Tough Yards — Big Red tailback Jalen Minniefield struggles through an attempted tackle from a McDowell defender during Friday’s game at Harding Stadium. – Andrew Grimm
STEUBENVILLE — If Ellie McDowell’s visit Friday was a big test, the Big Red overcame it in style.
The defense forced the visiting Trojans to punt on their first six possessions, but the offense kept going as Steubenville maintained its undefeated ranking with a resounding 44-21 victory.
The Big Red, now 9-0, scored the first 29 points to take a 44-7 lead before the Trojans brought in reserves to add a few points in the fourth quarter.
“Our kids prepared hard and played hard,” Big Red head coach Leno Saccoccia said. “We’ve done a great job preparing mentally over the past month. Tonight we had a great, physical game, but we had to prepare for everything all week. Offense, defense, special teams, everyone did a great job.” I did my best.
“I’m so proud of these players. We tell them trust us, and we will trust your execution. Tonight they trusted us. And we trusted their execution, and it’s called a team effort.”
The Big Red, the No. 3 ranked team in Division III in the latest Ohio Associated Press poll, gained 267 rushing yards and had eight different players catch passes for 370 yards. Got the offense.
Steubenville led 7-0 after the first quarter before scoring 22 points in the second quarter to pull away.
The Big Red had a 9-1 advantage on first downs until the Trojans (6-3), a Division I team in Ohio State’s admissions system, put together a second-half score to end the first half. The defense held the visiting team to just one point. 28 yards on the first six drives.
“I want to thank the coaches for coming up with a great game plan, and I want to thank the players for executing that game plan,” Saccoccia added. “It really was a whole team effort.”
The Big Red defense held McDowell quarterback Blaze Myers, a 2,000-yard passer this season who went for 400 yards last week against Austintown-Fitch, to just under 100 yards on 9-of-17 completion. , held to 92 yards. The Big Red’s Will Taylor also intercepted one of his passes, setting up Steubenville’s first score.
Big Red’s senior signal caller Aiden Davis used his legs to get Big Red on the board early on. He gained 64 yards, 49 of which came on Steubenville’s first scoring drive, on a 1-yard dive.
He completed 8 of 11 passes for 81 yards and an additional score.
Jalen Minniefield, who had 112 yards and two scores on just eight carries, capped off the next scoring drive with an 8-yard run for his first TD, and after the defense held again, Kajuan Bryant (14 carries) (gaining 81 yards), he narrowly crossed the goal line for fourth and goal, capping off a 12-play march that made it 21-0.
The next drive after McDowell’s punt was much faster, this time with Davis firing a 21-yard pass to Bryant, hitting tight end Nolan Blackburn in space and taking it 31 yards to the end zone in just two plays, and Taylor Successful conversion run. It became 29-0.
Leading 29-7 to start the third quarter, Minifield wasted little time in getting the running clock going, gaining 65 yards on his first carry of the third quarter, running from Davis to Tre. He scored on a conversion pass to Wiggins, pushing the margin to 30.
McDowell scored in the fourth after backup QB Santino Haney threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Najeh Simon late in the quarter to extend the lead to 44-7.
Precautions
• In Joe Eitel’s unofficial rankings as of Friday night, the Big Red got the win and remains in second place in the Region 11 standings, just one point behind Columbus Bishop Watterson.
• The Big Red also clinched a top-four finish in the region and secured a potential home game in the first two rounds of the playoffs, according to Eitel.
• The Big Red will look to end its undefeated regular season when it hosts Long Island Lutheran next Friday in New York. Lutheran heads into Saturday’s game with a 4-1 record.
Steubenville 44, McDowell 21
M 0-7-0-14 – 21
S 7-22-15-0 – 44
scoring
1st quarter
S: Davis 1 run (Bowers kick) 5:01
2nd quarter
S: Minnie Field 8 runs (Bowers kick) 11:46
S: Bryant 1 run (Bowers kick) 5:36
S: Blackburn 31 Pass from Davis (Taylor Run) 3:40
M: Magorian 25 Pass from Myers (Sondheimer kick) :15
3rd quarter
S: Minniefield 65 runs (Wiggins pass from Davis) 11:39
S: Simon 32 Pass from Haney (Bowers kick) 3:24
4th quarter
M: Ziggler 25 Pass from Myers (Sontheimer kick) 11:36
M: Bastow, 1 pass from Kuhn (Zontimer kick) 1:33
Rushing: McDowell 20-121 (Myers 6-43, Porter 8-48, Bonsell 5-27, Kuhn 1-3). Steubenville 37-267-4TD (Davis 8-64-TD; Bryant 14-81-TD; Minifield 8-112-2TD; Haney 3-(-7); Hyson 4-17)
Passing: McDowell 12-20-112-3TD-INT (Myers 9-17-92-2TD-INT; Kuhn 3-3-20-TD). Steubenville 9-12-113-2TD (Davis 8-11-81-TD; Haney 1-1-32-TD)
Reception: McDowell 12-112-3TD (Magorian 5-36-TD; Porter 2-16; Dickerson 2-15; Zigler 1-25-TD; Neff 2-19; Bastow 1-1-TD); Steubenville 9- 113-2TD (Saccoccia 1-9; Wiggins 1-0; Taylor 1-3; Crozier 1-4; Bryant 2-24; Blackburn 1-31-TD; Hinton 1-10; Simon 1-32-TD)
First down: McDowell 12; Steubenville 13
Penalty Yards: McDowell 6-38; Steubenville 6-50
Lost fumble: McDowell 0-0. Steubenville 1-1
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