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11/20/05

Gamble helps in all phases for Tigers
Sunday, November 20, 2005 <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>By JOSH WEIR
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AKRON - It was almost like when Rocky Balboa cut Ivan Drago during the final fight of “Rocky IV.”
“You see,” his trainer yelled, “he’s not a machine.”
The Massillon Tigers drew first blood on Saturday night at the Rubber Bowl, and doing the swinging was their heavyweight back, Brian Gamble.
Gamble bounced back from a quiet performance three weeks ago during the first Massillon-McKinley game to lead the Tigers to a 21-3 win against their archrival in a Division I, Region 2 high school football final.
“I felt like I shouldn’t have been stopped the first time we played them,” said the 6-foot, 190-pound junior. “I felt like I had to come out here and be a gamebreaker. We just set the tone from the start.”
Gamble rushed for 104 yards and a TD on 25 carries, caught two passes for 31 yards and threw a 49-yard scoring pass to Zack Vanryzin. He also helped hold McKinley to 200 total yards after the Bulldogs had rolled up 339 yards and 38 points in a Week 10 drubbing that had the Bulldogs looking invincible.
“Brian Gamble is just a great football player,” Massillon coach Tom Stacy said. “In my years at Massillon, and in high school, period, he’s the best football player I’ve been around. ... To play on both sides of the ball and have an impact like that, in this kind of game, you have to be pretty special.”
Gamble didn’t have any big runs, his longest being 13 yards. But it was his physical, tough play, along with a great job by the Tiger offensive line that probably had Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” playing in Massillon deep into the night.
On the Tigers’ first possession, Gamble caught a throwback screen in the center and started left before cutting all the way back across the field and down the right sideline to the McKinley 13. He finished the 19-yard play by barreling over a McKinley defender.
Two plays later, he finished the drive by breaking three tackles on his way to the right pylon and a 7-0 Massillon lead. The eight-play, 69-yard drive served notice that the Tigers were ready to play and, maybe more important, that McKinley was human.
“I think we underestimated them (in the first game), which was bad because they’re a great football team,” said Gamble, who had 64 total yards during the Week 10 matchup. “We had to take the game away from them this time.”
On its next possession, Massillon QB Bobby Huth threw a backwards lateral to Gamble on the right side. Gamble took a few steps before lofting a bomb to Vanryzin, who found himself wide open after a McKinley defender fell.
Vanryzin made the catch and waltzed across the goal line for a 49-yard TD catch and a 14-0 lead, the largest deficit of the season for the Bulldogs to that point.
“We knew (McKinley was) reading screen on that, and we could beat them with the double pass,” said Vanryzin, who finished with three grabs for 79 yards. “I felt the defender slip off me and I just broke.”
The 89-yard scoring drive was the longest allowed by McKinley this season.
The pass might have surprised some of the 16,000-plus in attendance, but not Gamble, a former seventh-grade quarterback.
“I hold a couple of (passing) records at Longfellow (Middle School),” Gamble said with a smile. “I brought it back out a little bit. I’ve been nagging (Coach Stacy) about a halfback pass or something. He gave me that chance tonight.”
The Tigers put the play in this week and it worked to perfection.
“We had just the play to do it on, a play we’ve run a lot to him, just a swing pass,” said Stacy. “Zack Vanryzin ran a great route.” The play came after a 25-yard Gamble run was cut in half because of a holding penalty. Reach Repository sports writer Josh Weir at (330) 580-8426
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