Tigers home opener to create national waves against New Jersey giant

 Tigers home opener to create national waves against New Jersey giant

By Keno Sultan

Stark County Prep Press writer

www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com

MASSILLON--With a combined 45 state championships overall, the Massillon Tigers and Bergen Catholic (NJ) are in an euphoric class of their own.

Massillon is the Ohio giant when it comes to prep football as they have captured 25 Ohio state championships, 24 of them arriving before the commencement of the state playoff era. Bergen Catholic is the New Jersey giant as they have seized 20 New Jersey state playoff championships, 17 of them in the playoff era.

Friday night in front of what will be a near-capacity crowd inside 18,000-seat Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, the two heavyweights will traverse each other for the first time and both are arriving as state champions, with the Tigers as the defending rulers of Ohio Division II and the Crusaders entering as the defending three-time New Jersey big school state champions.

For 10th year Massillon commander Nate Moore, this will be his biggest season opener dating back to his first season, however because of the national accolades this game is attaining, it makes the opener a galvanizing affair, especially with the Tigers being defending state champions for the first time in 52 years. It also helped that the Tigers were able to put away GlenOak early on the road in the form of a 45-0 victory that allowed the starters to only play just the first half.

"We wanted to go out and play well. If we had a chance to get some guys off the field, so be it. Really, we just wanted to go out and play well and execute and have some really positive momentum going into week 3," Moore said.

Through just two games, the Massillon offense has not lost any rhythm with senior quarterback Jalen Slaughter at the controls of the ship. Through two games he has been the catalyst of their attack as they have scored 80 points through two contests.

It was three years ago he became the starter as a freshman midway through the 2021 season when he took the reins from the incumbent quarterback, Darrius McElroy, who was a senior. Slaughter then took a backseat to DaOne Owens, who masterfully piloted the Tigers to their first state playoff title and now Slaughter has the feral look of determination that he will be the one to make sure Massillon is playing into early December.

Moore couldn't help but to be impressed by Slaughter's efficiency during the Tigers wins over NFL Academy (United Kingdom) and GlenOak.

"Well, I think Slaughter has played really well. He did a great job of distributing the football, making good decisions and keeping plays alive in the pocket with his eyes downfield and that has been a big factor and you have to give credit to our offensive coordinator Alex Wood, who is back with the program this year and is a 1973 graduate, so he's done a good job organizing the offense and also the playcaller," he said.

Bergen Catholic is coming off a 27-14 loss to IMG Academy in their season opener. However they are not a squad to be dismissed because of one setback. They have a possession of deadly weaponry across the board with a fearsome set of players capable of causing serious adversity and would love nothing more to be the ones to terminate Massillon's overall 18-game winning streak (12-game regular season winning streak).

The last nationally ranked team from out of state to depart Massillon with a regular season victory was Buffalo (NY) Canisius (who comes to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium next week) back in the 2016 season as the Crusaders overcame a 21-7 halftime deficit and stopped the host Tigers 49-35 by outscoring them 42-14 after the intermission.

Keeping sharp keys on the Bergen Catholic skill players will be paramount to the Tigers in their bid to attain success Friday night.

"The biggest thing with a team like that is that they really don't have any weaknesses. They (Bergen Catholic) are really good on all three levels on both sides of the ball," Moore said. "They are very good up front on the offensive and defensive lines. They are very good at the skill positions. There's no place you can look at and say 'well, you know, they're not as good here'. Teams like that are good everywhere."

Massillon head coach Nate Moore looks at the scoreboard in the final seconds of his team's 35-0 conquest of Canton McKinley to complete a 10-0 regular season. The Tigers kick off their home opener Friday night against Bergen Catholic (NJ). (Keno Sultan/Stark County Prep Press)

It may not seem like it to some but Massillon has been a national power the last six years under Moore going back to the 2018 season, a 46-40 decision over East St. Louis (IL), a game where the Tigers trailed the nationally sixth-ranked Flyers 20-10 at halftime before a 36-20 second half powered them along with the depth of their durable offensive line to the comeback victory that garnered them recognition around America and a final ranking in a national poll that season.

Massillon has been ranked nationally in multiple publications around the nation with one having them ranked as high as second, the highest national ranking for them since 1996 when Jack Rose was the Tigers field general and boasted powerful tailback Christian Morgan, who was an Eddie George type tailback at 6'4'', 225 lbs.

During his 10 seasons, Moore has always kept a laser focus and he isn't the one to get caught in the specter of pressure or national rankings for that matter. He was voted last season as the national prep coach of the year but despite the accolades has remained level, not quick to boast about accomplishments but to keep the focus on and only the team. When asked how does he divert himself away from such recognition, Moore put it in perspective.

"It's one of the few gifts I have is my ability to ignore the things that don't matter and when it comes down to it, where anybody puts us in a ranking, whether it's a Stark County ranking, a state ranking or a national ranking, it really has no bearing on anything we're doing. So those kind of things don't matter to us, we don't pay attention to those and we really try to focus in on the things that matter," he said.

Friday night will mark another home opener in Massillon and it will be one that will attract a large crowd, not to mention according to Moore multiple media requests and college coaches from around the nation. If the Tigers have one thing going for them, it is that their crowd has an uncanny ability to be liable for visiting teams false starts and delay of game penalties, something that may prove large if Massillon can obtain a commanding lead at any point in the contest.

Moore knows the crowd will be electric and this will be a home opener more unique than others.

"It's really exciting. We've played a few football games in a row now not at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. And that doesn't happen a lot throuughout our history. So the opportunity to be back home in front of our home crowd, I'm sure the crowd will be bonkers for this game not just because it's our home opener but the level of the matchup and this game," he said. "There is a lot of national interest and so it's going to be exciting in a lot of ways."

With a combined 45 overall championships overall between Massillon and Bergen Catholic, both teams are in a class of their own, a class that will be on shimmering display at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

---PREP PIECES---

*Motor City Mayhem: After a 21-14 loss to Avon, Canton McKinley looks to rebound as they will oppose Detroit Cass Tech Friday night at home. 10 seasons ago, the Technicians were poised to play Massillon before that matchup dissolved as the Tigers settled on Perry to open up the season. Cass Tech is the alma mater of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Former head coach Thomas Wilcher is a University of Michigan classmate of national champion winning head coach Jim Harbaugh.

*Spread The Peace: When Perry and Warren Harding play at Wakefield Stadium, it will be a reunion for current Harding athletic director Rick Shepas and Perry defensive coordinator Keith Wakefield. Shepas and Wakefield coached against each other four times, Shepas at Massillon and Wakefield at Perry with both teams splitting two games and both obtaining playoff wins against each other. It will be the first matchup between the two schools, with Zach Slates as Perry's boss and Matt Richardson as Harding's commander.

*Wildcat Worries: Canton South is a stunning 0-2 to begin their season having been outscored 74-3 in their first two games, both on the road against Cleveland Benedictine and Dover. The Wildcats have their home opener Saturday against Columbus Eastmoor in what is undoubtedly a must-win situation for a Wildcat team who has now lost three in a row dating back to a grueling 42-21 Division IV state semifinal loss to eventual back-to-back state champion Cleveland Glenville.

Keno Sultan is a writer for Stark County Prep Press. He can be reached at 330-445-4575 or email at KenoSultan@hotmail.com.