Madcap night in Middletown
Steve Doerschuk
Independent Sports Editor
MIDDLETOWN – The Massillon Tigers spent Saturday night at the Holiday Inn, but
first they went to the funhouse.
When
the park closed they had a souvenir, a 17-7 high school football win over the
Middletown Middies. That was very nice,
since it put their record at 3-0, but it was almost incidental to the numerous
sideshows that put nearby Kings Island to shame.
Among
them:
The jungle beast – Massillon’s Ed Annen held one end of the leash as
Obie XX, the live Tiger mascot, playfully wrapped his paws around the knee of
those whistle-toting zebras.
The chopper – The game ball arrived in a TV news helicopter that buzzed Barnitz
Stadium then touched down at the 20-yard line.
Massillon head coach Lee Owens screamed (although no one could hear him)
to get the bird back in the air because his players could not come out on the
field.
“We’d
hoped to have Paul Brown (the ex-Massillon coach now living in nearby
Cincinnati) in the helicopter,” Middletown head coach Jim Place said. “Unfortunately, he was tied up with the
Bengals.”
The roller coaster – On fourth and nine in the second quarter, Tiger
quarterback Lee Hurst hurled a bomb toward the left corner of the end
zone. Receiver Troy Manion maneuvered
through two defenders, ran as fast as he could, reached as far as he could, and
fingertip snagged the ball for a 31-yard touchdown and a 17-0 lead. On the next play from scrimmage, Middletown
tailback Jeff Cothran raced 68 yards for a touchdown.
Zebras on parade – After Cothran’s run, the Tigers roared back. Ryan Sparkman’s strong run put the ball on
the Middletown 30. But wait. Clipping!
But wait again! Unsportsmanlike
conduct for an editorial comment on the clipping. Fifteen more yards. Next
play, holding, Tiger. Instead of a
first down on the Middie 30. It’s third
and 45 on the Tiger 15. You know any
good plays?
The male cheerleader – Usually, only college football has them, but
Middletown featured a strapping fellow dressed in purple pants, who after
Cothran’s long TD run, leaped and bounded along the sideline, wildly gyrating
as he exhorted the Middie faithful to stand up and cheer. The cheerleader was Place, the Middie coach.
“It’s
that way every game down here,” Place said.
“All of our games are wild and crazy.”
The light show – It was 83 degrees and sunny at kickoff time. By halftime, it was dark, except for streaks
of lightning, and a fierce wind kicked up.
Something
flashed behind the home grandstand. Two
stands of lights went dark, one on each side of the field. Few among the 8,000 spectators noticed, but
a transformer had caught on fire.
The great debate – Wait for the lights to come back on? Or keep playing under the four stands of
lights still shining? The game stopped
for 10 minutes as a debate raged. The
verdict: Play on, but only on the half of the better lit field. Play resumed with 2:50 left in the
half. The Tigers got the ball back and
Ryan Sparkman rushed nine yards to midfield.
Had he kept going, he’d have run into the dark side of the field. After the play, officials pointed the Tigers
the other way, as if the quarter had changed.
“The
situation was to our disadvantage,” Owens said later. “If we’re driving into the darkness, the wind is at our backs and
that helps our passing game. But we
have to drive into the light.
Middletown is a running team, and it’s no big deal for them to have to
drive into the wind, into the light.
“I
didn’t want to go along with it. But I
didn’t have much choice in the matter.”
Band on the run – With lightning came rain. It started shortly after band No 1, the one
that plays Tiger Rag, strutted. It got
wet and juicy at the end of the “Marching Middies” turn. It rained so hard that band No. 2 disdained
decorum, running helter-skelter off the field.
The lock-up rooms – A regular in the Middletown press box eyed the
lightning and shook his head.
“Two
football players died in the country within the last couple of weeks because of
lightning strikes,” he said.
“Football
people are being awfully careful.” The
Tigers were back on the field only seconds when Owens, having surveyed the
skies, herded them back to the locker room.
Halftime wound up lasting an hour.
Massillon had nearly as many fans as Middletown at the start. Most Middletown rooters didn’t return for
the second half, when Tiger fans outnumbered their hosts. They hadn’t driven 4 ½ hours to spend the
second half at Taco Bell.
The scare – Ambulance lights flashed behind the Massillon grandstand throughout
the intermission. The rumor mill went
to work. Middletown radio station WPFB
reported that two fans apparently had been struck by lightning. It was a false report. Paramedics actually were treating fans who
had suffered heat exhaustion. Despite
the fact the “fall sport” was into its third week, the temperature at kickoff
was 83 degrees.
In
the end, they got the lights fixed and played another half of football.
It
was an uneventful second half, but all that transpired earlier made you
wonder. The Barnitz fellow wose name is
on the stadium. Is there a Barnitz and
Bailey circus, too?
MASSILLON 17
MIDDLETOWN 7
STATISTICS
MA MI
First downs rushing 4 10
First downs passing 9 1
First downs by penalty 4 3
Totals first downs 17 14
Yards gained rushing 119 244
Yards lost rushing 20
16
Net yards rushing 99 228
Net yards passing 199
29
Total yards gained 298 249
Passes attempted 27
12
Passes completed 16 3
Passes int. by 0 1
Times kicked off 4 2
Kickoff average 50.0 47.5
Kickoff return yards 43 54
Punts 4 5
Punt return yards 0 20
Fumbles lost 4 3
Penalties 10 10
Yards penalized 136 88
Number of plays 67 47
Time of possession 26:01 21:59
Attendance 8,000
Individual Statistics
Rushing
(Mas) Dixon 18-76, Sparkman 11-31.
(Mid) Calhoun 15-11, Cothran 14-112, Gerguson 4-11.
Passing
(Mas) Hurst 16-27-0, 189.
(Mid) Ferguson 2-10-1, minus – 3. Calhoun 1-2-0 20.
Receiving
(Mas) Manion 6-67, Martin 5-39, Carpenter 1-25, Dixon 1-8, Harig 1-28, Brown
1-21, Sparkman 1-1.
(Mid) Mason 1-24.
Middletown 0 7 0 0 7
Massillon 10 7 0 0 17
Mas
– FG Miller 24
Mas
– Manion 7 pass from Hurst (Miller kick)
Mas
– Manion 31 pass from Hurst (Miller kick)
Mid
– Cothran 68 run (Caldwell kick)