Tag: <span>Marcus Whitfield</span>

History

2013: Massillon 14, Medina Highland 17

TIME RUNS OUT
Season ends as another Massillon rally falls short

BY CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

AKRON Massillon’s two regular-season losses both followed a similar script.

The Tigers found themselves in a hole in the fourth quarter. Then, they scored late to give themselves an
opportunity to pull out the win.

It happened against both Austintown Fitch and St. Vincent-St. Mary. And Friday night in a Division II regional
semifinal against Highland, it happened once again.

And once again, the Tigers weren’t quite able to finish off the comeback. But this time, it cost them their season,
as they lost a 17-14 decision to the Hornets in front of 7,670 at InfoCision Stadium in Akron.

“We just never clicked,” Massillon coach Jason Hall said after his team finished 9-3. “We just didn’t. … Highland played a good game. They were consistent all game.”

The Tigers trailed by 10 with three minutes left and were faced with a fonrth-and-7 from their own 14. But
Danny Clark hit Marcus Whitfield for an 86-yard catch and run to pull Massillon to within 17-14-with 2:55
remaining.

At that point, visions of how Massillon almost erased a 16-point deficit in the final five minutes against Fitch
flashed in the minds of many. But as was the case then, it didn’t quite happen.

“Our kids are going to fight until the end,” Hall said. “Obviously, that was a big play. Our kids, even when it’s
not going well, our kids are going to fight.”

After forcing a three-and-out, Massillon got the ball back with 2:28 left at its own 37- But a second-play
interception – the second turnover of the game for the Tigers – kept them from capitalizing on that chance. A
last-ditch drive that started at the Massillon 5 reached the Tigers 31, but could go no farther.

“You’re hanging on for dear life at that point,” said Highland coach Tom Lombardo, after his team’s 12-0 record
earned it a regional-final matchup with Avon next week. “I was just saying some prayers there.”

Massillon’s defense helped stake it to a 7-3 halftime lead. The Tigers turned a first-quarter interception by
Reggie Rogers, which was brought back to the Hornet 19, into a J.L. Crabtree 2-yard run with 3:06 left in the
first quarter.

The Tigers, though, helped Highland get its first score when they fumbled at their own 21 with 39 seconds left
in the half. Luke Allen hit a 37-yard field goal with 16 seconds remaining before the break to cut the Massillon
lead to four.

Highland took its first second-half possession and turned it into a lead it would never relinquish. Starting from
their own 14, the Hornets went 86 yards in 12 plays, the last three covered by Bruce Kinsey with 5:56 left in the
third quarter, for a 10-7 lead.

Kinsey set Highland up with the score thanks to a 24-yard run – with an extra 15 tacked on after a Tigers
personal-foul penalty – that put the ball on the Massillon 31.

“With a defense like that, you need to keep pressing” said Kinsey, who rushed for 77 yards, while throwing for
110 yards. “That’s one good football team. That game could’ve gone either way. There were so many
momentum swings for both us and them, and thankfully, we were the ones who came out on top.”

Massillon had one more possession that went into Highland territory after the Hornets’ go-ahead score. But the
push to the Hornets’ 46 was short-circuited by a three-yard loss on third down.

The Tigers offense never again snapped the ball on the Highland side of the 50. They finished with 226
total yards and just nine first downs.

“It was tough sledding for everybody out there today,” Hall said.

Highland gave itself some breathing room with 6:43 left. On second-and-7, tailback Alex Harris hit a seam in
the defense and raced virtually untouched for a 43-yard touchdown for a 17-7 lead.

Harris finished with 110 yards on 19 carries.

“You’re not going to keep them from hitting that zone read or power read,” Hall said “They’re going to be able
to hit it Take your hat off to them, they’re a good football team.”

GAME STATS

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 Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2013: Massillon 28, Akron Firestone 14

A WIN IS A WIN
Tigers struggle, but top Falcons to keep unbeaten season intact

By CHRIS EASTERLING
Independent sports editor

MASSILLON Jason Hall has experienced his share of tough, kick-in-the-gut-type of wins in his time at Massillon. And even after the roughest of losses, he has found plenty to say about what transpired in the 48 minutes of football.

But after Hall’s Tigers improved to 6-0 on Friday night with a lackluster 28-14 win over winless Firestone at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, the sixth-year coach found himself at a loss of words.

“I want to say this the right way,” Hall said, choosing each word carefully. “I expect great senior leadership out of the team. I didn’t think we had that tonight. I’m a guy who’s a very honest evaluator. I’m not happy with our staff; I’m not happy with our seniors. Firestone came in and their kids played hard, but if we play like that (next Friday), we might as well not drive to Fitch.”

The Tigers came into the game off of an emotional win at Steubenville, the program’s first win there since 1977. And all week, the state’s No. 1-ranked Division II team had heard about how Friday’s game with Firestone was merely a warm-up act for next week’s showdown at undefeated Austintown Fitch, the No. 4-ranked Division I team.

But Massillon, despite opening up a 28-0 halftime lead thanks to a three-touchdown second quarter, spent much of the night shooting itself in the foot with various mistakes and sloppy play. One week after a 14-penalty performance at Steubenville, the Tigers were flagged 10 times for 105 yards, including two penalties that were marked off on the kickoff following touchdowns.

Hall wouldn’t say if his players had come into the game overlooking a Firestone team that hadn’t scored more than 12 points in any game this season.

“I don’t know, because that’s not how I act,” Hall said. “I don’t know how people like that act.

You’d have to ask them. I don’t act like that. … Winners practice. I was just telling my daughter this the other night, winners don’t practice because they like to practice. Winners practice because they like to win. That’s the message our kids need to get.”

Friday’s game, though, followed a script that the previous four meetings between the two teams had followed. Firestone hangs around early before Massillon catches fire long enough to open up a multi-score lead.

In this instance, the Tigers led 7-0 after the first quarter behind a 14-yard Marcus Whitfield run on their first possession of the game. Whitfield’s 65-yard catch-and-run from quarterback Danny Clark helped give Massillon a two-score lead at 14-0 with 7:53 left in the first half.

Devon Ingram picked up a Firestone fumble a returned it 55 yards for a score with 4:48 left in the half to make it 21-0. After another Falcon fumble, the Tigers made it 28-0 when Clark found Malik Dudley with 40 seconds remaining before the intermission for a 14-yard touchdown.

“We love coming down here,” Firestone coach Tim Flossie said after his team fell to 0-6. “Our big problem is we don’t catch the ball. We dropped five or six balls tonight. We fumble the ball for a touchdown. Massillon’s good, and you don’t do that against a good team.”

But Flossie’s team continued to be a difficult out in the second half. The Falcons intercepted a pass on the first play of the fourth quarter, one play before they broke up the shutout with a 7-yard touchdown run by Brennan Williams.

Firestone added a 55-yard Louis Christian touchdown run with 1:03 remaining.

The Falcons, who had scored just 14 points in the previous four games combined, outgained Massillon 267-252.

The Tigers went to their reserve offensive players on the last series of the third quarter, which ended with them holding a 241-146 yards edge.

“We actually got some offense going,” Flossie said. “It could’ve been more if we had caught the ball. I was happy with that. We’ll be OK.”

GAME STATS

History

2012: Massillon 16, Toledo Whitmer 49

Whitmer football wins third consecutive regional crown

MANSFIELD — For the third straight season, Whitmer will be moving on to the Division I state football semifinals.

The third-ranked Panthers (13-0) earned that berth Saturday night by jumping out early on 10th-ranked Massillon Washington, and cruising to a 49-16 victory over the Tigers in a Region 2 final at Mansfield’s Arlin Field.

“This is unbelievable,” first-year Whitmer head coach Jerry Bell said. “This was our goal, and these seniors have worked so hard. This was the 41st game they’ve played in three years, and this one was for our senior class. Massillon is a phenomenal team and very explosive, and we were able to neutralize them tonight.”

Senior quarterback Nick Holley ran for 116 yards, and was 10-of-17 passing for 137 yards and a touchdown to trigger the Panthers’ attack, and senior running backs Tre Sterritt (14 carries, 71 yards, three TDs) and Me’Gail Frisch (13 carries, 81 yards, two TDs) contributed mightily to Whitmer’s 409-313 edge (272-54 rushing) in total offense.

The rest was up to the Panther defense, which bent but did not break in containing Massillon’s high-powered 43-points-per-game offense. It was the third playoff win by Whitmer over Massillon since 2006.

Now 38-3 overall since 2010, Whitmer will face seventh-ranked Mentor (12-1) in a semifinal Saturday at 7 p.m. at a site to be determined.

Mentor advanced by beating defending state champion Cleveland St. Ignatius 57-56 in three overtimes in Saturday night’s Region 1 final.

In an otherwise superb first half where they could do little wrong, the Panthers spotted Massillon a 7-0 lead 49 seconds into the game.

On their second play from scrimmage, the Tigers scored on a 54-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Kempt to Gareon Conley.

The Tigers would not reach the end zone again until 7:42 remained in the game, and by then they trailed by 32 points.

Whitmer’s first drive stalled at the its 47 after seven plays, but Nate Holley’s punt ignited a furious scoring surge.

Tigers return man Marcus Whitfield muffed the punt at his 10, the ball bounced toward the goal line, Whitfield was knocked away by Marcus Elliott, and Keith Howell recovered in the end zone for a touchdown with 8:30 left in the opening quarter.

After kicking the extra point, Panther placekicker Michael Baldwin executed an onside kick and recovered himself at the Massillon 45.

Whitmer quarterback Nick Holley is hit by Massillon Washington’s Ryan Rambo after picking up a first down.

Holley ran for 35 yards on the next play, a Tigers late hit moved it to the five, and Frisch went around right end the final five yards for a 14-7 Whitmer lead 21 seconds after its first TD.

“When they scored right away it was like, ‘…what did we get ourselves into?’ But we responded, and we just had that fire underneath us,” Nick Holley said. “The momentum changed, and I think we had it for the whole game after that.”

The Panthers’ next drive covered 55 yards on seven plays, with Tre Sterritt carrying for the final yard and a 21-7 Whitmer advantage with 4:29 left in the first quarter.

The offensive surge continued after the Whitmer defense stopped Massillon on a fourth-down play at its 35. Once again the Panthers used seven plays to find the end zone, this time with Sterritt going 12 yards through the middle on the first play of the second quarter.

Massillon briefly interrupted the Whitmer express, marching 61 yards on 13 plays before having to settle for Andrew David’s 29-yard field goal with 7:33 left in the half.

The Panthers traded punts with the Tigers, then launched their fourth offensive scoring drive of the half from their 40.

They used 12 plays to move those 60 yards, and Sterritt capped it on a five-yard TD run over left guard 39 seconds before halftime, which arrived with Whitmer holding a commanding 35-10 lead.

“We knew if we just played our game we’d come back,” Sterritt said. “They’re a great offensive team and have a good defense too. We knew we had to respond and we couldn’t let our heads down.

“The momentum just came from us working hard, and believing we were going to win.”

After a scoreless third quarter, Whitmer added a touchdown on the second play of the fourth, capping a monster 16-play, 80-yard drive on Holley’s five-yard TD pass to twin brother Nate Holley for a 42-10 lead on the Tigers.

Most importantly, that drive took 7:51 off the clock, preventing Massillon from staging any comeback bid.

“The defensive staff and offensive staff were dialed in on the play-calling,” Bell said. “We thought we had to be able to run the football against them, and keep the ball out of the hands of their offense. We were able to do that.”

“Our defense is stingy, and we’ve been playing like that all year,” Panther senior defensive tackle Marquise Moore said. “That’s the mindset you have to have going into any game.”

The Tigers’ second TD came on an 11-yard pass from Kempt to Conley.

Kempt was 19-of-32 passing for 259 yards, and Ryne Moore topped the Tigers in rushing with 52 yards on 17 carries.

“We knew if we stopped the big plays we would have a shot at stopping them and winning the game,” senior third-year starting linebacker Jack Linch said. “We did that throughout the game.

“We’ve played a lot of games the last three years. We’re an experienced football team and I think we can go all the way if we just keep working hard.”

Whitmer closed the scoring on Frisch’s six-yard TD run with 4:24 remaining.

Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com

GAME STATS

History

2012: Massillon 63, Nordonia 34

Massillon’s offense too much for Nordonia

Chris Easterling
The Independent

MASSILLON Two plays. That’s all it took for Massillon to show there would be no hangover from last week’s win over McKinley as it opened up the Division I playoffs on Saturday night against Nordonia.

Two plays into the game, the Tigers had already covered 85 yards and changed the scoreboard in their favor. And it would be just the start for Massillon, as it pummeled the Knights 63-34 in front of 5,329 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“This was for the seniors, because this is their last game ever playing at the stadium,” said Tiger junior receiver Marcus Whitfield, who had 113 yards and a touchdown on four catches. “We were all pretty hyped. We just got right after it in the first and second plays and ended up with seven points.”

The No. 1-seeded Tigers improved to 10-1, but will find themselves once again facing archrival McKinley next week in a regional semifinal at a site to be announced Sunday by the Ohio High School Athletic Association. The Bulldogs beat Hoover 36-29 in a regional quarterfinal on Saturday.

Massillon beat McKinley 37-29 last week at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“We know their (the Bulldogs’) game plan, but they’re probably going to come in with a different one,” said Tiger receiver-cornerback Gareon Conley, who had two touchdowns receiving – including a 28-yarder on the game’s second play – on three catches. “We just have to be ready. We have to be fundamentally sound and play all three phases.”

If Massillon was so inclined, it could have turned its attention to next week’s game by halftime.

By that point, the Tigers already scored on seven of their nine possessions to take a 49-14 lead.

How dominant were the Tigers in the first half? They went into the locker room having already accumulated a 200-yard passer (Kyle Kempt, 243 yards), a 100-yard rusher (Ryne Moore, 102) and a 100-yard receiver (Marcus Whitfield, 113) on their way to 377 total first-half yards.

Massillon gained 476 total yards for the game.

Kempt finished with three touchdowns to go with the 243 passing yards. He was lifted after the Tigers scored with 9:15 left in the third for a 56-14 lead.

Moore, meanwhile, wouldn’t carry the ball again after his 19-carry, 102-yard, three-score first half. Lyron Wilson added 78 rushing yards and two TDs in the second half.

“The looks they’re giving us, they’re trying to stop the pass,” Kempt said. “They’re giving us a box to run on. We’re really executing well.”

By contrast, Nordonia had just 160 total offensive yards at halftime. And only one offensive score, as the Knights’ first touchdown came on a 64-yard interception return by Nick Rezek.

The Knights finished with 397 total yards, although they racked up many of those yards while running their first-unit offense against Massillon’s reserves. They were sabotaged by four turnovers, a bugaboo that had cost them in back-to-back losses to Highland and Wadsworth to end the regular season.

Rezek’s pick-six did give Nordonia a brief glimmer of life, cutting Massillon’s lead in half at 14-7 with 5:23 remaining in the first quarter. But the Tigers, who had scored on two of their first three possessions, squashed that life with an 11-play, 85-yard scoring drive to lead 21-7 at the end of the quarter.

And then the floodgates opened up.

Massillon scored on the first play of the second quarter – a 29-yard run by Gareon Conley on an end-around. The Tigers then tacked on two more scores – a Whitfield touchdown catch and Moore scoring run – to lead 42-7 with 3:08 left in the half.

Nordonia’s lone first-half offensive touchdown – a sibling scoring hook-up from Tyler Alders to Alex Alders – managed to cut the Tiger lead to 42-14. But Massillon ended the half with a second Kempt-to-Conley scoring pass to restore its comfortable 35-point cushion.

GAME STATS

Massillon Tigers Black Letter Logo History

2012: Massillon 34, Austintown Fitch 14

Massillon dominates Fitch in statement game

Chris Easterling
Saturday, October 6, 2012

MASSILLON – The Massillon Tigers wanted a complete game. Through their first six games, they had either had shown up with a big offensive performance, or their defense was the highlight of the night.

But Friday night at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, they put both offense and defense together. And the result was the Tigers’ most impressive performance of the season in a 34-14 rout of the state’s No. 5-ranked Division I team, previously-undefeated Austintown Fitch.

Consider it a statement made.

“You’ve really got to be proud of our kids and our coaching staff,” Tiger coach Jason Hall said after his team improved to 6-1 heading into next week’s home game against Canadian foe Pauline Johnson Collegiate. “Our coaching staff put a game plan together and our kids bought into it and they executed it. We came out with a lot of energy and we started the third quarter off with energy as well. I think that’s as complete a game as we’ve played. … I think everybody in Massillon’s proud of their Tigers tonight.”

Fitch, now 6-1, had not allowed any teams to score more than 10 points in its first six games, a total Massillon had exceeded by the end of the first quarter. The Tigers rolled up 533 yards of offense on the Falcons’ highly-touted defense.

“It was a huge statement, because everyone was talking this team up all week,” said Tiger running back Ryne Moore, who finished with 112 rushing yards and a score. “They were beating teams pretty good, so it was a huge statement for us to come out and do what we did.”

Coming into the game, Massillon felt like it may have an edge over Fitch thanks to the throwing arm of Kyle Kempt. Of the Falcons’ first six opponents, none boasted a quarterback with the passing ability of the Tigers’ senior.

And Kempt proved that to be true.

By the end of the first quarter, Kempt had thrown for 209 yards and two touchdowns, completing 12-of-15 passes. By halftime, his numbers were up to 15-of-20 passing for 273 yards with four touchdowns.

“We didn’t see a lot of changes in their looks, and they didn’t change the rest of the night,” said Kempt, who finished the game 18-of-26 passing for 308 yards with four scores. “We had a  good plan heading into the game. We just knew we could exploit them, especially through the air.”

The big performance by Kempt and the offense was equalled by a defensive effort that kept the high-scoring Falcons to a season-low in points, with their second touchdown coming with just more than four minutes remaining. The previous low had been 24 points in their season opening win over Warren Harding.

Through three quarters, Fitch – which lost starting quarterback Matt Futkos in the third quarter – had just 161 yards of offense. The Falcons finished with 259 total yards.

“We came out and we knew we were going to play because we knew they were a good opponent,” said Tiger defensive end J.D. Crabtree, who 6.5 total tackles, two sacks and four tackles for loss in the game. “We saw what they had done to Boardman, and we saw that Boardman had beaten GlenOak. … We came out fired up and we did our jobs.”

Massillon came out of the gate looking to show just what kind of night it was going to be for it offensively. The Tigers took the opening kickoff and marched from their own 15 to the Fitch 18 in 10 plays.

But the Falcons arched their backs on third and fourth down, including a sack on the latter to turn away the Tiger threat.

Undaunted, Massillon made sure its next possession ended in points. The Tigers took eight plays to go 93 yards — the last 32 on a touchdown pass from Kempt to Beau Huffman — to take a 7-0 lead with 3:30 left in the first quarter.

Fitch had its one and only answer on the night, taking the subsequent drive 76 yards in seven plays. The last 10 came courtesy of a quarterback keeper by Futkos to tie the game at 7-7 with 47 seconds left in the quarter.

That 47 seconds was more than enough for Massillon to take the lead for good. Kempt hit Marcus Whitfield for a 58-yard touchdown strike on the final play of the quarter to make it 14-7 Tigers.

Kempt hooked up twice with his favorite target this season – Gareon Conley – on touchdown strikes in the second quarter to help Massillon take a 28-7 halftime lead. The first was an 18-yard scoring pass with 5:03 left in the half to make it 21-7.

Mike Smith set up Conley’s second touchdown by recovering a Fitch fumble at the Falcon 37.

On the next play, Conley caught a 37-yard touchdown pass to make it 28-7 with still 4:10 remaining until the band show.

Moore made it 34-7 with just over three minutes left in the third quarter with a 27-yard scoring run, juking out Fitch’s Ohio State-bound Billy Price in the process.

GAME STATS