Warren G Harding High School - Echoes Yearbook (Warren, OH)

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East Tech, 20-7, before a homecoming crowd of about 3,500. Although Harding limited the East Tech backs to only 60 yards on the ground, the Panthers' pass defense posed a dangerous threat throughout the game. Harding gained 334 yards on the ground while the Panthers de- fense limited East Tech to 54 yards. Bob Barbutes smashed over from the three on the seventh play of the first period. Dom Venetta added the extra point. Salvi Merolla sparked a drive for the next touchdown and car- ried the ball over from the eight-yard line for Harding's second touchdown. Venetta's placement was wide. Dick Goldner set up YVarren's linal touchdown by recovering a fumble on Tech's 32. Then Merolla crashed through to the three for a 29-yard gain. Maniatis went over but the play was called back. Maniatis then went over for the marker from the nine and Venetta made the extra point. A fine display of the Panthers' terrific defensive playing sparked their contest against Hamilton. A Krusinski to Colield pass covered 25 yards for Tech's lone touchdown. Big Ben Suger added the extra point. Warren had two touchdowns called back because of motion and offside penalties and this was the end of Harding's scoring. W arrenls rushing average is now 262 yards per game. Massillon, still smarting from the drubbing XV arren gave them in 1951, unleashed their terrific defensive play to halt XVarren, 31-O. XVarren failed to capitalize on three breaks which put them deep in Massillon territory. Nussbaum, Massillonls fullback, opened the Tigers, attack in the second quarter with a 22-yard run which gave them a chance to follow up and score. Taylor took the spotlight when he galloped 56 yards for the Tigers, to score their second touchdown. XVarren got up steam in the third quarter when Merolla returned the kickoif to the 42. Rogers and lX'Ierolla then alternated the ball to the Massillon 43 before they were stopped. 25

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mentum during the game to get them started. Their one threat was spiked by an intercepted pass at the 31-yard line. Nick Angelo fumbled on the 14 and set up the only score for the Bengals, with Steve Cher- nieky sweeping his right end for 10 yards. Kon- koly added the extra point. The Benedictine eight-man line held XVarren to a net gain of 58 yards, resulting in Harding's worst performance of the season. The Harding High Panthers displayed a com- plete reversal of the previous week's performance by handily defeating the Mansfield Tygcrs, 34- 4 12. The Panthers really snapped out of their defeat at the hands of Cleveland Benedictine by scoring five touchdowns and completely outclass- ing the Tygers. J. Vair pushes ahead for a gain against Toledo Waite. Bob Barbutes gave the first indication ofa fine offense by smashing through the line for 40 yards in the second play of the game. Rogers, Merolla and Barbutes alternated the ball to the 10 with Salvi Merolla carrying it over for the touchdown. Dom Venetta place-kicked the extra point. Right after llarding's first touchdown, Eddie Mach swept around his right end and scampercd 70 yards for the touchdown on Mansfield's third play from scrimmage. lVarren's speedsters, Rookie Rogers, Salvi Merolla and Bob Barbutes, provided the Panthers with the most balanced running attack in several seasons. lim Rogers provided the Panthers with three touchdown runs of 23 and 52 yards, and he gathered in an eight-yard pass from lim Seem to end the scoring for the night. Harding tallied in the first and third quarters against Campbell lllemorial to cop their fourth victory and first shut-out of the season. Rogers and Merolla were given the scoring honors for the game. Rookie Rogers blasted 34 yards early in the first quarter to give XVarren a 6-0 lead. Venetta added the extra point. After this Campbell's defense tightened up to hold the Panthers until the fourth quarter. Then again in the fourth quarter the Panthers livened up to score their final touchdown of the game. Warren's defense looked the best of the season as the line held Campbell to 88 yards gained while the Panthers got a total of 297 yards through a stubborn Campbell line. The Harding High Pan- thers gained their fifth vic- tory by downing Cleveland loyal fans send the team to Massillon with high hopes. The Panthers were unable to gain any mo-

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Again in the third quarter Massillon opened up their offense to score three touchdowns. This clinched the game for them and strengthened their hold on the myth- ical state championship. Despite the 31-0 set-back the Panthers received the week before from the Massillon Tigers, they were ready to stop the Hamilton Big Blue. Salvi Merolla scored the game's only touchdown in the third period. Although Merolla was the only scorer, jim Hilles grabbed the spotlight with his terrific running attack. Hilles, who made his varsity debut in the third quarter of the game, continued his fine running into the final moments of the game to give him 76 out of Harding's 211 net yards gained. COACHES: G. Johnson, E. Peaspanen, M. Marcarello, C. Riffle Salvi Merolla also continued his steady running throughout the game to end up with 58 yards gained. The Harding High Panthers displayed their best all-around brand of football before about 5,000 fans to crush the Steubenville Big Red on their home field, 25-6. The game was high- lighted by a consistent ground attack and a stubborn defense featuring sparkling runs and fine passing. jim Hilles' running and his fine receiving were supported by the good running and defensive I play of Salvi Merolla. Hilles scored twice, once on a four-yard sprint around right end and on I a 46-yard pass which he took in the end zone. jim Rogers appeared in the game and sparked the team to the one-foot line with Bob Barbutes crashing over for the score. Dom Venetta added the extra point. The WVarren backs then in- tercepted a pass and put the ball on the 30. Then Warren subs took the ball to the 10 with Preston scoring. During the game all the players Warren took with them got a chance to play. f Harding jolted Toledo VVaite, 46-7, for their eighth victory of the season. Salvi Merolla l scored half of Harding's touchdowns while keeping up his terrific running attack. Salvi's longest f run of the game was a 54-yard dash through tackle for Warren's second touchdown. Soon after this jim Seem hit jack Vair with a five-yard aerial and Vair raced 42 yards only to be lf stopped on the one-yard line. On the next play Vair carried the ball around the end to score. Dave Preston also took scoring honors with two touchdowns to his credit. His first was a 60- yard blast through the line and his second, which came only 80 seconds later, was when he in- tercepted a Toledo pass and galloped 32 yards to score. T0ledo's only score was in the final moments of the game when McNeil scored after a 77- yard march. The Alliance Aviators, featuring Len Dawson, were outclassed by the Harding Panthers in the mud and rain before 3,000 fans. Len Dawson got off nine passes and completed four, as the XVarren pass defense looked the best of the season. The game started off with a tremendous kick by Dom Venetta to the Alliance one-yard line. Dawson then engineered the longest pass of the night to Alton for fifteen yards. This started the Aviators on a drive that was not finished until Barnett went over from the three for the touchdown, with Dawson adding the extra point. 26