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Yappi.com writer PERRY TWP.—The Massillon Tigers for the second week committed a crime. Make it another Federal crime. And the victim was another Federal League opponent in the Perry Panthers. After proving that they were the tougher football team than Canton McKinley in their regular-season ending 10-7 win, the defending Division I state football finalists out-toughed the Panthers in a 41-20 shootout win in front of a standing-room only crowd at Perry Stadium. Having won their last five of six playoff appearances, the Tigers next week will challenge Toledo Whitmer, an upset winner over an improved Fremont Ross team last night. The Panthers saw their season come to a close at 9-2 under third year general John Miller but for three quarters hung tough with the visiting Tigers. However, they were buried by two big touchdown passes from Bobby Huth to Giorgio Jackson, Massillon’s vaunted running attack, and a series of turnovers that worked well in Massillon’s favor. Given the final score, one might assume that Tigers head coach Tom Stacy wanted to turn the game into a shootout. Though he was happy with the offense, making the game a shootout was not on his agenda. “I don’t know if you can say that we turned it into a shootout but our offense had to play well tonight and we did that for the most part,” he said. How dominant was the Tigers offense? Massillon generated 414 yards of total offense in the game with 149 yards rushing on the ground overall and 265 from senior quarterback Bobby Huth. In addition to that, the offense for the third straight game did not turn the ball over as they had in the past in games against Cleveland St. Ignatius, Akron Buchtel, and Warren Harding. The only offense Perry could generate was out of their powerful running game as they churned 305 yards on the ground with junior Eric Magnacca running for 185 yards and three touchdowns. But they failed to overcome three turnovers and a personal foul, which proved to be costly for the hosts despite running 62 plays to 51 by the Tigers. Massillon covered 69 yards on their first drive, which peaked when Huth fired a pass down the middle for Penn State-bound player Andrew Dailey for a 36-yard touchdown pass. It was the first of three busted coverages by the dignified Panthers defense. Steve Schott’s extra-point gave Massillon a 7-0 lead with 10:24 remaining in the opening quarter. Perry was victimized by two consecutive turnovers when a fumble was lost and then Matt Vick had a pass intercepted by Tigers senior safety Darion McGuire. On the visitors’ fifth possession, senior running back Brian Gamble scored from eight yards out and Schott’s second extra-point gave the powerful Tigers a two-touchdown lead late in the first quarter. It took six possessions but the Panthers finally clawed their way on the scoreboard. Converting three third downs was the key. And that is when their persistence and patience paid off when Magnacca scored on a 40-yard touchdown run untouched. It was the first of three scores by Magnacca. However, the Panthers were charged with a personal foul after the touchdown and it proved to be costly in sorts when John Clark missed the extra-point, minimizing the damage of the touchdown as the Tigers led 14-6. Huth made the Panthers pay when he beat two consecutive blitzes from the Panthers and hooked up with senior receiver Trey Miller on gains of 18 and 42 yards all the way inside the Perry five-yard line. That is when K.J. Herring bulled his way into the end zone and Schott added yet another extra-point kick and the Tigers led at the half 21-6. That is when the third quarter got hairy. Even though the quarter ended in a 14-13 score, Perry had a lot of momentum for the start of the fourth quarter. But allowing Huth to deliver touchdown missiles to Giorgio Jackson, who got behind defender Rob Dugan for 70 and 33 yards would eventually prove to be costly. “I have to look at that,” Stacy said when it was brought to his attention. “I have to see what happened on that. Giorgio got behind the defender and those were some nice scores.” Sophomore Justin Turner added the final tally of Massillon points on a 21-yard touchdown run. Afterwards, Stacy turned his sights to the Whitmer Panthers. “Whitmer is a very good football team and coming from the Toledo area, they are going to give us an interesting game,” he said. Two Federal League teams going down in two straight weeks has become a federal crime that the Massillon Tigers can take pride in. |
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