Massillon defends American turf with victory in opening game
Game statistics (later; work in progress)
It was the 3rd.rd At the annual Nike Football Kickoff Classic, the Tigers had the honor of participating and representing the United States against NFL Academy-London, an all-star team representing Europe and Africa and coached by select NFL coaches. The event was held at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. Massillon won 35-20.
Massillon caught Academy off guard early, scoring on each of its first two possessions. After holding Academy to minus-six yards on its first attempt and forcing a punt, the Tigers went on an eight-play, 60-yard drive that ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by Ja’Meir Gamble. The key play was a 22-yard pass from quarterback Jalen Slaughter to Braylyn Toles, who moved the ball to Academy’s seven yards. Two plays later and after Mateo Herrera’s PAT kick, the Tigers led 7-0.
Again, Academy was limited to 3-and-out and Massillon was on the move again, this time from the 30-yard line. It took just three plays to cover the distance. First, Slaughter connected with Ricardo Wells for 50 yards through the middle. Wells had broken through the safeties and caught the pass on the run and without resistance. Slaughter next hit Jacques Carter at the 12 and Gamble did the rest with a 12-yard run. Score: 14-0.
The quick points seemed to shock the Academy and signal that if they wanted to compete in this game, they would have to raise their defensive level of play in terms of key reaction and physicality. And that’s exactly what they did. They were much more aggressive for the rest of the game and held up to Massillon in their performance. They were stingy on the run game, with blitzes through the middle and quick secondary reactions on the edges. However, they were no match for the Tigers’ speed at the wide receiver positions and were forced into Cover-4. So Slaughter, who had a pretty good handle on the pocket with his scrambling, took full advantage. By the end of the game, he had completed 29 of 44 passes for 387 yards and three touchdowns, and all three numbers are now in the Massillon record book for passing in a game: The 29 completed passes are tied with Kyle Kempt and Justin Zwick for first, the 44 pass attempts are fifth, and the 387 yards are third.
After an exchange of blows, the Academy finally managed to score with a 64-yard pass from quarterback Michael Szabo to Seb Harris, who was two yards ahead of his defender on the sideline and received the ball on the run.
Late in the second quarter, the Academy struck again after the Tigers missed a 36-yard field goal. This time, speedy Justus Seelig broke through the middle of the Tigers’ line, reversed direction across the field and outran the secondary into the end zone, scoring a 46-yard touchdown and tying the game at 14-14. It was Seelig’s best run of the day, while his other 18 runs only yielded 61 yards, thanks to good run defense. The score came just 2:44 before halftime.
On its next possession, Massillon dropped the ball in its own territory but managed to stop Academy on a charge and take the ball over at its own 25-yard line with just 1:18 left on the clock. The Tigers managed the clock perfectly and moved methodically down the field. A 6-yard pass to Deonte Malone. A 21-yard pass to Wells. A 15-yard shovel pass to Gamble. Another shovel pass to Gamble for 12 yards and suddenly the ball was at the Academy 21-yard line with 25 seconds left. Slaughter then sealed the deal with a perfectly thrown pass to Carter in the right corner of the end zone, giving his team a 21-14 lead heading into the locker room that they held for the rest of the game.
The coup de gras came on Massillon’s first possession of the second half. After Wells returned the kickoff to the 45-yard line, the Tigers marched 55 yards in just four plays and scored when Slaughter hit Carter on a 40-yard pass. With the score at 28-14, Massillon had more control of the game.
That was until the Academy dropped the ball at the Massillon 38-yard line later in the quarter and Garner recovered the ball for the Tigers and the referee ruled it void. This sparked massive protests from both players and coaches. Interestingly, the NFL game broadcast showed that it was clearly a fumble and a Massillon ball recovered. The result of the chaos was several penalties against the Tigers, who advanced the ball to the eight-yard line. From there, Szabo threw a swing pass to Seelig, who scored a point, aided by two missed tackles. That made the score 35-20. Szabo finished the game with 15 successful passes out of 32 attempts for 244 yards and two touchdowns.
Later in the quarter, Massillon scored the final points when Slaughter sent a short cross-field pass to Toles and Toles did the rest for a 44-yard touchdown.
The Academy threatened again in the fourth quarter, but a 9-yard pass was intercepted by Lenox Lemon as he stepped in front of the receiver and returned the ball to the 24-yard line.
After that, the sportsmanship dropped a little and the Tigers were given several penalties. The coaches will certainly take care of that. But the discontent of both teams lasted most of the game and the referees were unable to get it under control early on. Ultimately, that led to the following.
Still, the Academy showed that they are a serious team playing serious football, and their players rightfully took the loss hard. But they also earned the respect of the many Tiger fans who traveled to Oregon. Spectators saw a team that has excellent size and positional speed, is well coached, and can certainly compete as well or better than any team below nationally ranked Massillon. In addition, they showed marked improvement from their narrow loss to a Florida team a week ago. And finally, after playing in this physically demanding game, perhaps they understand what it takes to get to the next level. The future looks bright for this program.
With those first-game technical penalties out of the way, the Tigers can now focus on playing a more solid football game. They gave up 2-3 touchdowns in the first half on two different offenses due to penalties and passes that were slightly short at the goal line. Still, the passing game is high-level, the running game has a lot of potential, and the run defense is very stingy. However, the secondary needs to improve its play against the pass. However, based on their performance in this game, Massillon showed that they will be a VERY good football team.
Massillon led in first downs 20-15 and in total yards 488-353. But they also received 18 penalties for 169 yards, some of which negated potential scoring opportunities. The Academy punted eight times, the Tigers six. Toles caught 9 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown. Wells caught 7 passes for 113 yards. Carter caught 6 passes for 76 yards and 2 touchdowns. Gamble ran 9 times for 58 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Next week, Massillon travels to Canton GlenOak. The academy will host De La Salle from Los Angeles on October 8th and IMG Academy on November 8th.
