2018 Massillon Tiger Football Banquet – Award Winners

January 23, 2019October 19, 2020
by Eric Smith

The following is a list of the awards given out at the 2018 Massillon Tiger Football Banquet.

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Team MVP: Jamir Thomas

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Special Teams Player of the Year: Seth Jefferson

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Tom Harp Coaches Award: Tyree Broyles (Presented by Tom Harp)

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Scout Team Player of the Year (Defense): Corey Campbell

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Scout Team Player of the Year (Offense): Jerron Hodges

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Lifter of the Year: Hunter Wantz

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Offensive Player of the Year: Aidan Longwell

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Defensive Player of the Year: Dean Clark

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Paul David Memorial Academic Award: Cameron Sunkle

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Captains Award: Jamir Thomas, Aidan Longwell, Tre’Von Morgan, Justin Gaddis, Dean Clark, Deon Williams

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Ducky Schroeder Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award: Deon Williams

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Coach Lee Tressel Citizenship Award: Aydan Burgess

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Bob Smith/Bill Snyder Sportsmanship Award: Brock Orr

2018 Massillon Tiger Football Award Winner: Thayer Munford A.C.T. Award: Jamir Thomas

Massillon football celebrates special season one more time
Jan 17, 2019 9:51 PM
By Alex Tichenor Independent sports writer

MASSILLON The state championship game is still fresh in the minds of Massillon football players.

And it probably will be for a long time. But not necessarily in a bad way.

“There’s a lot of things I would go back and change, but it’s already happened, so I can’t go back and change it,” senior wide receiver Tre’Von Morgan said. “You have to think about it and cherish all the (good) moments we had in that game. … It was fun. We’re kids. We gotta have fun.”

They remember the comeback. How McKinley’s home, Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, turned into a version of Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for a night. How pandemonium ensued when Aydrik Ford took Aidan Longwell’s pass 67 yards to the house to bring the Tigers within six points after trailing by four touchdowns at halftime.

The teenagers sitting in banquet hall of the Massillon Knights of Columbus accomplished something few Massillon teams of recent memory have. Not all end-of-the-season banquets are created equal, but the Tigers certainly had reason to celebrate like no other team in Stark County this season. And they did just that, once more as a team.

Of course, there was much more to reminisce on that the state championship game for the Tigers. Head coach Nate Moore detailed almost every one of Massillon’s 14 wins from the podium as players, coaches, parents and fans polished off their ice cream.

There was the 46-40 win over East St. Louis, the closest anyone came to ruining Massillon’s perfect regular season. And the 101-point game against Sun Valley the very next week, the furthest anyone came to ruining Massillon’s perfect season.

“Apparently there were some people around the country who weren’t happy about that,” Moore said of the 101-6 win. “And when that last touchdown happened, I cringed, but I’m never gonna tell a kid to not play his tail off.”

And of course, the McKinley game. Most players in the room had never lost to McKinley as varsity lettermen. In fact, Jamir Thomas was the only player who lettered on the 2015 team, the last one to lose to the Bulldogs.

As often as the Tigers’ state title game run came up, beating McKinley followed.

“(Beating McKinley) is one of the best feelings you can feel in high school football,” senior linebacker Cameron Sunkle said.

But what set this Massillon team apart from many of the teams of decade’s past was the run to Canton. These Tigers were the fourth team to make it all the way to the state championship game since, joining the 1980,1982 and 2005 Tigers.

It was a run that brought hundreds of Tigers fans out to Lincoln Way whenever they traveled home from playoff games.

“Coming home from a playoff game was pretty much the best feeling you could ever have,” junior running back Zion Phifer said. “It doesn’t get better than Massillon.”

It was a run that spawned unlikely heroes, like Zach Catrone’s three-touchdown performance off the bench when the starting QB Longwell went down, and grew the stars of Division I college recruits like Thomas and Morgan.

And it was a run that ultimately came up short, but still ended in a thrilling main event against Akron Archbishop Hoban, bringing out 16,213 fans to Benson Stadium on a rainy November Thursday night.

Even though Hoban ended the night as the state champion, everybody on the Massillon sideline will remember the explosion when Ford scored to make it a one-score game early in the fourth quarter first.

“It was crazy,” senior linebacker Kyshad Mack said. “I thought we were gonna win it right there. … It’s something I’ll probably never forget in my life.”

And even those most devastated by the loss can take heart in one thing: they left the program in better shape than when they entered it.

“I feel like we laid the groundwork for the younger guys,” senior safety Dean Clark said. “We showed them how to win, how to do things right and how to get to that level. If anything, we laid that down for them. But it still would have been nice to win.”

Reach Alex at 330-775-1129 or alex.tichenor@indeonline.com

On Twitter: @atichenorINDE

History

2018: Massillon 101, Sun Valley, PA 6

October 12, 2018October 19, 2020
by Eric Smith

Records fall as Massillon puts up 101 in victory

Oct 13, 2018 1:15 AM

MASSILLON Massillon was coming off its biggest win of the season to date. It was its most emotional and, easily, its closest.

As memorable as the Tigers’ win over East St. Louis (Ill.) was, they made a completely different kind of memory as they welcomed another out-of-state opponent – Sun Valley of Pennsylvania – to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium on Friday. It turned into a night not soon to be forgotten by anyone on either side.

Massillon turned a 73-point first half into a school-record 101-6 win over the Vanguards.

“Our kids work hard and they deserve to play,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, whose 8-0 team will play at Louisville next Friday. “We subbed early and often. We just kept scoring. I don’t know. I don’t even know what to say.”

The Tigers broke the most points in a game, which was 94, set in a 1922 win over Akron North. They were well on their way to that mark by the half, when they led 73-6.

Massillon was in front 94-6 after the third quarter. The Tigers would top the 100-point plateau on a 77-yard Raekwon Venson touchdown run with 1:56 remaining.

“They are top-notch, the highest level of high-school football program, and we’re not,” said Sun Valley coach Greg “Bubba” Bernhard, whose team fell to 3-5. “We lose our best three skill players in the first (half). We’ve got 37 kids in uniform. We’re in a tough spot. We basically had to hang on. What are you going to do?”

The school record for points in a game wasn’t the only mark to fall. Multiple individual career records also fell.

A week after Jamir Thomas became Massillon’s all-time rushing leader in the 46-40 win over East St. Louis (Ill.), he added another mark to his illustrious career. This time, he became the Tigers’ all-time leader in rushing touchdowns

Thomas came into the game two behind Bob Glass’ all-time mark of 47 rushing scores set between 1935-37. He pulled within one of that mark with a 27-yard scamper to give Massillon a 17-0 lead after one quarter.

The record-tying run, a 46-yard burst with 2:01 into the second quarter, gave the Tigers a 24-0 lead. He would break the mark with 5:52 remaining in the half with a 39-yard touchdown run to make it 52-6 Massillon.

Thomas carried the ball just seven times on the night, rushing for 167 yards and three scores.

Tyree Broyles became the Tigers’ all-time leader in kickoff return touchdowns when he took the second-half kickoff back – after getting the ball handed to him by a teammate at the Tiger 24 – 76 yards for his third career score. Broyles’ record, which broke the old mark of two set by Arvine Ulrich in 1922, made it 80-6 Massillon.

“We had a couple of records go down tonight, so I’m really happy about that,” said Moore, whose team did suffer a key injury when Zion Phifer – who scored the Tigers’ first touchdown – was taken off the field with an apparent head injury late in the first half. “Jamir Thomas with the all-time career rushing touchdown record and Tyree Broyles with the all-time career kickoff-return touchdown record. Those are great things; two records which stood the test of time and two really good players who deserved those records.”

The kickoff return for a score would give Massillon touchdowns five different ways: rushing, passing, kickoff return, punt return and interception return. Tre’Von Morgan would catch a touchdown pass and return a punt for a score, while Kyshad Mack and Max Turner each had interception returns for a score.

Marcellus Blake had two rushing touchdown as well for the Tigers.

Massillon would out-gain Sun Valley 582-274 in total offense. Julz Kelly would score the Vanguards’ only touchdown on an 81-yard pass from Anthony Ellis to make it 45-6, but would be injured on the play.

GAME STATS

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

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

History

2018: Massillon 35 , Akron St. Vincent St. Mary…

August 24, 2018October 19, 2020
by Eric Smith

Tigers defense steals show in stifling St. V-M

MASSILLON The storyline going into Friday night’s season opener between Massillon and St. Vincent-St. Mary was simple. It would be the Tigers’ talent-laden offense against the Irish experienced and strong defense.

Turns out, someone forgot to tell the Massillon defense it was going to have to take second billing.

The Tigers forced four St.Vincent-St. Mary turnovers, while stifling the Irish offense most of the night, to help key a 35-7 victory at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“I thought we really controlled the line of scrimmage,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said. “I thought our front seven played really well. I thought they did a good job of reading their keys. A lot of mid-direction stuff and jet-sweep stuff and they did a really good job with that.”

The key to the Tiger defensive effort, as much as the takeaways, was the way they did not allow the Irish to get their running game established. At least, not with highly-regarded tailback Terrance Keyes Jr.

A year after rushing for 198 yards against Massillon in a 13-10 Irish win in Week 9, Keyes was held to just 10 yards on 11 carries. As a team, St. Vincent-St. Mary had just 85 rushing yards on 32 carries, including just 20 yards on 14 second-half carries.

“I think we definitely had trouble establishing the run,” said Irish coach Bobby Nickol, who was making his head-coaching debut. “There was a couple of small things we wanted to do, get the passing game going (because) we thought there was a couple of holes we were going to be able to take advantage of. We knew they were athletic; we knew that blocking-scheme-wise, we had to do a couple of different things up front to keep their blitzing off-base.”

The Tigers, though, made sure that even when St. Vincent-St. Mary was able to get things going, it didn’t go far. Of the four takeaways Massillon had, three of those came in its territory.

The first, a fumble recovery by Deon Williams a the Tiger 45 on the Irish’s first possession, set up Massillon’s first score. Aidan Longwell hit Aydrik Ford on a 24-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-seven play to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead with 4:51 remaining in the first quarter.

It was one of three touchdown passes by Longwell, who was 14-of-21 for 150 yards. He added second-half scoring tosses to Tre’Von Morgan and Dean Clark, which helped to blow open what had been a 21-7 game at the half.

“We were efficient in the passing game at times,” said Moore, whose team ran for 177 yards, including 109 yards and a score by senior Jamir Thomas. “There’s some things we have to sharpen up.”

The Irish helped to turn the relatively close game at the break into a lopsided one with giveaways on three of its first four second-half possessions. Ben Krichbaum recovered a pair of fumbles on strip sacks for Massillon, while also intercepting a pass at the Tiger 15.

It was more than just turnovers which helped the Tigers turn away the Irish. They also managed to swing momentum to their side almost instantaneously after St. Vincent-St. Mary appeared to get it going its way.

The Irish capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive when Luke Lindsay hit Joshua Jones on a 19-yard fade route to tie the game at 7-7 with 8:53 remaining in the first half. Massillon, though, turned the subsequent kickoff into an 88-yard Tyree Broyles touchdown for a 14-7 lead which it would never relinquish.

“It was freaking huge,” Nickol said of Broyles’ return. “It was absolutely huge. It’s 7-7, we have a lot of momentum going and things are kind of pushing our way. … As soon as he brings that back, it just kind of took the wind out of our sails.”

GAME STATS

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

On Twitter: @ceasterlingINDE

History

2017: Massillon 28, Ashland 7

November 10, 2017November 18, 2017
by Eric Smith

Thomas, defense carry Massillon past Ashland

Chris Easterling – The Independent

Video courtesy of Brian Skowronski – An Ashland point of view

WOOSTER It was cold. The field had a thin layer of snow on it at the start.

In other words, it was perfect conditions for Jamir Thomas and Massillon’s defense to do what they do best in a 28-7 Division II Region 7 semifinal win over Ashland at Wooster’s Follis Field.

“The weather conditions were great,” a happy Massillon coach Nate Moore said after his 9-3 team advanced to next week’s regional final against New Albany at a site to be determined. “This is playoff football. I don’t know what else you want; move to Florida if you don’t like this.”

Thomas and the Tigers defense certainly felt right at home in the conditions, with a 27-degree temperature at kickoff. The former carried the Massillon offense on his back, while the latter never let the explosive Ashland offense get off the ground.

The 6-foot-1, 212-pound Thomas bulldozed his way to a career-high 196 rushing yards on 37 carries. He also scored all four of the Tigers’ touchdowns on runs of nine, three, 27 and three yards.

“He did a great job,” Moore said of Thomas, who accounted for almost half of Massillon’s 409 total yards.

Thomas provided the only first-half score, a 9-yard run just 22 seconds into the second quarter for a 7-0 Massillon lead. He would blow the game open with a pair of third-quarter runs within 114 seconds of each other – a 3-yarder with 2:24 left and a 27-yarder with 30 seconds left – to make it 21-0 Tigers going into the final quarter.

The final Thomas touchdown run came with 53 seconds remaining, a 3-yarder plunge.

“We got to go over and see them play McKinley (in Week 10), so I got to see them there,” said Ashland coach Scott Valentine, whose team bows out at 9-3. “We knew he was good. As time went on, he broke some runs, but I was proud of our defense the way they played, especially the first half and even in the second half as far as containing some of that stuff.”

While Ashland’s defense was able to contain Massillon some of the time, the Tiger defense was able to contain the Arrows almost all of the time. The only Ashland touchdown was a 27-yard pass from Keagan Armitage to Bryke Williams with 7:33 remaining to pull it within 21-7.

A week after the Arrows put up 48 points in a come-from-behind win at Columbus Mifflin, it could never consistently get going against Massillon as they were held to 223 total yards. At least, they weren’t able to get going enough to find the end zone.

Armitage, Ashland’s Mr. Football candidate, was limited to just 17-of-32 passing for 129 yards and the score. He did run for 87 yards on 17 carries, but fumbled twice.

“We played well,” Moore said. “We forced some turnovers, which was huge for us, especially in the first half. I’m really proud of our guys.”

Of course, Ashland proved to be its own worst enemy in many regards. The Arrows turned the ball over three times, compared to just one Tiger giveaway.

All three of the Arrow fumbles came in Massillon territory. A second-possession fumble at the Tiger 24; a fumble on a second-quarter run as Ashland was about to score a touchdown that went out of the end zone; and a third-quarter fumble at midfield.

“That’s the thing,” Valentine said. “When you’re playing good people in these situations, you can’t turn the ball over. You can’t have some of the penalties we had. Our kids laid it on the line; I’m proud of their effort. It’s just those things hurt us.”

Those turnovers also helped Massillon reach its first regional championship game since 2012

GAME STATS

History

2017: Massillon 28, Youngstown Boardman 23

November 3, 2017February 28, 2018
by Eric Smith

Massillon rallies to knock out Boardman

Chris Easterling – The Independent

MASSILLON Massillon threw the first punch. The Tigers threw the last one as well.

In between, they endured more than their share of body blows from a Boardman team that had no intention of letting its No. 7 seed define what kind of football team it really was. However, the final blow thrown by Massillon was enough to help it keep on playing, as it rallied for a 28-23 win in Friday’s Division II Region 7 quarterfinal at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“You just keep swinging,” said Massillon coach Nate Moore, who picked up his first playoff win at the school, while ending the program’s three-game postseason losing streak.

Game action vs. Youngstown Boardman 2017

With just over nine minutes remaining, that streak looked like it may well be on its way to continuing. Boardman went in front 23-14 on quarterback Mike O’Horo’s 5-yard touchdown run with 9:19 left.

Then the Tiger offense, which had mustered just 50 total yards over its previous seven combined possessions, came alive. A passing game that had just 74 yards through three quarters exploded for 118 in the final 12 minutes.

On Massillon’s next two possessions after the Spartans opened up the two-score lead, it came up with touchdown passes from Aidan Longwell to Austin Kutcher, a 36-yarder with 8:40 remaining, and to Dean Clark, a 19-yarder with 5:46 left.

Kutscher’s catch, part of a seven-catch, 104-yard night, pulled the Tigers within 23-21. Clark’s catch — one play after he nearly pulled in a pass in the end zone — put Massillon ahead to stay.

“We had great practices all week,” said Moore, whose team will play Ashland in a regional semifinal next Friday at a site to be announced. “For some reason tonight, the shots weren’t falling. They just weren’t. But if you play hard and keep swinging, hopefully you have a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter. That’s what happens.”

Longwell, who was 6-of-9 for 118 yards with the two scores in the fourth, finished the game 13-of-25 for 192 yards with the two touchdowns and one interception.

It took all of 16 seconds for Massillon to throw the first punch of the game. Tyree Broyles took the opening kickoff virtually untouched to the end zone for a 91-yard touchdown return and a 7-0 Tigers lead.

“We actually thought that if they kicked it to Tyree, that we would take it to the house,” Moore admitted.

It was a lead that lasted less than two-and-a-half minutes. After Jujuan Forte brought back the subsequent kickoff 55 yards to the Massillon 35, Boardman took a quick six plays to traverse that distance for the game-tying score.

Maurice Pickard did the honors for the Spartans, scoring on a 7-yard run with 9:22 left in the first quarter. Tommy Fryda’s point-after kick squared it at 7-7.

Massillon’s response was almost as fast as Boardman’s. The Tigers took all of 2:19 to go 57 yards in eight plays, with Jamir Thomas running it in from the Spartan 6 for a 14-7 lead after Klay Moll’s PAT kick with 6:56 remaining in the first quarter.

With three touchdowns in the first 5:04 of the game, it seemed like a shootout was on the way. Except that it would take just over 14 minutes of clock time — and six combined possessions between the two teams — before another score.

Boardman would end the scoring moratorium with an 8-yard touchdown run by O’Horo with 4:47 remaining in the first half. The Spartans, though, missed the PAT kick to keep the Tigers in front at 14-13.

Massillon, after scoring the first two times it touched the ball, was limited to just 60 yards on its final five first-half possessions. Boardman, meanwhile, was held to 50 yards on its four non-scoring drives in the first half.

Boardman would take the lead on the opening drive of the second half. Fryda’s 36-yard field goal just sneaked over the crossbar to cap a 14-play, 52-yard drive to make it 16-14 Spartans.

O’Horo’s 5-yard touchdown run with 9:19 remaining made it 23-14 Boardman. O’Horo finished with 48 rushing yards on 17 carries, while throwing for 89 yards while completing 12-of-21 passing.

GAME STATS

History

2017: Massillon 35, Akron Firestone 6

October 13, 2017October 13, 2017
by Eric Smith

Tigers bounce back, flatten Firestone

Chris Easterling – The Independent
Oct 13, 2017 10:19 PM

MASSILLON Massillon’s first possession Friday night against visiting Firestone went for a three-and-out. It was the first time the Tigers failed to score on their opening possession.

Problem for the Falcons was that Massillon had plenty of other possessions after that one in which it didn’t go three-and-out. In fact, more often then now, they went for touchdowns, as the Tigers bounced back with a 35-6 win over Firestone at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

“I think we were focused and dialed in, which is what we needed to do,” Massillon coach Nate Moore said after his team bounced back from a Week 7 loss to Canisius (N.Y.) to improve to 6-2. “I don’t know how much better we got; we definitely played better. We need to get the film evaluated and evaluate this game just like we did the previous games and continue to get better every week.

Massillon also shook off any first-possession disappointment to make sure it established control of the game before the teams went to the locker room for halftime. The Tigers scored on four consecutive drives after its first one to open up a 28-0 lead going into the break.

It would take Massillon until its second possession of the second half to get on the board as well. That’s when Aidan Longwell hooked up with Aydrik Ford for a 17-yard touchdown to make it 35-0 with 4:31 remaining in the third quarter.

That was one of three touchdown passes for Longwell. He also hit Jayden Ballard and Austin Kutscher for touchdowns in the first half.

“We wanted to come out and make an effort to be more balanced,” said Moore, whose team racked up 360 total yards in the game. “Certainly not perfect, but I thought we did well”

While the Massillon offense generated the points, the Tiger defense was able to do something it had struggled to do at times, even during the five-game win streak. It was consistently able to get off the field quickly.

Two passes to Darshun Williams – a 13-yarder on the Falcons’ first drive and a 39-yarder on their sixth – accounted for the only two times in the first half in which Firestone managed to get across the 50. The first time, which reached the Tiger 43, ended in a punt from the Massillon 46.

The second one put the Falcons on the Massillon 19. The next four plays netted minus-5 yards before Anthony Ballard intercepted a pass in the end zone on fourth down with :38 remaining in the first half.

That was one of two first-half interceptions for the Tigers. Max Turner – who started due to a handful of players being suspended for the first quarter due to a violation of team rules – came up with a one-handed pick to squelch Firestone’s second drive.

Remove Williams’ two big plays and Firestone’s offense netted just 38 yards on 25 first-half plays. Williams would put the Falcons on the board with a 34-yard touchdown catch from Joe Namsick with 8:49 remaining in the game.

The Falcons would finish with 232 yards on 54 plays. Of those, 83 came on the lone scoring drive of the game.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt we played better,” Moore said. “Did we play to our potential? No. We need to continue to evaluate and improve. We’ll do that again this weekend.”

That defensive performance was counted by a workmanlike effort by Massillon’s offense. One fact which was obvious from the very first possession was the Tigers’ desire to work both the run and pass.

Of the four first-half touchdown, two were passes by Longwell and two were runs. Ballard and Kutscher each caught a score in the first quarter, while Tyree Broyles and Jamir Thomas each ran for a score in the second quarter.

At halftime, Massillon had run the ball 18 times for 111 yards, while Longwell was 11-of-14 for 136 yards passing. The Tigers would finish with 163 rushing yards on 35 attempts, while Longwell was 15-of-19 passing for 197 yards.

Tag: <span>Tyree Broyles</span>