Alliance
Handed 12-0
Lacing
By Tigers In Muddy Battle
Washington High Gridders
Establish Themselves As Good Mudders By Winning Fifth Straight Game; Played in
Torrent of Rain
And now, ladies and gentlemen, you have every right to say that your 1943
Washington high school Tigers are a pretty fair country ball club.
They proved it Friday night in the mud and water at
Tiger stadium when they defeated the Aviators of Alliance high school 12 to 0
for their fifth straight victory of the campaign, conquering not only a first
class football opponent but the elements as well. Playing under the most adverse weather and field conditions any
Massillon team has been called upon to face in a number of years Coach Elwood
Kammer’s youngsters accepted their assignment with gusto and came through with
flying colors.
In defeating the Aviators, the orange and black took
the measure of a worthy foe that prior to last night had lost but one game in
four engagements. The victory advances
the Tigers, another milestone in their campaign to regain the Stark county
scholastic championship they surrendered to Canton McKinley last November when
defeated 35 to 0 the first Massillon reverse in 53 games.
Alliance was the second Stark foe to feel the sting
of the Tigers’ attack, Canton Lincoln taking at 15 to 0 lacing in the opening
game of the season. Canton Timken and
Canton McKinley are the two Stark opponents still remaining on the Massillon
schedule.
Very little, if any rain had fallen in Massillon for over a month prior
to Friday but yesterday afternoon and night the heavens opened up and rain fell
in torrents for at least eight hours, turning the Tiger stadium gridiron into a
sea of mud and water. A drenching
downpour fell steadily throughout the game.
Because of the weather, what would have been the
largest home crowd of the season turned out to be the smallest to see the
Tigers in action in five games. Less
than 6,000 hardy souls braved the deluge to sit through a soaking downpour and
watch the Tigers slosh to their triumph over the Aviators. Had the weather been dry a crowd of at least
18,000 would have been on hand. As it
was only the most ardent and enthusiastic Massillon and Alliance supporters
braved a thorough soaking and flirted with pneumonia to watch the contest.
Naturally when the heavens opened up Coach Kammer
and his assistants were a bit worried as to how their charges would perform on
a wet field. Their four previous games
had been played under ideal weather conditions and on a dry and solid
gridiron. But the Tigers showed their
tutors they could deliver the goods in fair weather or foul. They proved themselves a first class aggregation
of mudders as they smashed their way to a pair of touchdowns in the third
quarter to sew up the ball game.
Because of the slippery condition of the field and
the steady downpour the Tiger machine did not function with the smoothness it
was expected to show and probably would have displayed had the footing been
firm. But battling against the handicap
of adverse weather and a stout Alliance team that was tough defensively from
start to finish the Tigers recorded a notable achievement and earned the praises,
not only of their coaches, but of the fans who sat in on the rain saturated
contest.
Alliance, weakened by the loss of Bill Rodgers, its
triple-threat backfield ace, laid up with an injured knee cartilage since the
East Liverpool game two weeks ago, was never dangerous in an offensive way,
never moving the ball beyond the Massillon 40 and never threatening to get
within scoring range. Bill Rodgers
entered the game at the start of the fourth quarter but was in only long enough
to get off a nice punt for the Aviators.
Then Coach Leonard (Dutch) Hoppes called him back to the sidelines.
The Tigers dominated play throughout the game. True their offense did not function as it
did against Steubenville or Akron St. Vincent’s but considering the conditions
under which they played they did right well in their ground gaining and the
poor footing and an unfortunate penalty cost them at least two touchdowns in
the first half. It would have been
interesting to see what would have happened had the battle been staged on a dry
field.
The Tigers clear cup superiority over their enemies
from the eastern end of Stark county is shown in the statistics. The Massillonians made 10 first downs to one
for Alliance, that Aviator first down coming late in the game when the Tigers
were ruled guilty of interfering with
an Aviator pass receiver. Alliance
never came close to moving the chain through its offensive punch.
Despite the steady downpour and the slippery
condition of the field the Tigers handled the ball well and few fumbles were
made. The Tigers tried nine forward
passes and completed two for 39 yards.
Alliance, with Jack Robinson taking the injured Bill Rodgers’ place as
the passer, tried 10 aerial heaves, most of them to Frank Rodgers, Bill’s
brother, and completed but one for five yards that completed pass being the one
on which interference was ruled.
Massillon intercepted on pass.
In the ground gained department the Tigers greatly
excelled the Aviators, having a total gained yardage from scrimmage and passes
of 230 with a loss of 30 for a net gain of an even 200. Alliance had a total gain of 27 yards and a
net loss of 29, winding up with a minus two.
Probably the most outstanding part of the Tigers
performance was its work on defense.
Alliance has some first rate ball luggers in Jack Robinson, Ray Allcorn
and Dick Seidner, who replaced the injured Rodgers, but the orange and black
forward wall smothered them quite effectively, doing a thorough job of smashing
most of Alliance’s attempts to gain ground through the line or around the
ends. The Aviators’ line also
distinguished itself, the Tiger backs finding the alert Alliance forwards hard
to skirt or knock out of a play. The
Tigers, however, did find one weak spot in the Alliance defense and they rammed
through it with telling effect in the second half.
The center of Massillon’s line with Bob Williams at
center and Julius Tonges and Bill Gable on the guards, played its best game of
the season last night. Williams
submarined the Alliance backs time after time and his tackling was a bright
spot in the battle. Tonges and Gable
were in mud and water and the ball game up to their necks. The balance of the line with Belch and
Arrington on the tackles and Willmot and Jasinski at the flanks soaked up a lot
of water but did a thorough job of stopping the visiting firemen.
Henry Mastriann continued to impress as a steady and
excellent line plunger ripping the center of the Aviators’ line apart
consistently for good gains. Captain
Bob Wallace found the going rather tough but completed a number of nice gains
and Romeo Pellegrini got away often enough to keep the Aviators constantly in
hot as well as cold water, and his fine running was directly responsible for Massillon’s
second touchdown. The muddy field made
Glenn Keller’s blocking assignments rather difficult but he was in the ball
game all the time and his recovery of an Alliance fumble set up the first
Massillon points.
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Even the second team, which took over late in the
fourth quarter, acquitted itself well in its initial test in mud and water.
ROUGHNESS
QUICKLY HALTED
Somewhere along the way the Alliance boys must have gotten the impression
that some tactics frowned upon by the rule-book would be necessary to get along
with the Tigers. Anyway on the first
two plays of the game the Aviators were handed two 15-yard penalties for
unnecessary roughness. Frank Rodgers
kicked off to Don Willmot to start the watery contest and Don lugged the
leather back to his 33 before being stopped.
The officials promptly stepped in and marched off 15 more yards because
of roughness by Alliance.
Then Wallace skirted left end for 11 yards and some
more Alliance high jinks were uncorked with the result that Captain Bob came up
with a neat shiner under his left eye and Alliance soaked up another 15 yard
penalty for roughness, taking the ball to the Alliance 24. Then Referee Earl (Monk) Gross stepped into
the picture and from the stands it looked as if he delivered a short but very
pointed lecture to the Alliance boys.
From then on and through the remainder of the game they were nice lads,
playing football as the
rule-book says it should be played.
The Tigers seemed to be on the way to an early
touchdown but a break of the game, and the breaks in such a contest as last
night are frequent and both good and bad, halted their march toward the
Alliance goal. The break came when
Pellegrini got away around his right end and out into the open only to slip and
fall on the alliance 25 where the Tigers had to surrender the leather, having
failed to make the necessary yardage.
Another Massillon march a few minutes later was
sidetracked when the Tigers were set back 15 yards for holding. Late in the first quarter Allcorn got off a
quick kick from midfield that turned into a good break for the Tigers. The ball struck one of Allcorn’s teammates
and Willmot got it just beyond the line of scrimmage and lugged it back to
Alliance’s 36. Mastriann sloshed
through the center of the Aviators’ line three times and toted the ball to
Alliance’s 23 as the quarter ended.
Then came a break that really hurt the Tigers. On the first play of the second period
Pellegrini tucked the leather under his arm and set sail around his right end,
racing 23 yards down the sideline and across the goal only to lose the points
when the officials ruled the Tigers guilty of holding, calling the ball back
and inflicting a 15-yard penalty on the local boys, putting the ball on the
Alliance 38-yard line. A Pellegrini to
Jasinski pass made up this penalty and more, taking the ball to Alliance’s 13
but here the Tigers bogged down and Alliance took the ball on its own 10.
Allcorn punted but the ball went straight up in the
air and out of bounds on Alliance’s 17.
But once again the Tigers could not take advantage of the scoring
opportunity and the Aviators stopped them on the 15. From here on until the end of the period play was confined within
Alliance’s 40-yard line but the Tigers could not strike hard enough to get
within sight of the visitors goal.
The Tigers got their one big break of the ball game
at the start of the third quarter and it was the break that paved the way for
their first points and victory.
Dick Arrington kicked off to Alliance and he kicked
the ball straight down the field.
Robinson got his hands on the ball but it slithered out of his fingers
and Glenn Keller pounced on it on Alliance’s 15-yard stripe. And six plays later the Tigers hit pay dirt
for their first touchdown.
Mastriann ramming through that weak spot in the
Alliance line made a first down to the three in two plunges and then came back
to make one more on his third attempt.
Vic Turkall who had replaced Pellegrini at the start of the third
period, picked up another yard to the two and Mastriann sloshed one more to the
one. Pellegrini returned to the game
and on the next play Captain Wallace lugged the leather over for the first
Massillon touchdown. Mastriann didn’t
get a chance to try for the point from placement. The ball slipped out of Pellegrini’s hands and Romeo picked it up
and tried a forward pass that failed.
A short time later the Tigers were again knocking at
the touchdown door and their knocks brought results.
Gaining possession of the ball on their 35-yard line after Seidner had
punted, the Tigers started a march of 65 yards for their second touchdown, two
neat runs by Pellegrini featuring the unbroken advance. Seven plays were required in this 65-yard
march.
Mastriann still plugging away at the weak spot in
the center of Alliance’s line made 18 yards in two plays. Massillon received a five yard penalty for
too much time out in the huddle but Mastriann picked up three of these in another
line smash. Then Pellegrini let out all
his sails and churned his way through mud and water wide around right end and
down the field for 36 yards before Alliance dropped the anchor on him on the
Aviators’ 16 yard line. It was one of
the prettiest runs of the water-logged battle.
Wallace hit off left tackle for six and Mastriann sloshed through the
line for two. Then once again
Pellegrinni launched another sailing expedition and this time he did all right
and largely without any help from his teammates.
Fading far back Romeo nimbly picked his way through
the mud, ducking would be Alliance tacklers here and there and finally cutting
loose with a burst of speed that carried him by the entire Alliance team and
across the goal line for Massillon’s second touchdown. This time Mastriann got a boot at the ball
from placement but the attempt was wide.
From here on in Massillon had no more scoring
opportunities and in the fourth quarter Kamer began pulling out his soaked
regulars and substituting his second team and late in the game the entire second
string aggregation was getting a chance to get its uniforms wet. Alliance, thwarted on the ground went to the
air in a desperate attempt to score but got exactly nowhere on its aerial
attack. It did however, register its
only first down of the game late in the third quarter when the officials ruled
Massillon interference on a pass play.
Massillon’s second stringers in the game when it
ended were Turkall, Wilbert, Pedrotty, Bertrus Webb and Donald Sedjo in the
backfield and Wilmer Luke, Dick Ielsch, Bob Richards, John Profant, Francis
Cicchinelli, Larry Berger, and Bob Clark on the line.
Statistics
Tigers Alliance
Total
first downs 10 1
Yards gained by rushing 101 22
Yards lost by rushing 20 20
Net yards gained by rushing 161 7
Forward passes attempted 9 10
Forward passes completed 2 1
Yards gained by passing 39 5
Total net yardage rushing
and passing 200 -2
Passes had intercepted 0 1
Number of punts 6 10
Average distance of punts 31 31
Number of kickoffs 2 1
Average distance of kicks 47 48
Number of fumbles 4 3
Times ball lost on fumbles 1 2
Number of penalties against 4 4