A Bulldog brawl awaits Canton McKinley and Green
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press writer
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
GREEN--20 years ago, Canton McKinley faced off against Green in an OHSAA Division I first round playoff contest at Green Memorial Stadium.
Canton McKinley left the Green Bulldogs stewing tomato red in a brutal 34-7 victory on their way to their third Division I state title game in eight years.
20 years later and nine other Federal League games played, the McKinley Bulldogs still have a flawless ledger against their fellow mascot from Summit County in the form of a 10-0 overall record. And it is something that Green isn't too fond of.
Friday night in what is expected to be a sold-out crowd at Green, McKinley and Green will once again trade barks and bites with the bone being at stake will be in the form of sole possession of first place in the league with three games remaining for both squads after this week. Both teams are coming in finding their respective identities with McKinley scoring 73 points in the last two games and Green's defense becoming highly obstructive after yielding 28 in a season commencing setback to Dover.
Fourth-year McKinley commander Antonio Hall is well aware of the challenge Green will bring. Last season, quarterback Keaton Rode was uncharacteristically intercepted five times in the first half, his fifth ending on one returned for a touchdown by Green linebacker A.J. Fortunato as the Summit County visitors were 24 minutes from the school's first ever triumph over McKinley with a 27-7 halftime lead. McKinley stormed back after the flagrant mishaps and outscored Green 21-0 for an unlikely 28-27 victory that proved to be a catalyst for them confiscating the league title outright.
Hall knows his team got away with one last year and attests the same Green team awaiting his McKinley corps will be a much tougher one than last season.
"They are a good team that likes to spread people around and they are well coached. Offensively and defensively they have a lot of athletes around the board. They have good quarterback play and good wide receivers and we can't let them get behind us or have blown coverages, otherwise they will make us pay," Hall noted. "Defensively, they like to move around and do a lot of blitzing."
All of Green's contests have been decided by a single possession. Aside from the loss to Dover, Green's last four games have been decided by scores of 17-10, 14-6, 21-19 and 21-17. That experience under the direction of sixth-year head coach Mark Geis, a former North Canton Hoover football standout under Don Hertler Jr.'s guidance, may loom large in case the game heads down to the closing seconds.
No other team has ascended to the 20-point plateau since Green's loss to Dover. For the McKinley offense it will be a challenge. It is one thing to score 35 and 38 points against GlenOak and Perry respectively. To accomplish that against Green is a different trajectory, especially in Memorial Stadium, where Green has been a normally tough team under longtime coach Elden McVicker, then Tom Stacy (who coached Massillon for three seasons and led them to the Division I state title game in 2005), Jon Wallace, and now Geis.
Has McKinley truly found their offensive prowess? Green's defense will provide the answer for that question. And has McKinley's defense actually reached top form? Green's offensive will unearth the answer to that question as well.
"What we did as a staff was simplify things that allowed our players to play fast, physical and trust the schemes that have allowed us to play as well as we have," Hall said.
FOCUSED BULLDOG. McKinley head coach Antonio Hall watches action from the sidelines during a 2023 regular season contest. Hall will lead McKinley into a pivotal Federal League tilt against Green Friday night at 7 pm. (Keno Sultan/Stark County Prep Press)
The winner of this contest will be in the driver's seat in the league standings with three games remaining. The last two weeks, Hall has been very elated with his team's approach to the game during practices that has carried over to the actual contest and has every reason to believe that he expects to see that same fire and intensity from his team come Friday night.
This much is very lucid. McKinley isn't the team that struggled to move the ball two weeks earlier in a disjointed 20-3 loss to Detroit (MI) Cass Tech. What Hall has seen is effort that has reverberated around the practice scene that has transpired down to actual competition. He touched base on a life lesson that he inherited from his former head coach, Thom McDaniels.
"We preach effort around here a lot and we are seeing that the last two weeks," Hall said. "The way you practice is how you will play. And we have had two great weeks of practices that has transpired to the games."
One thing the Bulldogs have going for them as they embark on the short voyage to Summit County is the fact that they have not lost a Federal League road game in three years with the last loss coming to North Canton Hoover, a 24-0 setback in 2021. Since then, McKinley has been warriors on the road by virtue of an eight-game road winning streak in league competition and for that number to reach nine, Hall expects them to be singularly focused the moment they get on the bus.
Two years ago, McKinley landed a humiliating 51-19 loss on Green. Hall hasn't mentioned that to his charges other than it was a win that allowed them to escape an 0-4 start to the season. He wants his team locked in sharp as the tip of a sword against a Green team that feels this will be their year to finally conquer the Stark County version of the Bulldogs.
"We have to travel well. We have to be sound on our assignments and play complete football. We have to take it one week at a time and not look ahead to weeks seven, eight, nine and past that," Hall said. "We have to stay locked in the week that we are in and be ready to go."
20 years ago, Canton McKinley left their paw prints on a stunned and sold-out crowd at Green Memorial Stadium in the first meeting between the two schools in a playoff game. 20 years later, McKinley finds themselves having to answer the bell again against a Green Bulldogs team who will finally find out if they can obtain their first win over McKinley or will they see red again for a 10th straight time.
---PREP PRESS PIECES---
*Nationally recognized Tigers: Massillon's contest against DeMatha Catholic (Maryland) was voted as the national high school game of the week. Massillon is coming off a spirited 31-21 win over defending three-time Division I state champion Lakewood St. Edward on the road. The Tigers also have an opponent for the eighth week of the season, Legacy Sports Science, located in Spring, Texas. Massillon will host Canton McKinley in the 135th of their rivalry at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium three weeks from Saturday, a 2 p.m. kickoff. Massillon held McKinley to 65 yards of total offense and doubled up the Bulldogs in time of possession in a 35-0 win, the first shutout by the Tigers of McKinley since the 2008 season. Massillon has won six straight against McKinley at home. This year will also mark the 30th anniversary of the 100th regular season contest, a wild 42-41 Tigers victory in overtime, in which quarterback Willie Spencer Jr. shared a long hug with a dejected and tearful Adrian Brown of McKinley and walked him to the postgame handshake line amid words of respect and dignity. The 101th game also 30 years ago was also a classic that ended with McKinley prevailing 27-20 in a regional final as Brown went over the century mark in rushing yardage totalling 139 yards, 70 of those coming on a long touchdown run to lead McKinley to the Division I state semifinals.
*Happy Lions: Last week, Minerva ended a long string of losses with a 16-7 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas. It was the first victory for head coach Tim Speakman, a Minerva graduate. The Lions will look to make it two in a row Friday night against a formidable West Branch team.
*Wright Is Never Wrong: Massillon two-way stalwart Mike Wright Jr. has been a nightmare for opposing offensive lines. The Youngstown State University recruit has spent most of his junior and senior seasons terrorizing quarterbacks and opposing running backs. His play has conjured up memories of his cousin, Eric Wright, who was a three-year starter at lineback and went on to play at Kentucky. Current Massillon assistant AD Brian Pachis lined up with Wright at linebacker as the Tigers 1991 season peaked with a state semifinal appearance in what was Lee Owens final year atop the Massillon post before embarking on a collegiate career that took him to Ohio State as an assistant before a run as the head football coach of Akron and most recently, Ashland.
Keno Sultan is a writer for Stark County Prep Press. He can be reached at 330-445-4575 or email at KenoSultan@hotmail.com.
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