Porter Article

[DB135]

THE HIGH ROAD

After last year’s Massillon-Mentor game at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, Cardinal coach Steve Trivisonno had words with the officiating crew. The same scene, only reversed, played out when the teams concluded a home-and-home contract on Friday in Mentor.

It was Massillon head coach Tom Stacy chewing the hide of the crew. Stacy’s biggest contention was a Hail Mary pass before half should have been ruled a touchdown. Replays showed he had a case. The Tigers would’ve had a 14-0 lead after scoring shortly into the second half. That might have changed the momentum.

Stacy, however, didn’t blame officiating for his loss. It was a good thing, too. Mentor physically and mentally beat Massillon, 19-7. The Tigers will try to regroup and get their first win against an Ohio team this Friday at home against St. Ignatius. It may be a deciding game in the team’s playoff fate.


I e-mailed the response below with Don's story and the games stats from the booster club site.

Since the game was televised and Massillon provides detailed stats you might want to "investigate" your stories before you misreport the facts.

Mentor has a fine team but to say it physically and mentally beat Massillon is inaccurate reporting not reflected by the objective empirical facts of the game.

[TigerVic]

Yeah- I read Toilet Pap...errrr Todd Porter's article as well (both Sunday as well as his game article Saturday). While reading it, I thought, "Would he be so critical of any other high school team under the same circumstances?"

Has he been disbarred from the WHS Alumni Association yet?

[mike_da_man13]

THE HIGH ROAD

After last year’s Massillon-Mentor game at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, Cardinal coach Steve Trivisonno had words with the officiating crew. The same scene, only reversed, played out when the teams concluded a home-and-home contract on Friday in Mentor.

It was Massillon head coach Tom Stacy chewing the hide of the crew. Stacy’s biggest contention was a Hail Mary pass before half should have been ruled a touchdown. Replays showed he had a case. The Tigers would’ve had a 14-0 lead after scoring shortly into the second half. That might have changed the momentum.

Stacy, however, didn’t blame officiating for his loss. It was a good thing, too. Mentor physically and mentally beat Massillon, 19-7. The Tigers will try to regroup and get their first win against an Ohio team this Friday at home against St. Ignatius. It may be a deciding game in the team’s playoff fate.


I e-mailed the response below with Don's story and the games stats from the booster club site.

Since the game was televised and Massillon provides detailed stats you might want to "investigate" your stories before you misreport the facts.

Mentor has a fine team but to say it physically and mentally beat Massillon is inaccurate reporting not reflected by the objective empirical facts of the game.
um they out scored us 19-7 in the second half if thats not dominating i dont really know what is

[DB135]

um they out scored us 19-7 in the second half if thats not dominating i dont really know what is

(1)A questionable officials call cost us a touchdown before the half.
(2)We fumble going in for the go ahead score.
(3)Mentor scores their final touchdown following a 20 yard "drive".
(4)The stats give Mentor a slight edge.

By all objectives measures a convincing win but not a dominating preformance.

Did the Ohio State score reflect a dominating performance? Many football analysts feel the score didn't reflect that type of performance in questioning the validity of the Buckeyes #1 ranking and whether they would vote them in that spot next week.

[ChronicTiger]

We couldnt stop them when it counted. We also couldnt move the ball when it counted. I dont care how even the stats were they dominated us when the game was up for grabs.

We got beat soundly by a pretty good team. No shame in that. Swallow it and move on.

[Benchboss1]

In my opinion, losing to a team that runs the spread offense as their base offense, and losing to them because we could not stop their RUNNING game, is inexcusable.

Who is betting that we will see the Ignatius line up in the shotgun, have the quarterback fake the ball to a running back, then keep the ball and run up the middle? Odds?

[DB135]

We couldnt stop them when it counted. We also couldnt move the ball when it counted. I dont care how even the stats were they dominated us when the game was up for grabs.

We got beat soundly by a pretty good team. No shame in that. Swallow it and move on.


We loose a touchdown on a officials call. We fumble away the chance to take the lead late. A shanked punt sets them up for a 20 yard touchdown drive.

That dominate team is shut down in the first half.

We don't shoot ourselves in the foot on a fumble and a punt its anybodys game.

Sure sounds like a dominate performance.:doh:

[mike_da_man13]

We loose a touchdown on a officials call. We fumble away the chance to take the lead late. A shanked punt sets them up for a 20 yard touchdown drive.

That dominate team is shut down in the first half.

We don't shoot ourselves in the foot on a fumble and a punt its anybodys game.

Sure sounds like a dominate performance.:doh:
yeah dont give mentor any credit for playing good and forcing massillon mistakes. They just did to us what we did to Hamilton.

[DB135]

yeah dont give mentor any credit for playing good and forcing massillon mistakes. They just did to us what we did to Hamilton.

You really need to read the posts more carefully. Read the last line of the first post in the thread.

We were outplayed but not dominated as the four points I made earlier illustrate.

[Benchboss1]

We loose a touchdown on a officials call. We fumble away the chance to take the lead late. A shanked punt sets them up for a 20 yard touchdown drive.

That dominate team is shut down in the first half.

We don't shoot ourselves in the foot on a fumble and a punt its anybodys game.

Sure sounds like a dominate performance.:doh:




DB135, I am in no way saying that we were dominated. We could have/should have won the game. I believe that we are the better team, which makes the loss that much more harder to swallow. All I am saying is that we should not have let a passing team beat us by running the exact same play that helped beat us in week three.

As far as the fumble on what would have been the go ahead touchdown drive, I do question the wisdom of giving the ball to a running back that has a history of fumbling the ball and not putting the ball in the hands of your best player on a play that we HAD to have.
I also know that some people are going to say that Gamble can't run the ball on every play, and they would be correct, but on a play that you HAVE to make, the ball MUST be in the hands of your playmakers!!

[DB135]

DB135, I am in no way saying that we were dominated. We could have/should have won the game. I believe that we are the better team, which makes the loss that much more harder to swallow. All I am saying is that we should not have let a passing team beat us by running the exact same play that helped beat us in week three.

As far as the fumble on what would have been the go ahead touchdown drive, I do question the wisdom of giving the ball to a running back that has a history of fumbling the ball and not putting the ball in the hands of your best player on a play that we HAD to have.
I also know that some people are going to say that Gamble can't run the ball on every play, and they would be correct, but on a play that you HAVE to make, the ball MUST be in the hands of your playmakers!!

I'll quote from a comment FSOH announcer Gary Jeter made "Massillon had more talent, Mentor more heart". At no time did either announcer describe the game as a dominate performance by Mentor.

Assuming a dominate performance would encompass the entire game.

1st Half Stats Massillon Mentor

Rushing Yards 55 19
Passing Yards 66 49
Total Yards 121 68
Penalties/Yards 3/20 1/5
Total Plays 38 23
Ave Yd/Play 3.2 3.0
3rd Down Conv. 4/10 0/5

[mike_da_man13]

I'll quote from a comment FSOH announcer Gary Jeter made "Massillon had more talent, Mentor more heart". At no time did either announcer describe the game as a dominate performance by Mentor.

Assuming a dominate performance would encompass the entire game.

1st Half Stats Massillon Mentor

Rushing Yards 55 19
Passing Yards 66 49
Total Yards 121 68
Penalties/Yards 3/20 1/5
Total Plays 38 23
Ave Yd/Play 3.2 3.0
3rd Down Conv. 4/10 0/5
you know what dude you can look for all the reasons in the world to justify a loss but last week is just that last week i think its time we stop worrying about mentor and start worrying about iggy

[DB135]

you know what dude you can look for all the reasons in the world to justify a loss but last week is just that last week i think its time we stop worrying about mentor and start worrying about iggy

You really need to understand the topic and what is being posted and it has absolutely nothing to do with justifying a loss. Post to the topic and not the poster and then maybe you might look like you know what your talking about.

[mike_da_man13]

You really need to understand the topic and what is being posted and it has absolutely nothing to do with justifying a loss. Post to the topic and not the poster and then maybe you might look like you know what your talking about.
ok buddy does it matter if we lost by 12 or a 112?
your trying to make it look like we were in the game and in truth the second half they smoked us. If you wanted to make a case for the first half i might buy that but if your going to say they didnt dominate us in the second half your lieing to yourself

[tiger51]

In my opinion, losing to a team that runs the spread offense as their base offense, and losing to them because we could not stop their RUNNING game, is inexcusable.

Who is betting that we will see the Ignatius line up in the shotgun, have the quarterback fake the ball to a running back, then keep the ball and run up the middle? Odds?
O trust me they will do that...and from highlights I have seen of them their QB is better then the Mentor kid....we have to stop it...and we have to re focus...

[Obie Wan]

We got beat soundly by a pretty good team. No shame in that.
There is if you're the better team.

[DB135]

ok buddy does it matter if we lost by 12 or a 112?
your trying to make it look like we were in the game and in truth the second half they smoked us. If you wanted to make a case for the first half i might buy that but if your going to say they didnt dominate us in the second half your lieing to yourself

Exactly what game were you watching. We were going in for the go ahead touchdown when we fumbled with 10:18 left in the game. We got the ball back with 5:49 left and still within a touchdown of the go ahead score. A bad punt closed the deal with 2:34 left.

Pretty much sounds like that dominate team didn't put the game away till 1:58 left in the game and as a result of our mistakes.

A dominate performance would be reflected in a blowout score or a closer game with a wide discrepancy offensively and defensively in the stats. That wasn't the case in this game even though you have now waffled from a dominate performance to a dominate 2nd half performance.

A dominate performance? Hardly

[npaflas]

Come on guys let's shake this off and get ready for iggy.We lost before and bounce back the next week we can do the same this week. So GO TIGERS AND BEAT ST IGNATIUS.

[IEPMAVEN]

We have the talent, though maybe not as deep as we would like. However, from a person who has no knowledge about X's and O's, what I saw, was a team that was not cohesive MENTALLY!! It seemed that the boys were fragmented, which leads me to believe that there needs to be a regrouping of the team morale. This is where I think that the 7 captains need to step in, and show some leadership in a positive way. Perhaps they should meet first, writing down what the position coaches see as problems and try to get a perspective of where their teamates' heads and hearts are. Then they should point out the positives, then address the negatives in a constructive way; serious, firm, but not to tear anyone down. I think that there is the assumption that the team still has the drive that they had last year; perhaps they do, but IMHO I think that it is time for them (the captains) to intervene with some guidance from their coaching staff after they make sure that they are all on the same page. If they take care of the internal issues, it will transfer onto the field. I for one, have not lost hope....we are still in this!!! GO TIGERS, BEAT IGGY!!!!!!

[longtimefirsttime]

(1)A questionable officials call cost us a touchdown before the half.
(2)We fumble going in for the go ahead score.
(3)Mentor scores their final touchdown following a 20 yard "drive".
(4)The stats give Mentor a slight edge.

By all objectives measures a convincing win but not a dominating preformance.


I agree with your points. The Tigers were not "dominated". That's what makes that loss so tough. I hope they take the right approach and there's not a "hangover effect" this week.

[longtimefirsttime]

How the "Mentor press" covered the game:
http://www.news-herald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17237056&BRD=1698&PAG=461&dept_id=21848&rfi=6

[DAWGH8R]

I guess this game really meant a lot to them. At least they have something to hang their hat on now !!! About that week 15 thing, FAHGEDDABOUTIT !!:doh2:

[longtimefirsttime]

I don't see them getting out of Region 1. Just my opinion.

[Al.]

I didn't see that "overflow crowd" sitting on the Mentor side. There were lots of empty seats :scratchchin:

[monte81]

Todd Porter knows nothing about football and makes comments and statements without fully thinking it through! He road the bench as a player at massillon for 3 years and the newspaper should think about doing the same! he misquotes players and coaches all the time and digs and finds info that sometimes arent true! i dont even read his fictional articles!!

[Dr Strangemind]

Not too many people would call that a dominating performance by Mentor. It was simply a case of the better team winning. Granted, you normally have to spot at least 7 points to homer calls and just play through that. Still, Mentor did not make the mistakes in critical situations and deserved to win. Now the Tigers have to get past it and redeem themselves by righting the ship come Friday night.