HOLT AND BRAY
CARRY THE MAIL
Massillon
Backfield Men Lug Leather
For Many Yards
While Graber
Throws Strikes
To Jasinski
And Willmot
They came, they saw, but they did not conquer. Several thousand football fans of Weirton, W. Va., their hopes
high for victory, wended their way home from Tiger Stadium, Friday evening
disappointed but not all disgruntled with the performance of their high school
football team.
They were part of a crowd of 16,632 fans who saw the
Red Raiders badly beaten 26-6 by a superior Massillon eleven, but they found
satisfaction in their six points, the first scored against the Tigers this
season and the first ever made against Massillon by a Weirton team.
The crowd which from all indications will go down in
the 1942 records as one of the largest of the season, was treated to football
de-luxe as only seen in Massillon and the Weirton team and band had much to do
with it.
The Red Raiders, noticeably on edge for the contest
which they considered their greatest opportunity to beat Massillon, scrapped
from the opening gun to the final whistle and kept apace, with the Tigers in
scoring the second half.
They tossed laterals, combination laterals and
passes and otherwise tried to give the spectators their money’s worth, even
though it was evident after the middle of the second period that they couldn’t
wrap up a victory for their loyal hometown followers.
The Weirton band was all they said it would be, an
organization that is developing rapidly and which will be remembered as one of
the best to set foot in Tiger stadium this year.
Though Weirton scored six points the second half, as
many as the Tigers could tally, it wasn’t enough and did not make up for the
trouncing they received the first two periods, when the Massillon eleven played
the game for “keeps.”
The Tigers seemed to do everything right the first
half, but the backfield sputtered the last two periods and couldn’t get
coordinated for more than the one touchdown drive.
Do not forget that a shifting Weirton defense had
something to do with Massillon’s troubles.
“It was doggone tough trying to figure out what to do,” said Coach
Elwood Kammer after the game. “The way
they ganged up on us made it tough for the ball carriers.”
Carl Hamill, the Weirton coach, was complimentary of
the Tigers performance. “You have a
good team,” he said. “We figured you
had a couple of ends who could catch the ball and we tried to set up a defense
for them, but they caught it anyway. I
like to see boys fight for the ball the way they do. A couple of the passes they caught in the first half really hurt
us.”
The Tiger gridders for the most part emerged from
the game in fairly good condition. Fred
Cardinal, Karl Paulik, and Barney Wallace sustained charley horses and Don
Willmot twisted an ankle. None of the
injuries is believed serious.
The hats were off to Keve Bray and his performance
made you wish that some others would do well to harvest a few boils. Keve didn’t have a chance to practice this
week, because of boils in each armpit.
They were lanced only Thursday, but when the Tigers trotted out for the
kickoff, Keve was at right halfback as usual.
Despite his boils, he played a fine game and his hard running and pass
reception produced two touchdowns and helped to account for others.
Rivaling Bray for ball carrying ability, was Capt.
Chuck Holt, who slam-banged his way through the Red Riders’ line for many a
long gain.
Bob Graber, though he gained little ground carrying
the ball, had his fun throwing strikes at the Tiger ends and backs. He had himself a big first half.
As a blocker, Cardinal hits to kill. In fact he smacked himself right out of the
game with a series of hard smashes that aggravated an old shoulder injury and
put him on the sidelines.
The Tiger line, for the second straight game got the
jump on its heavier opponent and moved Weirton backward most of the evening.
Football games are won and lost on the line, so the
Massillon trenchmen get their share of credit for the 26 points, even though
they did bulge sufficiently to allow Weirton’s Ted Bouyoucas to knife through
for the first points scored against them this season.
Out of the score came the revelation that the Tigers
can take it, and hand it back – for they bounced right back to score their
fourth touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter, and were driving for
another when the end came.
There were no flukes connected with any of the
Massillon touchdowns. They worked hard
for them. An 80-yard march with Holt
carrying that last 34 yards, produced the first. An 85-yard drive got the second, with Bray sweeping in the last
15; a series of passes from Graber, produced the third, Bray gathered a short
peg over the line for the points and a 48-yard march got in the fourth and
final score, Graber carrying the leather across from the five-yard line.
Weirton commanded the ball most of the time in the
third quarter in its march from the Tiger 42-yard line where a Red Rider came
up with Graber’s fumble. The visitors
had everything but the book of rules to get them over the hump and into the
promised land. Once Cardinal
intercepted one of Pete Ziniach’s passes to stop the threat, but Massillon was
offside and the penalty gave Weirton a first down on the Tiger 29. Pete Ziniach poured a screen pass to Frankie
Wypasek for a first on the Tiger 17, only to have Ted Bouyoucas tossed for a
10-yard loss on the play. That seemed
to end another Weir threat.
Interference was called on a pass that gave the Riders a first down on
the Tiger 16 and nullified Bouyoucas’ loss.
Ziniach managed to use the screen pass successfully again as he pegged
the ball to Dickie Glover, sub halfback, and the latter got to within nine
yards of the goal. He moved it two
yards nearer and Bouyoucas lugged it over with room to spare.
It took the visitors 12 plays to get the touchdown,
with passes accounting for most of the yardage. In the five ball carrying attempts the Riders gained 14 yards and
lost 11.
It was the first time a Weirton team has been able
to cross the Tiger goal. The Red Riders
were trimmed 48-0 in 1940 and 6-0 last year.
The statistics show the Tigers just as superior as
the score. They made 31 first downs to
the Riders six and gained 414 yards to their opponents’ 103 yards. Of the 414 yards, 131 were made on eight
completed passes while the visitors gained 26 yards on six completed passes.
The Massillon passing attack was brilliant the first
half with Graber throwing as though he had his toe in the pitcher’s box and Tom
Masinski and Don Willmot making almost impossible catches. Graber threw 14 times the first half and
completed eight. The Tigers didn’t gain
a yard with their forwards the last half though they managed to complete one
for no gain.
The hard hitting performance of the local team the
opening periods showed considerable improvement over their play in the opening
game against Cathedral Latin a week ago.
Running from both T and single wing, the Massillon eleven smashed
viciously at the visitors and ball carriers were accorded good
interference. In the early moments Bray
gained large sections of territory on sweeps around his left end and Holt
pounded the tackles for more yards. The
hammering drew the Red Riders’ secondary in and opened the way for a second
period passing attack.
Going into the second half 20 points to the good,
the Tigers began experimenting with passes in an attempt to improve this
weapon. The visitors, however, came
back fighting too and the Massillon attack fizzled out. The blockers began missing their blocks and
passes were either intercepted or grounded.
Then came Weirton’s opportunity and the Riders capitalized.
Coach Kammer started the same team that swung the
axe on Cathedral Latin last week.
The Tigers got off to a jittery start, “shades of
the 1941 game,” when Holt fumbled the kickoff, but the ball rolled back of the
goal, where he went down on a knee, picked it up and then came out to the
five. The ball was dead when he covered
it behind the goal, however, so the Tigers started their march from the 20.
Holt gained nine yards and Bray put the leather on
his 44 with a left end sweep. Two five
yard penalties pulled the Tigers out of a hole after the Riders apparently had
them stopped. A first down on the Weir
43 set the Massillon team in motion again, but three plays only gained eight
and one-half yards. With fourth down
coming up and a yard and a half to go, Holt exploded inside right tackle and
raced over the goal. He tried to plunge
the extra point across but failed.
Weirton took the kickoff but had to punt back to
Graber who returned from his 15 to the 29.
Bray raced around his left end on a lateral for a first down on the Weir
34. He was in the clear, but got bottled up along the sideline. It was a run of … yards. Holt followed it up with a 10-yard gallop
and a penalty for defensive holding brought a first down on the 18. Graber and Cardinal moved the ball up three
yards and Bray grabbed off the rest of the distance on a sweep over the
goal. Holt plunged for the extra point.
The Tigers had to overcome two penalties to score
their third touchdown. They started
from the 30 when Graber returned a punt from that point to the 45, but were
ticketed 15 yards for unnecessary roughness.
A pass to Bray advanced the leather to the Weir 47 and Cardinal sneaked
through for a first on the 33. Graber
passed from there to Holt for a touchdown, but it was nullified with a 15-yard
penalty for clipping. Jasinski made up the
loss by going over the heads of four Weir secondary to snare a pass on the 10,
and another flip to Bray got the six points.
Holt kicked the extra one. A
pass to Tyre Gibson gave the Tigers a first down on the Weir 10-yard line when
the half ended.
The locals did not threaten the third period, and
you have already been given the sequence of plays that led to Weirton’s
touchdown.
A poor Weirton punt that went nearly straight up in
the air gave the Tigers their last scoring opportunity. Getting the ball out of bounds on the Weir
48, Holt raced 24 yards, and cooperating with Graber, moved it to the five-yard
line where Graber took the leather over.
Holt’s attempted kick for the extra point bounced off the goal posts.
The Tigers second team played the last half of the
fourth period and the youngsters had just succeeded in getting a first down on
the Weir 46 when the game ended.
Sweet Victory
Massillon Pos. Weirton
Willmot LE Zgurski
Edwards LT Wargacki
R. Wallce LG Cimino
B. Wallace C Ostovich
Weisgarber RG Mestrovic
Paulik RT Battista
Jasinski RE Wypasek
Cardinal QB J.
Ziniach
Graber LH Rojak
Bray RH Bouyoucas
Holt FB P. Ziniach
Score by
periods:
Massillon 13 7 0 6 – 26
Weirton 0 0 6
0 – 6
Substitutions
– Massillon: Williams, c; Power,qb; Gibson, rh; Kanney, lg; Profant, c; Mastriann,
fb; Oberlin, le; Gable, re; Schuler, rg; Yelic, rt; Berger, lt; Pellegini, lb.
Weirton: Daugherty, le; Pulaski, lt;
Paris, rg; Grasso, c; Troia, lg; Remenar, rt; Ross, qb; Glover, lh; Kamarec,
fb; Collette; Sawchak.
Touchdowns: Holt, Bray 2, Graber,
Bouyoucas.
Points after
touchdown: Holt, 2 (placekick and plunge)
Referee – Graf.
Umpire – Schill.
Headlinesman – Hazelwood.
Field Judge – Boone.
MASSILLON WHIPS WEIRTON, 26
TO 6
Runs
Unbeaten String to 45 as Graber Stars in Passing Role Before 16,632
MASSILLON, O., Sept. 25 – The
Massillon Washington Tigers piled up a 20-point lead at halftime and then
coasted to a 26-6 victory over the Weirton (W.Va.) High Red Raiders here
tonight before 16,632 fans in Tiger Stadium.
In running their unbeaten string to 45 games, the
Tigers relied on their ace passer, Bob Graber, who spiced the Massillon offense
with a fine exhibition of throwing. The
Tiger passer pitched perfect strikes which accounted for two touchdowns.
The Tigers faced a spirited West Virginia attack in
the last half. It was all Weirton in
the third period. Taking advantage of a
fumble by Graber, Weirton drove 42 yards in nine plays. Then Ted Bouyoucas, right halfback, crashed
center from the seven for the Raiders only six-pointer.
The Massillon club again hit pay dirt in the final
quarter. A 68-yard drive culminated
when Graber, running from punt formation, raced off right tackle from the
six-yard line.
Aided by two Weirton offside penalties, the Tigers
took the opening kick-off and marched 80 yards for their first touchdown. Chuck Holt, speedy fullback, climaxed the
drive by knifing through right guard for the last 35 yards.
After receiving the kick-off Weirton picked up only
three yards and punted out on the Massillon 31. The Tigers then proceeded to duplicate their first scoring
advance. Fine running by Bray produced
the marker. Off the T formation he
raced 35 yards to the Red Raiders’ 29 and then from the 18, cut around left end
for the six-pointer.
Weirton Fans
Disappointed
The game belonged in the same category because it was interesting
throughout. The outcome, of course, was
a great disappointment to the Weirton fans, a majority of whom came here
confident of victory. Weirton was well
represented at the game.
Particularly pleasing to the Massillon fans was the
passing demonstration put on by the Tigers during the first half. As one interested spectator put it.
“I thought Weirton was going to do the passing. Where are some of those 50 and 60 yard
passes we’ve been hearing about?”
It was during the Tigers’ aerial show that it was reported that the St.
Louis Cardinals were thinking about signing Bob Graber as a pitcher. He certainly pitched that ball last night.
MASSILLON – 26
WEIRTON
W.VA. – 6
Willmot LE Zgurski
Edwards LT Wargacki
R. Wallace LG Cimino
B. Wallace C Ostovich
Weisgarber RG Mestrovic
Paulik RT Battista
Jasinski RE Wypasek
Cardinal QB J. Ziniach
Graber LH Rojak
Bray RH Bouyoucas
Holt FB P. Ziniach
Substitutions
– Massillon: Tongas, llg; Williams, rg;
Kanney, rg; Power, qb; Pellegrini, lh; Gibson, rh; Mastriann, fb.
Weirton – Daugherty, le; Pulaski, lt; Ferielli, rg; Troia, rt; Glover, rh.
Touchdowns – Graber, Holt, Bray 2, Bouyoucas.
Points after
touchdown – Holt 2.