a 7-0 lead with three seconds left in the first quarter.

After Massillon had milked the first 7:20 of the third quarter, Harold Fanin came up with a fourth-down interception at the McKinley 20. Eight plays later, Lameir Garrett ripped off a 48-yard TD run to give the Bulldogs a 14-10 lead with 1:28 remaining.

That lead lasted all of 16 seconds. That’s how long it took for Terrance Keyes Jr. to get loose for a 63-yard TD run on the first play of Massillon’s next possession, giving the Tigers the lead back for good at 17-14.

“It was just getting a feel of it,” said Keyes, who rushed for 141 yards and a score on 21 carries. “Like I said, the atmosphere, it was just crazy. It was kind of nerve-wracking. … I just had a mindset that, I don’t care if I score, I don’t care about the stats, I just want to get the win.”

Garrett’s 48-yard run helped him rush for 159 yards on 25 carries, the most rushing yards by an individual against Massillon this season. Of McKinley’s 300 net yards, 179 came on the ground, which also was a season high allowed by the Tigers.

However, it still wasn’t enough to prevent the Tigers from extending their hot streak in the series to 8-1.

“We did some things that were out of character a little bit,” McKinley senior linebacker Joseph Saipaia said. “The effort was there, but we just didn’t execute.”

Massillon has won 21 consecutive regular-season games as it heads into the Division II state playoffs.

“Our mentality has always been there’s going to be big plays,” Massillon linebacker Benjamin Krichbaum said. “This is a big game. Big plays are going to happen because these are both two good teams. When they do, we focus on next play. Go to the next play.”

Reach Chris at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2016: Massillon 21, Akron St. Vincent St. Mary 12

TIGERS GROUND
AND POUND
Tigers overcome weather, first half turnovers to rally past SVSM

Chris Easterling
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON The weather outside was frightful. Almost as frightful as Massillon’s first-half turnovers. It would, however, all turn out delightful for the Tigers.
Shaking off the rain and four first-half turnovers, Massillon would ground and pound its way to a second-half rally to beat St. Vincent-St. Mary 21-12 on Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“The weather was definitely a factor,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore after his team won its sixth in a row to improve to 7-2 heading into the regular-season finale against archrival McKinley. “We had some uncharacteristic turnovers. We just fought through it and came together as a team and got it done.”
After running for just 57 yards on 18 first-half carries, Massillon would run the football for 16 consecutive plays – gaining 65 yards in the process – to open the third quarter.

The final three yards came on a Jamir Thomas keeper out of the wildcat formation, giving the Tigers a 7-6 lead with 4:18 left in the third. That would just be the start of it in the second half. Massillon ran for 170 yards on 41 second half carries, with Thomas adding a 2-yard run with 3:28 remaining to add a cushion by making
it 21-12.

“They have a great (offensive) line; we knew that going in,” said Irish coach Marcus Wattley, whose team fell to 5-4 and saw its three-game win streak snapped. “We did a good job using our speed to neutralize that in the first half. The second half, not so much. Once their big boys get on you, they’re hard to get off.”
Jefferson carries the load While Thomas was the one to cash two of the three second-half scoring drives in for Massillon, it was Ethen Jefferson who helped get it down in position to score. After carrying the ball just once for eight yards in the first half, Jefferson ran for 119 yards on 25 second-half carries.

That helped Jefferson finish with 127 yards on 26 carries. Over the last two weeks, the senior has run for 263 yards on 44 carries.

“He was a workhorse for us tonight,” Moore said of Jefferson. “He ran really hard. He got some tough yards. You have to give credit to St. Vincent-St. Mary; really good football team with a great defense. It was some tough sledding in there.”

Massillon would go in front 14-6 on the only real big play it picked up all night. Seth Blankenship shook off a two-interception first half to hit Austin Jasinski for a 58-yard touchdown with 2:05 remaining in the third. Blankenship would finish 2-of-7 for 61 yards on the night. “It was big for our team,” Moore said. “Those guys executed out here in the rain. It was a great throw and a great catch.”

St. Vincent-St. Mary would match that big throw-and-catch with one of their own to make things interesting early in the fourth quarter. Freshman Luke Lindsay hit Malik Wooldridge for a 47-yard touchdown pass with 9:28 remaining. Failed-two-point conversion After Massillon was called for pass interference on the initial two-point conversion try, the Irish were stuffed on a rushing attempt on the subsequent try. That kept the Tigers in front 14-12.

“He’s not your average freshman,” Wattley said of Lindsay, who accounted for 151 of the Irish’s 159 total yards with his arm. “We knew that. That’s why we trusted him in a game like this.”

Halfway through the game, the Tigers seemed to be fighting the same luck they had battled through the last three years against the Irish. They gave the ball up three times on their first four possessions, then fumbled away a lateral attempt after getting an interception on the final play of the first half.

Despite all of that, however, Massillon was still only a play away from getting the lead. All St. Vincent-St. Mary could muster from all of those Tiger turnovers was a pair of Jamie Martucci field goals, which gave the Irish a 6-0 halftime lead. That’s why, despite only 60 total first-half yards and the minus-3 turnover margin, there wasn’t a lot of hand-wringing in the locker room at halftime for Massillon.

“The coaches went in and got to work making adjustments,” Moore said. “We decided what we wanted to go to in the second half. The kids digested the information and applied it on the field.”

Which is why a frightful start ended with a delightful finish for the Tigers.

GAME STATS