Jeff Myers, Massillon Washington
File photo by Wayne Litmer
Second-year Tigers coach Jason Hall was frustrated, but focused on the positives in dealing with the 26-21 setback, Massillon Washington’s first loss of the year.
"I’m not going to make any excuses; that’s not my mentality," Hall said. "I’ll have to look at film. It was on the far side of the field. I do know it wasn’t the guy that the ball was thrown to.
"We’re not going to make excuses. That’s not the Massillon way," he added. "You’ve got to take your hats off to Ignatius. That’s a good football team. They had the field position in the fourth quarter. They waited for us to make a mistake and they capitalized."
Massillon Washington was down 14-0 against the Wildcats late in the first half before Bo Grunder caught a touchdown pass after running a slant route from the left of the formation. With a strong third-quarter effort, the Tigers held a 21-14 lead over St. Ignatius entering the game’s final 12 minutes.
"Our kids handled adversity," said Hall. "We came up short. I thought we got put in a hole. We didn’t come out and play sharp on our opening series. It shows a lot about our kids the way they came back at the end of the first half.
"We didn’t capitalize in the fourth quarter and it falls on my shoulders with maybe some of the play selection," he added. "We’re going out there to win the game, not protect the lead."
Though the loss was hard to take, there was a silver lining. The fallout from the loss was not devastating in terms of potential playoff positioning.
When the latest computer rankings were released, Massillon Washington was third in Division I, Region 2 with an average of 12.3167 points, trailing only No. 1 Toledo Whitmer (14.4) and second-ranked Wadsworth (13.6833).
This Friday night, the Steubenville Big Red host Massillon Washington. Steubenville is 6-0 and ranked No. 1 in Division III, Region 11 with a computer average of 13.2715 points, almost three points ahead of the second-ranked Dover Tornadoes.
"We don’t have any time to cry about this because we have a tough Steubenville team waiting for us on Friday," Hall said. "It’s still a young team as far as experience. Right now, our mission is week-to-week and hopefully, we get through it.
"Our kids showed they’re definitely a contender in the Division I race," he concluded. "We’ve got to keep working on Massillon and keep working on correcting any mental mistakes we had and just work to get better."
Matt Florjancic currently works as a freelance reporter and sports announcer for WOBL and WDLW Radio.
