For the first time in team history, the Massillon Tigers have been awarded a 1-0 forfeit win. This decision (as recorded by Joe Eitel) stems from the Farrell Steelers late decision to back out of today’s game. Word got out that the Steelers would cancel the game 2-3 weeks ago; that rumor became fact when the Massillon athletic department released an official statement.
“The Washington High School Athletic Department has been notified by the Farrell Area High School (PA) Athletic Department that due to player injuries, Farrell must cancel the week 7 varsity football game scheduled for Friday, October 2, 2026.”
At the time, Farrell was 3-0, having outscored opponents 178-6 and had put up an 84-0 victory the week prior. Despite the claims of injury for the game three weeks later, Farrell would go on to play and defeat Wilmington (PA) later that week and even traveled across the border to play Youngstown Ursuline. The Steelers lost to Ursuline by a score of 24-13. Farrell will play Sharpsville (PA) next week.
First Of Its Kind for Massillon
A 1-0 forfeit win is the first of its kind for the Tigers, although they have been on the wrong end of a forfeit before. The last time Massillon was involved in an official forfeit was in the 1924 season versus Youngstown South (full story here). The Massillon Tigers, led by Coach Dave Stewart, went undefeated that season outside of the forfeit. Stewart was forced to pull his team off the field due to excessive cheating and unsportsmanlike behavior by both players and officials. The Massillon Independent ran a headline screaming “What a Farce!”.
“Despite the fact that they received the rawest deal that has ever been handed to a Massillon high school athletic team on a foreign field, the orange and black gridders of Washington high school last Saturday afternoon decidedly outplayed Youngstown South in that nightmare contest at Youngstown which was spoiled by the partial work of the officials and which finally resulted in Coach David B. Stewart calling his boys off the field and forfeiting the game to South.”
”South’s line was crumbling before the steady plunges of Kammer, Define and King like an egg shell. The Youngstown warriors were done and only the unfair and unsportsmanlike tactics of the officials saved the day for South, but it was no clean cut victory.”
”It was too bad that what would have been a rip roaring game of football between two evenly matched teams should have been entirely ruined by a set of incompetent and partial officials.”
“But it is a victory without honor: a victory so tainted and so beclouded by the disgusting and plainly evident efforts of the officials to see that South won at any cost that no fair-minded lover of clean sports in Youngstown today can do anything but hang his head in shame that such a blot should be cast upon a school the size of Youngstown South.”
I encourage everyone to read the rest of the article through the link a few paragraphs above!
Points and a Win Awarded For Tigers
Massillon receives win number 975 in the program’s illustrious history, but of all these games, this is the first to come from a full forfeit. The Tigers will receive 3.5 first level points in the Harbin poll as well as 3.5 second level points for each of Farrell’s wins. They will continue to receive points based on this system. Massillon will take on Cornerstone Christian (TX) next week.
