Tigers battle but come up short against Warriors
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
MASSILLON--Adversity threw an early punch and for the first time this season, Massillon was on the canvas looking up at the lights.
The Tigers calmly rose to one knee, took the eight count and rose up to fight again and again.
Massillon kept getting off the canvas and swinging blow for blow against Cornerstone Christian but their inability to obtain a lead and crack the chin of the Warriors eventually led to their first defeat of the season in a 35-21 score that left partisan fans departing Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in a subdued and dejected state.
Massillon will rue the losses of momentum in a game where they tied the game three times but failed to take the lead and control of the game.
"You have to give credit to Cornerstone Christian for traveling all the way up here to play this game and get the win here at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium and they are a great football team and they deserved to win tonight," veteran Tiger coach Nate Moore said solemnly.
Massillon's first drive was a in promising one but was curtailed by a missed field goal from Mateo Herrera.
Five plays after the misfire, Cornerstone Christian struck almost immediately. Quarterback Seth Shuler threw a short pass to receiver Isaiah Regge and he was gone like the Texas wins as he sped away from Tigers defenders for a 78-yard catch and run for a touchdown and an early 7-0 lead. It was pretty lucid that this was not the same Warriors team that departed Paul Brown Tiger Stadium a tired squad the previous season.
It took an extra two possessions for the Tigers to answer. Paced by the running of future Michigan State athlete Savior Owens, Massillon cracked the scoreboard when Owens fought off a tackle and scored a 12-yard touchdown run and Herrera's point after kick tied the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter.
Massillon mounted another scoring drive but was thwarted when Owens was stopped a yard short on fourth down, handing the ball back to the Warriors, bailing out their tiring defense.
Cornerstone Christian mounted a balanced attack before the intermission but they were undone by a series of penalties, especially a huge personal foul that dismissed them from field goal range, much to the dismay of head coach Clayton Guillory as his team was tied with the Tigers instead of being up by either seven or worst case, three points.
The Warriors showed no ill effects of the missed opportunity. A pass from Rasmus Haines was intercepted by defensive end Brandon Stewart at the 22-yard line and in just two plays, Jayden McKane ran for a 20-yard touchdown run and the visitors had Paul Brown Tiger Stadium silenced again with a 14-7 lead early into the third quarter.
Faced with a long fourth down, Haines made amends for his turnover when he located Deontay Malone for a key first down completion into Warriors territory. Haines then went upstairs again, this time to Gio Jackson Jr. who made a back shoulder catch for the equalizer and the game had its second tie at 14-14 with exactly six minutes remaining which ended up being the halftime tally.
Cornerstone Christian boss Clayton Guillory challenged his team to make a statement coming out of the locker room.
"When we went into halftime, I talked to the team about getting a stop and coming out and getting a score and they did that. And when they did that, that changed the momentum of the game. When you come into an environment like Massillon and a crowd like theirs, a tradition like this, a culture like this, you have to control the momentum and that helped us do that," he said.
That was put to the test when McKane broke a long run but was stripped of the football but it went out of bounds as the Tigers were unable to recover it.
And it proved costly when on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line when McKane bulled his way in for the Warriors third lead of the game at 21-14 and the Tigers undefeated regular season was for the first time in jeopardy of being extinguished.
But the Tigers answered emphatically when Haines averted a blitz and noticed a crack in the Warriors secondary and located Malone, who caught the ball and outraced a defender for an electrifying 73-yard score and the game was tied for the third time on the evening at 21-21.
But the Warriors continued to show great resilience. Backup quarterback Rogan Parson threw a short pass and it was a second catch and run for Regge, this one a 57-yarder and once again Cornerstone Christian had Massillon level again at 28-21 late in the fourth quarter. McKane added on a 53-yard scamper to complete the scoring for the 5-2 Warriors, who will truly be a contender to win a state championship in Texas.
Guillory attested that his team was going into the thunderstorm against a team like Massillon. He pointed to their faith in God and what the school epitomizes in terms of Christian faith and by his testimony, knew his team was coming out of the storm victorious because it was according to his vantage point, the victory was ordained and that the team just had to complete the mission. It also helped that they were not worn down in the second half like the previous meeting.
"I've always explained to our guys that number one, we do this to repay God for the blessings he has bestowed up on us and athletic ability he has given us to play and how they use that is our way of repaying God and to be able to come in here, have faith, stick to the plan, and having God guide us through, no one broke faith, no one gave up, and we bonded together like brothers and you have the end result you saw tonight," he said.
Massillon will now have to find a way to respond to adversity and it will commence next week as they will oppose Warren Harding on the road, who lost to Youngstown Cardinal Mooney at press time, 24-3. Massillon has won 10 in a row against the Raiders dating back to the 2018 season.
A bright spot for them tonight was the play of Haines, whose two touchdown passes kept the Tigers in the contest and it's something they can build off of for next week's confrontation against the Raiders. Not to be excluded is also the play of Ohio State commit Deontay Malone, a four-year varsity player for the Tigers, widely known for his 53-yard punt return touchdown in last year's season concluding rivalry contest.
"Deontay is a great kid and a great player and made a huge play for us and got us back in the game there late but we just couldn't close it out. But he is a great player and a great kid and plays really hard on both sides of the ball," Moore said.
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