LEAPING ABILITY — Steubenville’s Noah Howarth hauls in a pass against Penn Hills on Friday. (Photo by Joe Catullo)

STEUBENVILLE — Steubenville will be looking to rebound from a rare season-opening loss when it welcomes Morgantown to Harding Stadium Friday.

The kick for the annual Legends Night contest is set for 7 p.m. Before the game, Big Red’s Boosters Club will honor seniors from the 1991 SHS squad, which rolled to a 12-1 record and fell to Uniontown Lake in the playoffs.

Morgantown opened with a thrilling 45-35 victory over Parkersburg, while Steubenville fell to Penn Hills, 21-14. The win pushed the Mohigans to the sixth spot in this week’s West Virginia Class AAA power rankings put together by Metro News. This will be the fifth meeting between the schools, Big Red holding a 4-0 series lead.

“We have a little bit of a different challenge than we did last Friday,” Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said. “Against Penn Hills, we had to think deep. For the most part, I thought our players remained discipline. We felt the way we could equalize their passing game was to put pressure on their quarterback and make him get rid of the ball early. For the most part, it worked. In a couple of occasions, it didn’t.

“This week, we’re going back to our old philosophy of stopping the run. Morgantown does a great job of running the football out of multiple formations with multiple people. They’ll use the run-pass option, with a little bit of roll out mixed in. Our focus will be on stopping the run and tackling the pass.”

Against Parkersburg, Morgantown jumped out to a 17-0 lead before trailing 28-24 at the half. The Mohigans dominated play in the second half to earn the victory.

Senior running back Ty Konchesky rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns in the win. Jace Whetsell also ran for a TD and returned a Parkersburg kick 91 yards for a score. Quarterback Cam Rice compiled 61 yards on the ground and threw for 89. As a team, Morgantown racked up 251 rushing yards.

The Mohigans feature a bruising offensive line led by Nick Malone, who has verbally committed to continue his football career at Pitt. Others up front are seniors Jayden Wolfley and Garrett Colton.

After the Parkersburg game, Konchesky had nothing but praise for his line.

“They’re incredible, they’re huge — I couldn’t ask for anything else,” Konchesky said. “Nick Malone is an animal. I’d run behind him every play if I could. I have so much faith in my line.”

Saccoccia noted the Mohigans do have nice size up front.

“Their line is a little bigger than the Penn Hills lines, not weight- wise but height-wise,” he said. “Overall, I think Morgantown has better athletes on its offensive line.

“Morgantown is well-coached, and it’s a team with good experience. Plus, it’s coming off a big win over Parkersburg, which doesn’t lose too many games.”

Mohigan coach Matt Lacy does have a veteran team and has made leadership and encouragement, especially among upperclassmen, a theme for the 2018 campaign.

“We tell them that we will only go as far as they will take us. We can do all the Xs and Os on the chalkboard, but they have to be able to lead from within,” Lacy said. “The coaches can’t rah-rah it all the time.

“Yeah, we’ll get on them when their play is bad, but we talked to them and said, ‘We need to get to the point where if we do something wrong in practice, the senior leaders have to step up and say, ‘Coach, run that play again.” That’s when we can get to being a really good football team.”

Against Penn Hills, Big Red’s defense allowed 275 total yards. The Indians passed for 286 and finished with negative 11 on the ground.

Offensively, Steubenville compiled 250 yards, 143 on the ground and 107 via the air. Junior tailback Tayveon Crawford paced the ground game with 81 yards. Junior Randy Mitchell, making his first start at quarterback, completed 3 of 4 passing attempts for 106 yards.

The season-opening loss was Big Red’s first since 2001.

“We had a good film session on Saturday and a good practice on Monday,” Saccoccia said. “The only way we can fix what is wrong with us is by getting more game experience. We don’t lack heart, we don’t lack ability, we just lack game experience. The only way to get it is by taking advantage of every opportunity.

“You can tell the character of a team by how it deals with adversity. We’re in an adverse situation right now being 0-1. I don’t think our mental or physical states are in adverse situations. We have to come back ready to go and give our best effort. If we are worth any salt as a football team, we will work to get better every day.”

NOTES

¯ When asked about his 1991 Big Red, Saccoccia was quick to say “a great team with beautiful players.”

“There were just great kids on that team,” he said. “The class has been successful from the grittiest linemen to the fastest back. They’ve all been very successful, and I’m as proud of them as I am of any Big Red team.”