Tigers Surprise Selves
With
4 Fumbles
By CHUCK HESS, JR.
It was a typical Massillon-Alliance game – rough, rugged and marked by that usual Mel Knowlton surprise. The Aviators, once again, were as irritating as that grain of sand which brings on a pearl in an oyster.
Traditionally
Bruce hit the proverbial
nail on the head after the game when he said, “We’ll find out next week if the
Tigers are really Tigers. We’re
challenged.
He added, thoughtfully,
“This team hasn’t been up for a game yet.
I’m anxious to see what we can do when we’re up.”
Although the
“We had 4 fumbles and 2 pass
interceptions,” Bruce said, “but we won the game. I’m pleased with the boys on this count
because
*
* * * *
ALLIANCE, known for its end sweeps, made a lot of yardage that way, especially on
pitchouts to senior halfback Bruce Walker running behind fine
interference. “They’re running away from
our monster,” Bruce explained. (The
Aviators ran to their weak side with
“There was one time when
they must have swept into the sidelines 13 of 15 times,” Bruce said. “But there was no major breakthrough. They had to work for everything they
got. We really hit them hard.”
Bruce was unhappy about his
pass rushing. “We didn’t contain their
passer well at all,” he explained.
The Aviator passer, junior
quarterback Larry Libis, was the 1965 Knowlton
surprise. He had played in only one
offensive play before Friday night.
“We had to gamble on Libis,” Knowlton said.
“He looks like he’s going to be a good one.”
The 6-foot, 155-pounder
handled the ball well, should be a good passer with more experience, and
scrambled well when rushed. Twice he got
away for long gains on broken plays.
Bruce also lauded Libis. “He looks
like a real find,” the Earle of Tigertown said.
Knowlton was very happy with
his charges. “Our kids battled all the
way,” he said. “They played a good game
for the first time this year.”
Knowlton thought gang
tackling and pursuit on the part of his team was good. “They played well defensively,” he said. “They had to;
*
* * * *
THE GAME turned out to be a ground war with
Massillon completed 5 of 10
aerial attempts for 90 yards,
The Tigers got yardage
almost everywhere they ran but could use better blocking. The Aviators stuck to the outside after they
found the likes of middle guard Fred Williams and linebackers Paul Marks, Will
Foster, John Rose and Rick Richards stacking things up.
The
Alliance had almost twice as
many plays as Massillon in the first half, 39-22. Total for the game was 64-50 in favor of the
Aviators who displayed a fine possession game.
As Bruce remarked, “they
sure kept the ball from us and you can’t score without the ball.”
Bill Williams ran the
opening kickoff back 16 yards for the Tigers to their 43 as
*
* * * *
THE FIRST
Alliance Co-Captain Charles Codrea, who had done all the quarterbacking for the first 3
games, punted on fourth down. A fumble
resulted on the
The Tigers couldn’t either
but on the series following the next punt they were touchdown bound. Sheegog came up
with a 15-yard runback to the
Sheegog hit end Rick Paige with a short pass to the 34. Lemon shot off tackle again for the score
with
Shortly after the start of
the second quarter the WHS team started out of its own territory after a punt
only to fumble on the
Then
The Tigers took over on
their 33 with
Lemon ran to the 30 and then
Sheegog let fly to Paige in the end zone on a post
pattern with
Junior Ron Muhlbach made sure Alliance didn’t get far on the kick
runback, ramming Carl Dunn into the grass at the 6 about a minute before the
half ended.
The Aviators got out of
their own territory only once after that in the second half.
*
* * * *
THE FIRST play of the fourth quarter was a punt, which was grounded on the
A second down pass to Lemon
from Sheegog for 12 yards and a first down on the 11
helped set the stage for the score. Two
passes from the 9 were incomplete after a running play. Then Sheegog found
Tommy James in the center of the end zone on fourth down even though “Dandy
Dave’s” arm was hit. A pitch-play for
the conversion failed.
The win was the fourth
straight this season for Massillon, 22 straight dating back to 1963 and 22
straight at home dating back to 1962. It
was the third straight over
Bruce’s personal string is
at 37 counting the August All-Star game.
Ends – Jenkins, Lloyd.
Tackles – Amonius, Wright, Jones, McCoy.
Guards – Artino,
Hardy, Woods.
Centers – Popa, Lear.
Quarterbacks – Codrea, Libis.
Halfbacks – Dunn, Ramsey, Baucum, Ross, Grimes.
Fullback – Walker.
Ends – Paige, B. Williams,
McGuire, Gallion,
Tackles – Petroff, Campbell, Hartley, Neago,
Sherrett.
Guards – Richards, Whitifield, Ross, Kraft.
Centers – Marks, F.
Williams, Ehmer.
Quarterbacks – Sheegog, Maurer, Doolittle.
Halfbacks – Lemon, Foster,
James, Smith, McLendon,
McFadden, Healy.
Fullback – Manson.
Score by
Quarters:
Touchdowns:
from Sheegog); James (9-yard pass from Sheegog).
Extra
points:
OFFICIALS:
Referee – Tony Pianowski (
Umpire – Joe Romano (
Head Linesman – John Agnone (
Field Judge – Bob Ferguson (
First downs—rushing 10 8
First downs—passing 3 2
First downs—penalties 0 0
Total first downs 13 10
Yards gained rushing 231 187
Yards lost rushing 10 36
Net yards gained rushing 221 151
Net yards gained passing 90 44
Total yards gained 311 195
Passes attempted 10 12
Passes completed 5 5
Passes intercepted by
0 2
Yardage on passes intercepted 0 20
Times kicked off 4 2
Kickoff average (yards) 48.2 40
Kickoff returns (yards) 49 53
Times punted 1 5
Punt average (yards) 37.0 30.6
Punt returns (yards) 16 0
Had punts blocked 0 0
Fumbles 4 3
Lost fumbled ball 4 1
Penalties 1 2
Yards penalized 5 30
Touchdowns rushing 1 1
Touchdowns passing 2 0
Touchdowns by interception 0 0
Total number of plays 50 64