Monday, August 29, 2011

Week two in Ross football history...1951

ROSS 14, LORAIN SENIOR 7

Week two of the 1951 football season saw The Little Giants take their 1-0 record on the road to battle the tough Steelmen of Lorain Senior.
A capacity crowd of nearly 7,000 fans filled the stadium in Lorain to watch the two team battle. Ross was led by two types of thunder on the warm September night. John(Big Thunder) Lewis, and Jerome(Little Thunder)Surratt led a determined Ross offense that gave the Little Giants their second-ever win over Lorain and first victory over the Steelers in 31 years.
Lewis got the Little Giants on the board midway through the first quarter. Big Thunder bulled his way over the goal line from five yards out capping a 60 yard drive. Ronnie Whitcomb kicked the extra point and the Fremonters out in front. The score remained 7-0 Ross at the half.
Lorain proved their ability to put points on the board in the third quarter. The Steelemen capped a long 83 yard drive when quarterback Dan Jones pitched to end JimDick on a six yard scoring drive. The Steelemen made the all-important PAT and the game was tied 7-7.
The two teams defensive units battled the potent offensive units of the other side throughout the second half. The Little Giant D, led by Bob Biggs made some clutch defensive stops. Biggs stops Lorains Lavon McCall for a 14 yard loss at one point to stop the Steel-city crew from scoring.
The game was 7-7 at the end of three quarters and remained that way well into the fourth quarter until Ross unleashed more thunder.
The second bout of thunder unleashed on Lorain came in the form of lightening-quick speedster Jerome Surratt. Little Thunder dashed into the end zone on a left end run of nine yards with just 54 second to go in the game to put Ross up 13-7. Whitcombs PAT kick put the purple and white up by the winning margin and the Little Giant defense made sure the Steelmen were bottled up for the rest of the game.
John Lewis led Ross running for 167 yards. Surratt complimented that effort by rushing for 84 more. The Little Giants outgained the Steelemen for the night 242 total yards to just 107. The purple and white attemped just six passed, completing one. Lorain attempted 22 passes, completing 9. The win put the Fremonters record at 2-0 and primed the way for the next three big games of the 1951 season against rivals Fostoria, Findlay and Sandusky.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Week one in Ross football history....1971

ROSS 52, TOLEDO ROGERS 6

The 1971 edition of Chuck Shuffs Little Giants opened the season with a home contest against the Rams of Toledo Rogers. Rogers had knocked off the purple and white in the opening game of the 1970 season 29-13. The Little Giants and their fans knew that Ross was a stronger team going into the '71 campaign that what they saw in 1970 when the season record was 5-4-1. In a preseason scrimmage Ross knocked off Warren Harding, the team that would go on to claim the 1971 title.
The Rams held the Little Giants at bay in the first quarter as neither team crossed the goal line. The Rams were the first team to hit paydirt, taking a 6-0 lead on a one yard TD run by junior back Rich Garmon. That appeared to wake up the Little Giants as they did not allow the Rams past the midfield strip the rest of the night.
Ross meantime shook off the first game sluggishness and roared up and down the field led by a 160 yard performance by senior back Tommy Liggins. Led by Liggins, Rob Lytle and Chuck Lindsey, the Ross offense blew threw the Rams for a total of 440 yards on the night, 348 of them on the ground.
Liggins who had a sore ankle going into the contest carried the ball 16 times in gaining his 160 yards. Lytle carried the ball 9 times for 71 yards, while Lindsey carried the ball five times for a total of 65 yards.
Liggins was replaced by Tom Pitts in the third quarter and kept the offense moving. The powerful Ross offensive machine was aided by a tremendous defensive effort led by Don Moore and Bob Brudzinski.
The win was the first opening season victor for the Little Giants since the 1967 season.