MASSILLON, Ohio — It's a rivalry as old as time—or at least 127 years old. This year, the Massillon Tigers found themselves victorious over Canton McKinley, beating the Bulldogs 23-13 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium Saturday afternoon.
The heat started before kickoff with the community coming out in droves to tailgate and support their respective squads.
"It's huge. It's very huge. And it's a lot of bragging rights and it's just been like that forever. And it's been a staple and basically a part of American culture—probably the best part of American culture that nobody really knows about," said Bulldog supporter Henry Stuchul. "It goes way back to the turn of the century when the steelworkers, the dads would always wear their son's numbers on their hard hats in the steel mill, and they would always talk about how much better their son was than the other person's. And that's how basically the rivalry started."
That rivalry started in 1894 and has only gained fire over the many, many years. For the fans that have been around the game long enough, the matchups between the Tigers and Bulldogs have centered around the community.
"It's the biggest game in high school football," said former Bulldog Darius "It's the tradition. It's the kids giving them something in the place where we don't have a lot...So when you come in in this game, it's about it's about passion. It's about it's about your family. It's about your tradition. It's about it's about your community."
And for the younger generation, the game is something to get excited about while also keeping a competitive edge.
"Everyone wants to win and everyone feels like they got to you got to prove everybody wrong. So it's just an amazing rivalry," said Tigers supporter Braylon Gamble.
So when the two teams took the field Saturday for the 133rd matchup, the energy from the fans translated to the gridiron.
The Tigers came out hot, on the board first, second, and third—two of their early touchdowns rushes from Willtrell Hartson, who had quite the game both on the ground and in the air with a strong connection with quarterback Jalen Slaughter.
The Bulldogs tried to drum up some offense, but couldn’t get on the board until just before the half with a pass from Keaton Rode to Alex Vazquez.
McKinley scored again on a pass to Keith Quincy late in the fourth quarter to make it 23-13, but with less than three minutes in the game, that was all she wrote.
To the victors go the spoils and Massillon held off the Bulldogs, winning this year’s rivalry matchup and all of the bragging rights—until they meet again next year. Massillon bumps their rivalry lead to 75-53-5, with seven straight wins against the Bulldogs.
Still, both teams had secured playoff positions ahead of Saturday's game, so the Tigers and Bulldogs take this high-energy game and enter the postseason next week.
Camryn Justice is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Twitter @camijustice.
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