Big Red headed to the regional semis

FIGHTING FOR YARDS — Big Red’s Ziare Scurry battles through a tackle from an Athens defender after a making a catch during Friday’s Division III, Region 11 playoff game at Harding Stadium. – Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — The final walk down the ramp was a happy one indeed for Big Red’s seniors.

Playing in their final game at Harding Stadium this season, Steubenville made plays on both sides of the ball and overwhelmed visiting Athens, 35-14, Friday night to advance to the regional semifinals.

“I’m proud of our players for the way they played and proud of our coaches for the way we prepared,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “I’m happy for the senior class, this is a great senior class. I’m glad they got a victory to lock up Harding Stadium. “We’re happy, but we’re not satisfied. We’ve got more work to do.”

Big Red, now 12-0 and the No. 2 seed in Division III, Region 11, will meet No. 11 Dover at a neutral site next week. The Crimson Tornadoes came back from deficits of 21-0 and 35-21 to upset No. 3 Tri-Valley, 37-35, on Friday.

“It only gets harder from here, but you want it to,” Saccoccia said. “The further you go, the tougher it gets. But the further we go, the tougher we get.”

Big Red’s defense came up with two big fourth down stops in their own end in the opening half to keep the No. 7 seed Bulldogs (10-2) off the board, while the offense really got going in the second and third quarters to open a 35-0 lead.

“We bent but we didn’t break (on defense), and I thought our second group did just as good,” Saccoccia said. “We stopped them on a couple fourth downs. Congratulations to (Athens) on a good season.”

Jalen Minniefield racked up 72 yards on seven carries with a pair of touchdowns, while Aiden Davis went 11 of 15 for 247 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for another score. He spread the ball to six different receivers, Nolan Blackburn hauling in three passes for 88 yards and a score.

Big Red got the ball first and marched right down the field, using an eight-play, 79-yard drive to take the lead. Davis went 3 for 3 on the drive for 72 yards, hitting Brody Saccoccia for 27 yards and Tre Wiggins for 39 yards before sneaking across the goal line himself for a 7-0 lead.

That remained the score after one with a couple of stops by both defenses, but again a big Davis pass set up a score early in the second quarter when he fired a 65-yard connection to Ziare Scurry down to the 5, then, on the next snap, Ca’Juan Bryant went the rest of the way to make it 14-0.

Athens, on its next drive, drove all the way down to the Big Red 2, but a false start made a fourth-and-1 a fourth-and-6, and the Big Red defense made a stop.

On the next drive, Steubenville went 93 yards in 12 plays, Minniefield racking up 64 of his yards on the drive which he capped with a 5-yard scoring run to make it 21-0 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Davis hit Blackburn for a 39-yard touchdown to make it 28-0, then he hit him again on the next drive, this time for 32 yards and down to the Athens 8 to set up Minniefield’s second TD on the next snap.

The Bulldogs got a scoring run from Alex Pero (177 yards on 34 carries) and a TD pass from Daniel Heightland to Leo Martin in the fourth quarter to stop the running clock.

OHSAA Division III, Region 11 Playoffs

Regional Quarterfinal at Harding Stadium

No. 2 Steubenville 35, No. 7 Athens 14

A 0-0-0-14 – 14

S 7-14-14-0 – 35

SCORING PLAYS

First Quarter

S: Davis 1 run (Bowers kick) 10:44

Second Quarter

S: Bryant 5 run (Bowers kick) 8:49

S: Minniefield 5 run (Bowers kick) 1:11

Third Quarter

S: Blackburn 39 pass from Davis (Bowers kick) 4:41

S: Minniefield 8 run (Bowers kick) 1:49

Fourth Quarter

A: Pero 4 run (Porter kick) 4:06

A: Martin 18 pass from Heightland (Porter kick) :46

RUSHING: Athens 44-198-TD (Pero 34-177-TD; Heightland 8-9; Martin 2-12); Steubenville 19-118-4TD (Hopkins 2-10; Davis 3-5-TD; Scurry 1-5; Bryant 3-24; Minniefield 7-72-2TD; Hython 2-3; Haney 1-(-1)

PASSING: Athens 8-14-105-TD (all by Heightland); Steubenville 11-17-247-TD (Davis 11-15-247-TD; Haney 0-2)

RECIEVING: 8-105-TD (Sutton 3-44; Hart 1-8; Martin 4-53-TD); Steubenville 11-247-TD (Saccoccia 1-27; Hopkins 1-9; Wiggins 1-39; Crosier 3-11; Scurry 2-82; Blackburn 3-88-TD)

FIRST DOWNS: Athens 14; Steubenville 12

PENALTIES-YARDS: Athens 4-20; Steubenville 2-20

FUMBLES-LOST: Athens 0-0; Steubenville 1-1