Massillon comes up short in valiant effort against Crusaders
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
MASSILLON--When two teams laced with heavy tradition meet on the football field, fireworks are expected to be in the air.
Friday night, there were a lot of fireworks on the field between the tradition steeped Massillon Tigers and Bergen Catholic (NJ) Crusaders.
In the end, it was the defending three-time New Jersey large school state champions using a huge 16-play drive spanning the end of the third quarter that ended with offensive lineman Mikey McMahon recovering a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown that extended their lead to two touchdowns early in the fourth quarter and from there they captured a 35-21 victory that concluded the 18-game winning streak for the Ohio Division II state champion Tigers and in the process halting their regular season winning streak at 12 games.
Bergen Catholic is the first out-of-state team since 2016 to depart Paul Brown Tiger Stadium with a victory and the last team to accomplish that task is a familiar team that opposes the Tigers next week, another set of Crusaders in Buffalo Canisius, out of New York.
Sixth-year Bergen Catholic general Vito Campanile praised Massillon for their class and dignity while basking in the achievement of his team's first victory of the season as they rebounded from a 27-14 loss to IMG Academy dating back to last week.
"I said this week that we wanted to play this game in a phone booth. Just being able to play downhill style football. I told the team at halftime that you woke up at five in the morning lifting 72 times and lifting weights every day for a reason and it showed," Campanile said.
Massillon will rue the two turnovers in the contest that were the main catalysts as to why they finally experienced defeat for the first time since the 15th week of the 2022 season. A bright spot for the Tigers came on defense when cornerback Tra'Yon Williams intercepted a pass from quarterback Dominic Campanile and returned the theft for a 35-yard touchdown that tied the game at 21-21 midway through the second quarter.
However as the Tigers were attempting to utlitize their advantage in the third quarter, Crusaders linebacker Ethan Cohall stepped in front of a Jalen Slaughter pass and returned it 30 yards to the Massillon 20-yard line and all Bergen Catholic needed was three plays, ending with Najee Calhoun scoring a three-yard touchdown run that resulted in the second and final lead change of the contest in the form of a 28-21 lead that eventually led to the Crusaders next possession, a 16-play drive that eventually spelled the end of Massillon's undefeated start to the season after two wins. The key play of that drive was Dominic Campanile completing a fourth down pass to Porter that went for 13 yards, keeping the Crusaders offense on the field leading to the eventual decisive fumble recovery in the end zone for the final tally.
Despite the setback, Massillon head coach Nate Moore, a two-time state championship winning head coach in Division II remained upbeat about his biome of Tigers.
"There's a lot of great things that happened on the field. We were tied at halftime with one of the top teams in the country and obviously we wish we would have gotten some things going offensively at halftime," he said. "But we got a lot to learn from and we're looking forward to next week's practice."
Massillon's opening drive seemed to send a message that this contest between two nationally ranked behemoths was going to be played on their terms when Ja'Meir Gamble turned the corner on a hand off from Slaughter and raced into the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown run and the hosts had an early 7-0 lead.
Bergen Catholic was zealous enough to oblige when Dominic Campanile heaved a 56-yard spiral down the left sideline to future Ohio State wide receiver Quincy Porter, a Randy Moss type receiver at 6'4'', 200 lbs. and fought off a tackle attempt for a touchdown that presented the first of three ties in the contest.
The first quarter was a frenzied quarter for the defenses with both offenses providing answers as Slaughter responded to the Crusaders score with a 26-yard strike to wide receiver DJ Zimmerman that spanned 26 yards as he eluded a defender for the score only to have the Crusaders hit back with a Dante Kain four yard touchdown run to conclude the first quarter with the recipe for that being a humongous 75 yard kickoff return all the way to the Massillon 20-yard line.
From there it became a matter of which team would have the final answers. And Bergen Catholic just had a few more of those in a battle of defending state playoff champions that are also nationally ranked.
"I said to Coach Moore before the game that it's everything that I thought it was. This environment is everything is what high school football is supposed to be about," Vito said. "We make these games to give our kids culture and learn about other places in the country. Massillon is an unbelievable environment and Massillon is everything about what football is and I have a lot of respect for that program."
For the Tigers, they now find themselves looking to rebound from a loss. They now have the task of starting another winning streak again and it will start against Buffalo Canisius, the second set of Crusaders who will invade Paul Brown Tiger Stadium next Friday.
Massillon has one thing going for them. In Moore's 10 seasons, the Tigers have not lost consecutive home contests. Whenever the Tigers have experienced failure at home, they have responded positively and that will be paramount to them looking to learn from early adversity and attempting to be 3-1 next week.
"We'll get to the film and get back to work essentially and get things corrected. We are on a 16 week journey and that hasn't changed," Moore said. "Nobody wants to lose but if you're focused on the outcome, you're focused on the wrong thing."
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