GREAT BLOCKING
BEATS
LINCOLN
Ball Carriers Given As Fine An Exhibition Of Downfield Blocking As Has Ever Been Seen Here; 15,819 Fans Stand Up and Cheer
Ox cannot lick
Tiger.
This was proved convincingly to 15,819 fans who saw
the Washington high Tigers outspeed and outfight a heavier Lincoln, Neb., high
school team here Friday evening to extend their undefeated string of games to
46 with a rousing 40-6 victory.
There was fear in more than one Massillonian’s heart
when the towering Lincoln players took the field, packing from eight to 10 more
pounds per player than the Tigers.
The fears were justified in the first period, when
Lincoln covered a Massillon fumble inside the 30-yard line and charged back
after being stopped once, to score on a well executed forward pass that had the
Tigers trailing 6-0 at the end of the quarter.
Then lightning struck with the suddenness of the
jungle cat and it was evident to all that the superior speed and fight of the
Massillonians could more than offset the weight advantage held by the visitors.
The Tigers were mad and even that isn’t saying
it. Any fan who thought they might
fold, folded under his own astonishment when the locals grabbed the kickoff
following the Lincoln touchdown and in three running plays, tied the score at
6-6. Keve Bray lugged the leather over
in a jaunt to the sidelines then a reverse of his field for 30 yards, on the
opening play of the second period.
Holt was thrown back when he tried to lug the ball
over for the extra point, but it mattered not as the final score shows, and the
Nebraskans might well have turned to corn huskin’ the rest of the game as far
as football was concerned.
The Lincoln defense collapsed completely after the
touchdown and it was one steady parade of touchdowns through the heralded
Nebraska forward wall from there on in.
Lead of 20-6
At Half
The Tigers drove 58 yards for another the next time they got the ball,
with Chuck Holt bouncing over for the last six inches. Then came the third and final Massillon
touchdown of the half, an 85-yard return of an intercepted Lincoln pass by
halfback, Bob Graber. Brother, you can
watch the ball carriers, our eyes are on the blockers from now on in.
Members of the Tiger team convoyed Graber, those 85
yards just like Uncle Sam protects his transports. All Bob had to do was run down the side line, and run he
did. One tackler came after him just as
he intercepted the ball. Wham, and Keve
Bray removed him from his path. Fifteen
yards down the sidelines, another Lincoln tackler boomed in, you could hear the
thud in the stands when Tom Jasinski knocked him out of the play. Graber found another tackler awaiting him at
the 50-yard stripe. Chuck Holt almost
cut him in two. At the 35-yard line the
last Lincoln player cut across the field to make the tackle. Bob was running a straight line, three feet
in from the sidelines. He slowed up a
bit, when up came Bob Wallace with a leveler that gave Graber a clear path the
rest of the way. The stands roared for
once the blockers were getting the same share of glory as a ball carrier. Old high school players who were stars in
their day, like “Swig” Thomas bounced right out of their seats. “Never saw anything like it.”
Graber’s Run
Is Longest
Massillon’s mighty Tigers, state title claimants the
last seven years continued to prowl with a 40 to 6 win over Nebraska’s state
champs from Lincoln – the 46th straight game without defeat for the
Stark county powerhouse. Bob Graber,
Massillon back, intercepted a pass and raced 80 yards for the week’s longest
touchdown run.
It was a clear out demonstration of what good, hard
blocking can do.
In fact the Tiger offense began to improve just as
soon as Fred Cardinal, their regular blocker, got into the game. Dallas Power started in his place and did
just as good as could be expected, considering that he has worked most of the
time with the backs of the second team, and was not sufficiently timed with the
first team backs. His blocking showed
to better advantage when he was working with the second team than when he was
on the first string eleven, and he laid some beauties into his opponents.
The 85-yard touchdown run by Graber, gave the Tigers
a comfortable 20-6 lead at the end of the first half and fans leaned back in
their seats the last two periods to enjoy the game with greater assurance of
victory.
Lincoln shot the works, forwards off laterals,
spinners, and sneakers off the “T” formation, but the visitors lacked the speed
to cope with the local eleven. Their
best weapon was the forward pass and they had a fine thrower in Gene
Kirkendall, who completed five throws for 87-yards, but his team lost more
yards than it gained on running plays and as a result showed but two first
downs in the summary, one in each half, against the Tigers 18 first downs, nine
in each half.
The Tigers gained 380 yards by rushing, only lost
one yard, and completed two passes for gains of 36 yards. They completed another for a touchdown but
it was not allowed because Don Willmott, the receiver, was offside on the play.
To the spectator, the game was far better than the
40-6 score would indicate. The powerful
first quarter, alone paid its dividends in interest and enthusiasm and the band
show at the half would be a cinch in Madison Square Garden.
To the Massillon fan, the Tiger football team has
doubled in improvements with each succeeding game, and in the opinion of Coach
Elwood Kammer, it will have to double again in order to take the measure of
Alliance high next Friday evening.
Kammer trying to conceal his joy of victory after the game, got his
players into a huddle and reminded them that a Youngstown newspaperman last
week picked Alliance to win the Stark county championship this year.
At the other end of the stadium, in the Lincoln
dressing room, players and coaches were trying to figure out what had
happened. “We don’t know,” one of the
players remarked, and he was sporting about it.
No Alibi For
Defeat
Noticing his disappointment, we ventured the
suggestion that it isn’t easy to ride all night in a railroad coach and play
football the next day.
“No, that didn’t have anything to do with it,” the
game youngsters replied, “we are not going to use that for an alibi, we were
beaten good, and that’s all there is to it.
But we didn’t quit, did we? I
know I didn’t,” and the abrasions on his nose, forehead, and cheek certainly
testified to that.
The visitors were sporting about the whole affair,
and admitted that this venture into Ohio football, was considerably different
from the two occasions years ago, when they knocked Toledo Waite loose from the
Ohio pedestal when the Maumee gridders were ruling the Buckeye football throne.
The whole story seems to be that the Massillon
eleven last night actually showed the type of football it is capable of
playing. The Links, with a big, strong
and heavier forward wall, thought they could stop the Tiger running attack with
a six-man line, so they deployed five men in the secondary in 2-2-1 fashion to
guard against passes. The latter worked
fairly successful, but the six-man line wasn’t equal to the task as was clearly
demonstrated when the Tigers roared back in three plays after the Lincoln
touchdown to tie the score. Occasional
passes were thrown, and even though only two of them worked, they were
effective from a strategic standpoint in that they forced the Lincoln secondary
to stay back, and thereby opened the way for the running attack.
The Tigers were in a hole most of the first period,
and though they pulled themselves out, a bad punt or a bit of bad judgment got
them in again and helped to open the way for Lincoln’s touchdown.
On the second play of the game, Holt fumbled and Bob
Patton of Lincoln flopped on the ball on the Tiger 32. You could almost get a ping out of the tense
anxiety in the stands, but on fourth down, Graber ended the threat when he
snared on of Kirkendall’s passes on the 17-yard stripe.
Then and there Lincoln showed signs of not being any
too strong defensively, for the Tigers marched up the field to the Lincoln
43. Then with fourth down coming up and
a yard needed for a first down, Graber punted and the ball slanted off his foot
and out of bounds on the 35-yard line.
The Links gained 10 yards on an exchange of punts and got the ball on
their 45. They went to work and made
Massillon hearts sink as they moved deeper and deeper into Tiger
territory. Kirkendall worked a pass to
Roger O’Donnell for a first down on the Tiger 35-yard line, but three more
downs only gained five yards and it was fourth down and five to go. Everybody in the park seemed to know a
forward pass was coming and so did the Tigers, but this fellow O’Donnell has
the fightin’ Irish in his blood and he took off over the heads of the Massillon
secondary to pull in the leather and stiff arm one-two-three tacklers before
going over the goal in a heap. He went
down in a thud with a Massillon player on top of him, but there’s no denying he
made it and everybody in the stands asked the same question, “Is this the
night!”
They felt a little better when Patton’s attempted
kick for the extra point was wide of the upright for they saw the possibility
of a 7-6 defeat removed, but still neither team had been thoroughly tested and
it was only the first period.
Coach Kammer was concerned too, for he sent
Cardinal, his first string blocker, into the lineup, to muster all the strength
possible for this next thrust.
Maybe the Tigers didn’t need Cardinal. Maybe they could have done it without him,
but what followed was legalized mayhem on the football field.
Cardinal got the kickoff and went back 20 yards to
his 36. Holt’s blockers exploded a bomb
in the middle of the Lincoln line and he raced to the visitors 46, a dash of 18
yards. Graber tried to pass but it
didn’t connect, so he turned again to the running attack. This time he carried the ball and went 16
yards to he Lincoln 30. There the
quarter ended.
Now it was Keve Bray’s turn to show what he could do
and did he do it? He came around left
end like the Broadway limited and cut back through the middle of the field to
go over with room to spare, a 30-yard run that tied the score. An attempt to plunge the ball over failed.
The Tiger defense bristled and stopped Lincoln after
the kickoff with a one-yard gain in three plays. Kirkendall kicked to the Massillon 42, and the Tigers were on the
loose again. Holt banged to the Lincoln
34 and Graber, almost stopped twice, ran to a first down on the Lincoln
34. Thus in five running plays the
Tigers had made four first downs and a touchdown.
Graber pitched to Willmot for what looked like a
touchdown but Willmot got a head start on the ball and was offside, so Graber
turned around and threw it to Bray for a first down on the 19.
Holt and Bray put the leather on the six-inch line
and Holt carried it over, for the touchdown and Cardinal for the extra point.
The two teams took turns intercepting passes after
that, but Graber got in the last lick on the brilliant 85-yard dash you have
already been told about.
Just to show they had no intention of letting up,
the bloodthirsty Tigers scored the first time they got their hands on the ball
in the third period. Lincoln received
the kickoff, and failing to make more than five yards, punted to Graber who
came back to his 33. Graber and Holt
smashed for 12 and a 20-yard pass to Jasinski, placed the leather on the
Lincoln 38. Graber and Cardinal carried
to the 22 and the whole left side of the Lincoln line was torn apart as Graber
circled right end for the touchdown.
Holt kicked the extra point.
Tiger substitutes were steaming into the game the
rest of the way as they made two touchdowns.
They marched 58 yards with Gibson and Henry Mastriann doing most of the
lugging. The latter plunged over from
the 12-yard line for the score. His
attempted kick for the extra point was blocked, but Jasinski was on the alert,
picked up the bouncing ball and lugged it over to hoist the score to 34-6.
The final touchdown came on another 53-yard drive,
with Gibson running 15 yards to the 35, then 21 yards to the 10, nine yards to
the one-yard line, where Romeo Pellegrini took it over.
Coach Kammer cleaned his bench of substitutes the
last period, giving every boy an opportunity to play.
Game Statistics
Total First Downs 18 2
Yards Gained by Rushing 380 19
Yards Lost by Rushing 1 83
Net Yards Gained by Rushing 379 -64
Net Yards Gained by Passing (a) 36 87
Forward Passes Attempted 18 39
Forward Passes Completed 2 5
Passes Had Intercepted 3 6
Number of Punts 4 1
Average Distance of Punts (b) 34 42
Number of Kickoffs 8 2
Number of Fumbles 2 0
Times Ball Lost on Fumbles 1 0
Number of Penalties Against 2 6
Yards Lost By Penalties 20 45
Great Victory
Massillon Pos. Lincoln
Willmot le Kremarik
Edwards lt McKay
R. Wallace lg Means
B. Wallace c Galter
Weisgarber rg Lee
Paulik rt Patton
Jasinski re Fox
Power qb O’Donnell
Graber lh Kirkendall
Bray rh Valencia
Holt fb Glenn
Score by
periods:
Massillon 0 20
7 13 – 40
Lincoln 6 0
0 0 –
6
Substitutions
– Massillon: Cardinal, qb; Yelic,rt; Kanney, lg; Pellegrini, lh; Gibson, rh;
Mastriann, fb; Williams, c; Oberlin, le; Gable, re; Tongas, lg; Schuler, rg;
Berger, lt; Fulton, rh; Turkall, lh; Profant, c; Bamberger, re; Adams, qb;
Kiefer, fb; Keller, le;l Richards, lg; Cicchinelli, rg; Luke, le; Parsetti, lh;
Belch, rt; Ilsch, lt.
Lincoln: Becker, rt; Epp, lt; Jacobsen,
rh; M. McDermott, re; J. McDermott, lh; Mulder, rg.
Touchdowns – Bray, Graber 2, Holt, Mastriann, Pellegrini, O’Donnell.
Points after
touchdown – Holt 2 (kick and plunge),
Jasinski (carried), Cardinal (carried).
Referee – Lobach.
Umpire – Graf.
Headlineman – Rupp.
Field judge – Long.
The
Greatest Show On Earth! That’s
Massillon Grid Extravaganza
You will pardon, I hope, the many rave notices on
Massillon high school football which appear on these pages.
There is one real reason for them. The Massillon Tigers and the Tiger band make
up the greatest football show in this part of the country, and until there is
evidence to the contrary, the greatest football show in the nation.
This great spectacle is coming to an end, of
course. All such spectacles are nearing
the end for the duration. I fully
believe I am doing Akronites a favor by urging that they see the Massillon show
at least once before the season’s end.
The diminutive Tiger gridders who beat the Lincoln
Neb. giant Links Friday night 40-6 represented the best coordinated, most
precise ball club seen around these parts in years.
Forty-six games have gone into the books since
Massillon last lost. That defeat was by
new Castle in 1937. No Ohio team has
beaten the Tigers since 1934. And this
is 1942!
Elwood Kammer is the third head coach the Tigers
have had in three years. Paul Brown was
the originating wizard behind the “Massillon system.” When he went to Ohio State, Bud Houghton took over and became the
“miracle man of 1941” with he undefeated team.
Now comes Kammer up from the junior high level to head
the Tiger football squad and in three games he has proved to the most critical
fans that this year’s team, lacking big name stars, is playing better football
than its predecessors for as far back as memory can be stretched.
Long ago we exhausted our supply of superlatives in
describing George “Red” Bird’s band. To
go into that subject now would only be to say the greatest tribute paid it is
that other high school bands try to copy its every move and every feature…and
none comes close.
A new feature was added Friday night when the
G.A.B.S. made their debut. The G.A.B.S.
are the girls’ auxiliary band salesmen corps, a group of 80 brilliantly
uniformed girls from Washington high school, 79 of whom have a father or
brother in the armed forces. The 80th
had a brother in the service. He was
killed.
Directed by Bernadine Bell, a teacher in the high
school, with Norma Ackley as commander and Caroline Smith as vice commander,
these girls sold stamps and war bonds to Friday’s crowd after having been
beautifully introduced in conjunction with the band show.
What was the result? Well, they took only $1,200 in stamps to the stadium . They sold all $1,200 worth in a few
minutes. In addition they sold $500 in
bonds, without really emphasizing bond sales.
This was their first attempt. The G.A.B.S. will be a regular feature at
the Massillon football show for the duration.
Who can say this isn’t worthwhile?