Massillon’s Defense grounds Lakewood St Eds in the 15-13 victory

In Tiger Town, Massillon Ohio tonight, the defending division 1 state champion, Lakewood St Edwards returned to the stadium where they experienced their only loss of the season last year. Coach Lombardo has led his nationally ranked team through many great out of state matchups already this season but tonight, proved that for a 2nd time in 2 years you better focus on you’re a certain school right here in northeast Ohio, the Washington Massillon Tiger football team.

In the 1 st quarter both teams set the tone for the night and that was the defense was going to rule the evening. Massillon had a scoring chance deep in their end in the 1 st but #22 for St Eds made a tackle for a loss at the Massillon 6-yard line for a turnover on downs. The scoreboard remained goose eggs heading into the 2nd quarter. A St Eds INT of with 6:19 to play in the 2nd gave the Eagles great field position at the Tigers 31-yard line. Two plays later Eagle QB Thomas Csanyi hits Brandon White over the middle for the first points of the game. The score however remained 6-0 Eagles because the extra point attempt was blocked by the big play defensive and special teams star of the night, Dorian Pringle.

On the next Massillon drive they started to move the ball which was helped by a personal foul 15 yard facemask penalty on the Eagle defense. They carried that momentum all the way into the end zone themselves with a DaOne Owens 8-yard TD run to get the Tigers on the board. The PAT was good to give Massillon the 7-6 advantage just before heading into halftime with the lead.

The 3rd quarter was about more and more defense as the Tigers fumbled on their opening drive of the 2nd half only to later have the Eagles give it back with an interception of their own at the 7:22 mark. This is where our offensive star of the night, Massillon Tiger QB DaOne Owens started to find some holes to run through. Owens ran for a 20-yard TD run and 2-point conversion to give his Tigers the 15-6 advantage.

Facing a 4 th and 4 near midfield, the Tigers turn it over on downs with under 7 minutes to play. Another Massillon fumble on their own 45 gave St Eds life with 4:06 remaining. The stingy defense of the Massillon Tigers bowed up once again against the Eagles offensive line that has 2 Ohio State commits and 1 Michigan commit attempting to impose their will at the line of scrimmage, but that dominance never happened tonight. That Tiger defense lead by Dorian Pringle’s 10 tackles and 2 sacks just would not break and the large Tiger crowd on both sides of the field and in the end, zones showed their appreciation for the efforts all game long. The Eagles were able to put 1 more Csanyi to Sullivan TD pas together with 1:10 to play but their onside kick failed and was recovered by who else but #15 DaOne Owens. The team took a couple knees to end the game and now go 2-0 vs. St Edwards over the last 2 seasons. Tonight, public vs private school wins the day. The Tigers remain undefeated and the Eagles hope that this resembles last year when they still went on to win the state championship in division 1.