Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram. Home National News. No More Fumbles. Play Football. About the Author. This might have been the first truly dominant Massillon team, but not on this day. Through the first eight games, the Tigers had outscored their opponents To be fair, the Massillon defense still pitched a shutout. The problem was the Bulldogs of what was then Canton Central High School came up with an yard interception return in the second quarter by Howard Negley.
Canton captain Abe Fisher kicked the point after for the deciding point, as the Bulldogs finished that season. A year before the Bulldogs started their two-year run as Ohio's premier Division I team, it was the Tigers who were the belles of the ball heading into the season finale at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. Massillon was , ranked No. On this day, though, it was McKinley, which came into the game , that was No. They added a Jamar Martin TD run in the third quarter.
From there, McKinley just allowed its defense to suffocate the Tigers, who were held to just total yards and two interceptions. McKinley reached the state semifinals before losing to St. Ignatius to finish Massillon followed up this loss with a first-round playoff setback to Brunswick to finish Ron Johnson's last win over the Tigers as the Bulldogs' head coach was arguably one of the most heart-stopping in recent years.
It also was as high-stakes as any, with the winner going to the Division I playoffs and the loser going home. In this case, it was McKinley after Tyler Foster's 3-yard touchdown run with nine seconds left capped a furious last-minute rally. Massillon, which trailed entering the third quarter, had taken a lead with remaining on Alex Winters' yard TD run. The Bulldogs then went 74 yards in just five plays, the biggest a yard pass from Foster to Jeff Richardson that, after a late hit flag on the Tigers, put the ball on the Massillon 9.
McKinley finished and was eliminated in the regional semifinals by Toledo Whitmer, a game that was subsequently declared a forfeit after the season by the OHSAA due to recruiting violations by the Panthers. The Tigers finished The last game at Fawcett Stadium — which was without the north stands — also was the first game of the newly-merged McKinley High School under first-year head coach Dan Reardon.
It was fitting, then, that a former Timken quarterback, Dominique Robinson, scored the go-ahead touchdown with 20 seconds remaining on a 1-yard run in which he helicoptered his way into the end zone. Massillon, which was eliminated from playoff contention and finished in Nate Moore's first season as its head coach, took a lead on Dakota Dunwiddie's yard interception return with remaining. Except, of course, for the Tigers, a win.
And the final score of the Tigers-Bulldogs showdown that day — also in Canton — was Only that one was a Tiger win, in overtime.
On this day, the three-point margin favored the Bulldogs. The thing was, it could have just as easily been a Tiger player saying the same thing as Burrows was after the game. Massillon twice took the lead in the fourth quarter. The first came just 36 seconds into the quarter when Tre Hendricks caught a yard touchdown pass from Kyle Kempt to give the Tigers a lead.
The second came when Winters ripped off his yard run with just 73 seconds remaining. That put Massillon in front The only problem for the Tigers on this day was that McKinley just seemed to have an answer every time. For some Tiger players, the reaction was tears.
Others reacted with blank stares. Yet others tried to help console their distraught teammates, left with nothing but memories for And it swung Massillon into an offseason that arrived all too early for its taste. It certainly was Saturday afternoon at Fawcett Stadium as Massillon and McKinley met for the st time in their storied history, and it ended up costing the Tigers a trip to the playoffs. In that time span, the Tigers appeared to secure their first regular-season win over the Bulldogs since
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