How
tough Tigers?
Still
unanswered:
By CHUCK HESS, JR.
Independent Sports Editor
It
was almost too easy for the Massillon Tigers and that’s not good because Coach Bob
Commings still hasn’t gotten a real line on his Washington high team.
A
60-0 laugher over an outclassed Toledo Whitmer aggregation before 12,371 Friday
night at Tiger stadium coupled with previous 60-6 and 22-20 victories only
compounded Commings’ dilemma. There
have been two cases of weak opposition and another of WHS mistakes preventing
the skipper from seeing what his charges could do against a good club.
“I
really don’t know how good this team is yet,” Commings confided. “Now we must start playing for keeps with
Niles coming in next week to start off our league All-American conference
campaign.
* * *
DON’T GET the boss wrong. He was plenty
happy with his charges.
“We
learned something tonight,” he said.
“You’ve got to go out and take it to them. Our suicide kickoff squad really played ball and our defense
really hit.”
So
good was the defense that Whitmer didn’t get out of its back yard until late in
the fourth quarter when the subs got in.
The Panthers managed only 56 total yards, all on the ground, and failed
to complete seven passes.
One
of the fellows Commings singled out for his defensive work was end Ed
McConnaughead.
“He
did a marvelous job,” Commings said.
* * *
THE ORANGE and Black rolled up the exact number of yards on the ground as in the
air – 192 – and completed 10 of 16 passes, causing a shell-shocked Norm Decker,
Whitmer coach, to remark, “I’d take his third string quarterback!”
It
was the most number of passes thrown by the Tigers this season and for good
reason.
“We
didn’t have the punch we thought we should have down in close,” Commings
explained, “so we had to resort to passing.
Our problem was we blew some assignments.”
The
Tigers scored four times through the air, four on the ground, tallied five conversions
via aerials and kicked two. They scored
nine of the 11 times they had the ball.
Fullback
Mike Autrey tallied three six-pointers, wingback Bernard Sullivan scored two
and added a conversion, split end Don “The Hawk” Lewis caught two conversion
passes, quarterback Denny Franklin scored a touchdown, threw a TD pass and two
conversion aerials.
* * *
QUARTERBACK GARY Herring threw a touchdown and two conversion passes
and kicked a conversion, quarterback John Fromholtz threw two TD aerials, one conversion
pass and made two timely interceptions and tailback Mike Mauger scored a
touchdown and kicked a conversion.
Fumbles
aborted Tiger drives the first two times they got the ball when wingback Larry
“Skooter” Harper got off a fantastic 44-yard punt runback to the Whitmer
38. Four plays later Autrey went off
tackle from the 25 on first down with 3:39 left in the first quarter.
Mauger
kicked the conversion.
A
48-yard pass-run play from Franklin to Harper, with Harper racing 37 yards, set
up the next score together with an 11-yard Franklin aerial to right end Mike
Robinson after Franklin had thrown 20 yards to Lewis for a TD only to have the
Tigers in motion.
The
drive took nine plays with Lewis eventually getting the score on a six-yard,
third down sprint pass from Franklin to the corner with 9:46 left in the second
quarter. The same play netted a
conversion.
TAILBACK DARNELL, “Bopper” Streeter took off on a 34-yard punt
runback to the Whitmer 32. Four plays
later Autrey went through the middle from the 10 on the third down with 6:18
left after setting up the score with a 15-yard draw jaunt.
Franklin
again found Lewis for the conversion.
After another punt, a 15-yard personal foul penalty on Whitmer and a clipping
walk off against the Tigers, Herring found Sullivan with a 40-yarder on the
two. After a leaping catch, “Sullie”
stumbled into the end zone with 1:05 left.
He had missed a TD pass minutes before.
Mauger’s
conversion kick hit an upright and bounced back.
Middle
guard Elijah McLin picked off a fumble at the Whitmer 32 early in the third
quarter. Harper fooled the Panthers
with a double reverse for 37 yards to the 14 and Autrey took it from there with
an off-tackle jaunt.
HERRING KICKED the conversion.
John
Fromholtz, whose No. 13 is proving to be more lucky than the reverse, picked
off a pass and added a 20-yard return to the Whitmer 23. Eight plays later on first down from the
six, Franklin tried to pass, ran out of a trap and scored.
Herring
hit Harper for the conversion on another of those corner capers.
Massillon
took over on downs on the Tiger 35 after having relinquished the pigskin the
same way minutes before. Five plays and
a Franklin-to-Harper 47-yard pass-run later it was touchdown again with 10:35 left
in the fourth quarter. Harper caught
the pass on the Whitmer 23 and scampered to the 17.
The
score was a second down, six-yard pass down the middle to Sullivan who also
caught the conversion aerial. Both
tosses were from Fromholtz with the score coming with 10:35 left in the game.
Fromholtz
picked off another pass and ran it back 23 yards to the Whitmer 34. A 20-yard off-tackle run by junior tailback
Mauger and another double reverse – this one by Sullivan for nine yards –
helped the Tigers hit pay dirt again.
* * *
MAUGER MADE a diving catch of Herring’s end zone pass with 7:22 left. Fromholtz found tight end Dan Byelene for
the conversion.
From
then on it was all Toledo with the game ending with Whitmer on Massillon’s 11.
“They
were just too quick and too fast for us,” Decker said, “They blew us off the
field. They’ve got a real fine
team. When we knocked them down, they
got up and came back.”
WHITMER – 0
Ends
– Rawson, Conrad, Goodrich, Wagner, D. Barber.
Tackles
– Chinni, Cherry, Jacquot, Lazette.
Guards
– Coates, Pugh, Nowakoski, Howard.
Centers
– Sutton, Lotte, Birr.
Quarterback
– Curson.
Halfbacks
– Oikle, Freels, Dankert, Adler, Berndt, Pointinger, Freels, Fritz, Leist,
Good.
Fullbacks
– S. Barber, Lantz.
MASSILLON – 60
Ends
– Maxhimer, Robinson, Pribich, Snyder, Lewis, Yackee, Byelene.
Tackles
– Dorman, Benson, Celik, Bingle, Strobley, Ridgley, Heck, Dodd, Janikis, Lint,
B. Nussbaumer, R. Luke.
Guards
– Hout, Midgley, McLin, Janikis, Ashcraft, Sims, Jellel, Miller, Kulik, Indorf,
Ferguson, Preece, Eckroate, Marsh.
Centers
– S. Luke, Brand, Crookston, Chovan.
Quarterbacks
– Herring, Franklin, Fromholtz, Pattinson, Immelt.
Halfbacks
– Streeter, Harper, Mauger, Lombardi, Sullivan, Ammond, Sheaters, Clary.
Fullbacks
– Autrey, Cardinal.
Massillon 7 22 15 16 60
SCORING SUMMARY
M
– TB Mike Autrey, 24-yard run, Mauger PAT (kick).
M
– SE Don Lewis, six-yard pass from QB Denny Franklin, Lewis from Franklin PAT
(pass).
M—Autrey,
10-yard run, Lewis from Franklin PAT (pass).
M
– WB Bernard Sullivan, 40-yard pass-run from Herring.
M
– Autrey, 14-yard run, Herring PAT (kick).
M
– Franklin, six-yard run, WB Larry Harper from Herring PAT (pass).
M
– Sullivan, six-yard pass from QB John Fromholtz, Sullivan from Herring PAT
(pass).
M
– TB Mike Mauger five-yard pass from Fromholtz, TE Dan Byelene from Fromholtz
PAT (pass).
First downs – passing 7 0
First downs – penalties 1 1
Total first downs 19 5
Yards gained rushing 206 77
Yards lost rushing 14 21
Net yards gained rushing 192 56
Net yards gained passing 192 0
Total yards gained 384 56
Passes completed 10—16 0–7
Passes intercepted by 2 0
Yardage on passes intercepted 34 0
Kickoff average (yards) 9–45.0 1–53.0
Kickoff returns (yards) 25 127
Punt average (yards) 2–45.5 7–33.7
Punt returns (yards) 100 0
Yards penalized 10–80 2–20
Touchdowns rushing 4 0
Touchdowns passing 4 0
Total number of plays 57 55
OFFICIALS
Referee – Robert Whetstone.
Umpire – Harvey Hodgson, Jr.
Head Linesman – Art Cirelli
Field Judge – Beauford Hatfield