Tigers
Roll
Over Alliance High 26-0
Tight Bengal Defense
Limits Aviators To 44 Net Yards Rushing
By
CHUCK HESS, JR.
Massillon’s terrific Tigers had the “Keys to the
Kingdom” Friday night at Tiger stadium.
And they unlocked another door in the path to a third straight state
high school football championship for Leo Strang’s charges.
The Benglas shut out previously undefeated Alliance
26-0 before the largest crowd of the season.
Some 91,319 fans sat in on the slaughter of the hapless Aviators, who
have never won a game at Tiger stadium.
“We must have read a 100 keys out there,” said a
jubilant Strang. He was referring to
the method by which defenders can diagnose the direction and type of play
coming at them. They watch certain key
players for the tipoff.
* * *
BY DOING THIS expertly
and wheeling and pealing, blitzing from and eight-man defensive line and
pursuing plays doggedly the Tigers held the Aviators to a mere 44 net yards
rushing. The Bengals completely
smothered Alliance’s heretofore explosive attack. They were thus the first to stop the deadly Alliance sweep
play. The vaunted “Pony Backs” – Marion
Young, Glenn Hill and Larry Grimes, never had a chance. Quarterback Jim LaFountain got few passes
away. The ones he connected on netted
Alliance only 10 yards. When he did
pass, the Tiger secondary covered receivers like a glove, allowing Mel
Knowlton’s boys to complete only one of nine aerials.
“This was the best defensive effort I’ve ever gotten
from a team playing an opponent the caliber of Alliance,” Strang said. He meant not only at Massillon but in his
entire coaching career.
An effort like the one the Bengals made Friday night
has to be a tribute to a great coaching staff.
A fine job of scouting plus utilization of the reports to the utmost
resulted in the Tigers’ fourth straight and most impressive win of the season.
“We, the coaches, put in long sessions this week,
staying up to midnight and 1 a.m. studying the Alliance offense and how to
defense it correctly,” Strang said.
“I’m dead. I haven’t had a good
night’s sleep in a week,” he added
* * *
A DEJECTED KNOWLTON
said, “I have no alibis. We were lousy
in all departments. But don’t get me
wrong,” he added, “I’m not taking anything away from Massillon. That’s a great team.”
The contest was marred by a free-for-all at the
contest’s conclusion. Massillon’s Bob
Baker and Alliance’s Marion Young had a difference of opinion in the middle of
the field during the last play. Then
both benches emptied. Fists were
swinging and helmets flying. But most
of the uproar was a lot of pushing.
Both Strang and Knowlton, right in the middle of the
melee, said, “We tried to break the thing up.
But as quickly as one fight was stopped, more got started. This is an awful thing to have happen.” Actually, there weren’t as many boys
fighting as it seemed, but it was enough to ruin an otherwise fine night of
football. The altercation was stopped
after about five minutes.
It would be unfair to single out any Bengal for fine
play offensively or defensively because all did such a tremendous job. But it must be mentioned that Fullback Ken
Dean scored three of the Tigers’ four touchdowns.
It appears that Dean, who reported about 40 pounds
overweight last month and is now down to a trim, for him, 218, is back on the
beam. His old speed and power, which
brought him All-American honors in 1960, appear to have been recovered.
* * *
“IT SURE FELT
great out there,” the big guy said, “but please give the whole gang
credit. They gave me the
opportunities.”
One of the guys who was instrumental in Dean’s TD
romps was Ron Schenkenberger. He caught
two key passes that set up two six-pointers.
The little wingback also set up another score by Fullback Fred Philpott.
Passing was all important to the Strangmen. They opened up the middle by throwing to
unstack the Aviators’ five-four and four-five defenses which jammed up the
Tigers’ ground game down the middle.
It looks like Philpott and Dean will be the big
yardage boys from now on. Philpott did
the open field running and Dean got the short yardage in tight.
“That’s the way I’ll use them the rest of the
season,” Strang said.
The Tigers won the toss for the first time this
season. But it didn’t do them any
good. On their first play from
scrimmage, the Bengals fumbled on their own 42. Jim Fraraccio recovered for Alliance.
The Aviators drove to the Massillon 24, their
deepest penetration of the night. On a
first down play, Alliance fumbled, and Steve Garland hopped on the errant
pigskin.
* * *
IT COULD BE that
this fumble broke the spirit of the Aviators for they never got going
again. Had they gotten an early score,
the game might have been tighter.
This could also have been what the doctor ordered
for Massillon. The Bengals were
certainly keyed up for the entire 48 minutes.
The Tigers got only four yards during their first
series. But that was the only time they
didn’t get more than one first down when they had the ball in their hands.
The Airmen, on the other hand, got only one other
drive going the entire night, and they lost the ball on downs on the Massillon
26 on that one, which occurred in the last period.
Quarterback Jim LaFountain punted on fourth and two on
the Massillon 42 in the second Alliance series. Schenkenberger, attempting the runback, gave the hometown fans a
fright when he fumbled on his 12. He
recovered, however.
* * *
THE TIGERS then
took off on an 88-yard touchdown romp, covering 15 plays and picking up five
first downs along the route. Strang’s charges alternated between sweeps and
plays up through the center on the drive.
Schenkenberger had two fine pass catches to help set
up Massillon’s first score. The first
was a 17-yarder on the down-and-out pattern from mid field to the Alliance
33. Quarterback Jim Alexander completed
another from the 17 to the two with Schenk running the diagonal pattern.
Dean then came into the game and ran two straight
wedge plays up the center, scoring from the one on the second run as the first
period ended. Brown tried to go between
the long side guard and inside tackle for the conversion but missed.
Another Alliance series followed. And LaFountain was forced to punt
again. Schenkenberger fumbled and recovered
again, this time at the Airmen’s 47.
Had he not lost time on the bobble he might have scored for his path was
wide open.
Cornerbacker, Floyd Pierce made a brilliant
over-the-shoulder interception on the Aviators’ 29, to set the stage again.
Schenkenberger grabbed a button-hook pass on the
next play and raced to the two from where Dean went over on the wedge a second
time at 5:54. Alexander’s pass to Larry
Ehmer misfired on the conversion attempt.
* * *
LINEBACKER
Charlie Whitfield put the Tigers back into business near the end of the period
by recovering an Alliance fumble on the Aviators’ 41, but the Bengals failed to
capitalize on the situation this time.
Massillon’s last effort of the half ended when a
pass to Schenkenberger down the middle was knocked down by safety Tony King
around the Aviator 10. He batted down
two other potential TD aerials.
Both Strang and Knowlton heaped praise on King
saying, “He did a tremendous job on defense.”
In the third period Massillon got its only TD coupled
with a conversion. Again it was Dean,
this time on what started with the big fullback cutting in between the tackles
and then out to the sideline on the right side. He carried two players with him and finally fell on the goal flag
for the score at 1:37. The run came
from the five. Brown’s sweep of right
end netted the conversion.
Massillon had taken over after an Aviator punt on
the Tiger 49. Covering 51 yards ,the
scoring march was completed in eight plays.
One of the really funny incidents of the night
occurred in the third period. On
another Aviator punt Schenkenberger and Baker each thought the other was going
to catch the ball and it hit the former on the top of his head. Luckily the Tigers recovered.
* * *
MASSILLON SCORED its
last TD in the dying minutes of the game, showing once again that the Tigers
know how to utilize the clock. The
Tigers recovered a fumble on the Alliance 29 to set this one up.
In three plays it was 26-0 at 0:38. Schenkenberger caught a pass on the first
play using the “banana” pattern, out and then looping in and down the
center. The play carried to the
11. Brown swept right end to the one,
and Philpott scored on the wedge. With
Alexander holding, Co-Captain Ken Ivan attempted to kick a conversion for the
first time this season. However, the
ball hit one of the uprights and caromed back into the field, just missing
going through by inches.
The Bengals’ now leave Tiger stadium until Oct. 20,
playing at Steubenville next week and Cincinnati Roger Bacon, Oct. 12.
Strang set the tone for coming games with the
statement, “I don’t know whether we can stay keyed up for the next five or six
weeks or not.”
Ends – King, Leaf,
Crowder, Green.
Tackles – Admonius, Dunn,
Woods.
Guards – Frearaccio, Long
and Mallory.
Center – Stoops.
Backs – LaFountain,
Grimes, and Young.
MASSILLON
Ends – Ivan, L. Ehmer,
Garland, Pierce.
Tackles – Strobel, Spees,
Paisley, Mercer.
Guards – Clendenin,
Whitfield, Poole, Migge, and Radel.
Center – Bradley.
Backs – Alexander,
Schenkenberger, Brown, Philpott, Baker,
Dean, Snively, Davis and Williams.
Massillon –
6 6 8 6 – 26
Scoring
Touchdowns –
Dean 3 (one, two, five-yard runs);
Philpott (one-yard run).
Conversions –
Brown (sweep).
OFFICIALS
Referee – Bud Shopbell.
Umpire – Jim Lymper.
Head Linesman – (unreadable)
Field Judge – (unreadable)
STATISTICS
Mass. All.
First
downs – rushing 11 2
First
downs – passing 4 1
First
downs – penalties 0 2
Total
first downs 15 5
Yards
gained rushing 206 84
Yards
lost rushing
9 40
Net
yards gained rushing 197 44
Yards
gained passing 103 10
Total
yards gained 300 54
Passes
attempted 14 9
Passes
completed 6 2
Passes
intercepted by 1 1
Times
kicked off 5 1
Kickoff average (yards) 45.8 45
Kickoff returns (yards) 20 61
Times
punted 4 4
Punt
average (yards) 38.2
33.5
Punt
return (yards) 17 14
Had
punts blocked 0 0
Fumbles 2 4
Lost
fumbled ball 1 3
Penalties
3 2
Yards
penalized 35 10