Massillon Shuts Out DeSales 48-0, Holds Stallions to Five Total Yards

Massillon Washington’s defense turned a Division II, Region 7 quarterfinal into a shutout clinic on Friday night, blanking Columbus St. Francis DeSales 48-0 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium to end the Stallions’ season and the high school career of quarterback RJ Day, the son of Ohio State head coach Ryan Day.

The final score was confirmed on the statewide scoreboards published by The Columbus Dispatch, the Mansfield News Journal, the Zanesville Times Recorder and the Canton Repository. Third-seeded Massillon improved to 10-1, while sixth-seeded DeSales finished 8-4.

The shutout was only the beginning of the story. According to Heavy’s game recap, which cited the defensive totals reported from the stadium, Massillon held DeSales to negative-13 rushing yards, five total yards and just two first downs for the entire night. The Tigers, by contrast, piled up 392 yards of offense — 243 on the ground and 149 through the air, per the same Heavy recap.

Savior Owens did the early damage for Massillon, scoring the game’s first three touchdowns on the ground, according to Heavy. The Tigers stretched the lead to 28-0 in the second quarter when Rasmus Haines found Dashun Williams up the seam for a passing touchdown, and Haines hit Deontay Malone for another score and a 35-0 lead before halftime.

Gary Yeager scored Massillon’s first touchdown of the second half, and Donnie McMullen threw to Van Hawkins for the final touchdown of the night, completing the 48-0 margin, Heavy reported. The Repository’s box score showed the Tigers scoring in every quarter — 14 in the first, 21 in the second, seven in the third and six in the fourth.

For DeSales, the night closed one of the most watched high school careers in Ohio. RJ Day, who set DeSales school records for passing yards and passing touchdowns, according to Heavy, started at quarterback for the Stallions while his father watched from the stadium, a night before Ohio State hosts Oregon at Ohio Stadium. The younger Day’s career in the Stallions’ purple is not the end of his football road — Heavy reported he is heading to Northwestern, where he will play for offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and in the same Big Ten as his father’s Buckeyes.

The Tigers also took the field Friday with a storyline that had been settled off it. Earlier this fall, a court fight over the eligibility of transfer brothers Brayton and Brydon Feister threatened Massillon’s postseason before the Ohio Supreme Court’s dismissal cleared the brothers to play, as NewsForce247 reported earlier in the playoffs. Friday was Massillon’s first game of this postseason — the No. 3 seed carried a first-round bye — and the Tigers played like a team that had spent the extra week preparing for exactly this opponent.

There is also the setting to consider. Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, named for the Massillon graduate who went on to found the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, is one of the most famous high school venues in America, and Friday’s crowd included the current head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, in town a day early in his own schedule — the Buckeyes host Oregon at Ohio Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Heavy reported Ryan Day was in attendance to watch his son’s final high school game, in a stadium where the home program’s tradition is measured in state poll titles and a century of Friday nights.

DeSales reached Friday’s quarterfinal as the No. 6 seed in Region 7 and finishes 8-4, a season that included Day’s record-setting run at quarterback. The Stallions simply ran into the region’s most complete performance of the round: a defense that allowed five yards, an offense that scored in all four quarters, and a home crowd at one of Ohio’s most storied high school stadiums.

What happens next is a rematch with history attached. Massillon advances to a Division II, Region 7 semifinal against Big Walnut on Friday, Nov. 13 — the third straight season the two programs have met in the playoffs, according to Heavy. Big Walnut reached the semifinal with a 37-7 win over Louisville on Friday night.

The winner of Massillon-Big Walnut moves to the Region 7 final on Nov. 20, one step from the state semifinals. For Massillon, Friday’s shutout was the standard the rest of the region now has to match.

Photo: Sean P Bender, CC BY-SA 3.0