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Big Red in; Weir, Toronto close

ON THE CHASE — Edison’s D.T. Dillon chases Toronto’s Max Tice during the first half of last week’s game at Clark Hinke Field. The Red Knights moved to fifth in the Division II, Region 25 standings with the 47-22 victory. (Mike Mathison)

Big Red has locked down a playoff berth and two other area teams (Toronto and Weir) are close.

Meanwhile, Catholic Central continues to search for a Week 10 date.

The Crusaders have been scrambling for an opponent since Bellaire St. John announced it would not field a football team this season. Central was scheduled to host the Southern Buckeye Warriors Saturday. Unfortunately, Southern Buckeye decided late last week not to make the trip to Steubenville.

Steve Daley continues to work diligently to find a replacement. There are a few possibilities.

“We’re waiting to hear something and hopefully that might happen either Sunday or Monday,” Daley said after watching his Crusaders dispatch Madonna 33-14 Saturday night. “We have been contacted by a team that may be losing its Week 10 opponent and that does happen from time to time in Ohio.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that these kids can get a 10th game and we can finish at 5-5.”

Central ran its winning streak to three with the triumph over the Blue Dons.

Sophomore quarterback Justin Hartzell had a huge game for the Crusaders, running for 119 yards and a touchdown and throwing for 144 and three scores. Geno DiBiase was on the receiving end of all three Hartzell scoring tosses.

16 in a row:

For Big Red, the post-season trip is its 16th straight. Overall, Steubenville will be making its 29th playoff appearance.

Reno Saccoccia’s club, which improved to 8-1 with its 47-0 thumping of St. Clairsville, currently is fourth in the Division IV, Region 15 computer standings, according to Joe Eitel. The Big Red trails Johnstown Monroe, Heath and Shelby.

JM and Heath have a Week 10 “meetin’ of the unbeatens” on tap for Friday. Shelby closes against 1-8 Loudonville. Canada Prep will visit Harding Stadium to help Big Red close its regular season.

The Raiders, who fell to Aurora Friday, will bring a 2-4 record to town. Prep does own a victory over Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary.

In his weekly projects, Drew Pasteur says Big Red will finish third in the region and entertain Bloom-Carroll Clearcreek in the opening round.

Indian Creek fell to ninth in the standings following its loss to South Range. Pasteur’s projections are the Redskins, who close Thursday with a home game against arch-rival Edison, will finish eighth in the region. That would mean a trip to Johnstown Monroe, the region’s projected top seed.

3 in a row:

Eitel has Toronto holding down the fifth spot in Division VII, Region 25. Mogadore, Norwalk St. Paul, Monroeville and Warren JFK are ahead of the Red Knights.

According to Pasteur, Toronto, which will finish with a game at Madonna, is likely to finish sixth in the standings. Should those projections hold, the Red Knights will play their first game at Monroeville.

The post-season berth would be the third straight for Toronto.

Harrison Central, based on information distributed by Eitel, remains eighth in Division V, Region 19.

The Huskies, however, based on Pasteur’s projections will wind up ninth, just a few points behind West Lafayette Ridgewood for the final playoff spot. Harrison’s final game is with winless Buckeye Local.

Weir is 10th:

A Week 10 victory over Brooke should give Weir High a spot in the West Virginia Class AA playoffs. Currently, the Red Riders are 10th with a rating of 8.667.

Lincoln and Winfield are tied for ninth with an 8.750 rating.

Tony Filberto’s club improved to 7-2 with a hard-fought 11-7 win at East Liverpool. Cody Enrietti continued to shine for Weir, gaining 117 rushing yards on 23 carries.

TO’s hurt:

Turnovers have been a major problem for Indian Creek’s Redskins in their two losses this season.

Against South Range Friday, Creek lost three fumbles, had a couple of bad snaps on punts and allowed a pick six.

In the opening week loss to Cambridge, the Redskins fumbled the leather away three times and threw an interception. The Bobcats turned two of Creek’s miscues into points to seal the victory.

“You can’t keep making a thousand mistakes against a good football team and hope something good is going to come from it,” Creek’s Andrew Connor said following the loss to South Range.

They were solid:

Erick Meek had a little chat with his seniors during halftime of Friday’s 47-22 victory over Edison. The Red Knight veterans apparently paid close attention to their coach.

“I called the seniors into my office at halftime and told them they were getting too many 15-yard penalties out there,” Meek said following the game. “It was on them. They’re good kids but we asked them, ‘Do you want to throw away a possible playoff berth because someone shoves you and you don’t have the discipline to shove them back?’

“They understood that and they were solid in the second half.”

Max Tice had a huge night for Toronto, collecting 151 rushing yards and a score. Nate Karaffa completed six of his nine passes for 100 yards and Jake Keenan caught three for 70 and a six-pointer.

Danny Zdinak had eight carries for 70 yards and three touchdowns.

Cynthia strong:

Purple was a dominant color when the blue and gold of Central got together with the blue and white of Madonna.

Players from both teams along with the cheerleaders paid tribute to Cynthia Phillipson, a Catholic Central student who died two years ago after collapsing at a basketball practice. Purple was Cynthia’s favorite color.

A “purple out” was held at Saturday’s game. There were purple socks, wristbands and flags. Purple balloons were released following a moment of silence prior to the opening kick.

The banners both teams ran through when taking the field made mention of Cynthia.

Will it continue?

Thursday’s game between St. Clairsville and Big Red completed the two-year contract between the schools.

The future of the series now falls into the “it remains to be seen category.”

Big Red rolled to a 47-0 victory in the rain at Harding Stadium. The first meeting, played before a packed house in St. Clairsville, resulted in a 27-0 Steubenville win.

Thursday’s downright nasty weather certainly impacted the crowd. The 50/50 drawing was worth roughly $275. Generally, at Big Red home games, the winners’ share is north of $1,000.

St. Clairsville was the only Ohio Valley opponent on Big Red’s schedule this season.

Hall bound:

Derrick Stickles, the head football coach at Edison, will be inducted into the West Liberty University Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday.

Stickles was an outstanding running back during his days with the Hilltoppers. He set West Liberty’s career rushing record with 3,544 yards and topped the 100-yard rushing mark a school record 17 times in four seasons (2002-2005) with the Black and Gold.

The Edison grid boss was a multisport athlete at Oak Glen, earning all-state honors as a running back in football and was a three-time state champion on the wrestling mat.

Love that D:

In taking care of East Liverpool, Weir sacked Potter quarterback Austin Mayfield seven times, twice for a safety and allowed just 19 rushing yards.

“The defense did a great job,” Filberto said. “They showed up from the start and did what they had to do.”

In nine games, the Red Rider defense has recorded 48 sacks and picked off six passes.

Tyler Komorowski leads Weir with 14 sacks while Jordan Allen has recorded 13.

A major challenge:

First-year coach Darrin Hicks felt his Madonna football team “crossed the Rubicon” in Saturday’s loss to Central.

“I think we’re starting to turn the corner with the program,” he stressed. “Tonight, I saw our guys battle for 48 minutes. They played extremely hard.”

Dustin Brown threw for 138 yards and a touchdown in the loss. Tavon Jeter caught three passes for 80 yards and a score while Khalib Smith collected 94 rushing yards.

The Dons, 1-7, have two games left on the schedule, starting with a Friday home game with Toronto.

“I’m looking forward to them and I think our guys are also,” Hicks noted. “We’ll come back Monday, put this one to bed and start working on Toronto, which is another fantastic football team.

“That’s going to be a heck of a challenge for us, but our guys love the challenge and we’re excited for it.”

Better on 3rd:

Prior to Thursday’s game with St. Clairsville, Saccoccia said his Big Red had been “pretty steady” on defense throughout the season.

“We did have a little run where we played bad on third down,” he continued.

Big Red’s defense was lights out on third down against the Red Devils. St. Clairsville was 0 for 11 in the third down conversion department.

For the season, Steubenville foes now are 30 for 103, a conversion percentage of 29.

Seniors Zane Zimish (58 tackles), Nick Scott (51), Ny’Juan Robinson (42) and Jalen McGhee (40) have been the leaders of Big Red’s defensive unit this season.

Still at it:

Former Big Red coach Bill Bohren is a lot like the Energizer Bunny–he just keeps going and going.

At 82, Bohren remains involved with high school football.

Bohren, who began his coaching career in 1965, currently is in his second year at Southington High School, located in Trumbull County. This year marks his 48th season as a head coach. He’s guided programs at 10 different schools. His Wildcats are 3-6.

He began his coaching career at Ohio High School in Illinois. After six years there, he made his way to Ohio and guided the Big Red program for three seasons.

“I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been able to coach in real football towns,” Bohren told Steve Ruman of The Youngstown Vindicator recently. “In Steubenville, you can walk into a store, and any old lady in there will tell you the score of last week’s Big Red game. You want that type of passion in the community, because it’s going to create passionate football players.”

He also pointed out the amount of time and dedication a coach puts into a program often separates that program from others in terms of success.

“You look at Steubenville. They’ve had the same coach and pretty much the same staff for 30 years,” Bohren said to Ruman. “That staff works tirelessly. They’re prepared, and the whole community is on the same page as the football program.

“This is why you see Steubenville succeed year after year. It’s more difficult these days to get an entire coaching staff to buy in, let alone an entire town.”

Over a grand:

Two area quarterbacks surpassed the 1,000 yard passing mark during Week 9 play.

Toronto’s Karaffa now has thrown for 1,024 and 11 touchdowns. He’s completing nearly 60 percent of his passing attempts.

Big Red’s Javon Davis ran his season total to 1,013. The junior has an area best 15 passing touchdowns. Davis has a completion percentage of 63.5 percent.

Tough in 1st:

Suffice it to say Big Red has made life miserable for its nine regular season opponents in the opening quarter.

During the initial 12 minutes, Steubenville has outscored its foes 105-0. In its win over St. Clairsville, Big Red jumped out to a quick 20-0 lead.

Life hasn’t been real easy in the second period either for Big Red opponents. Reno Saccoccia’s crew owns a 123-59 scoring advantage during that quarter.

Closing in:

Edison’s Seth Cade is closing in on 1,000 rushing yards.

The hard-running junior collected 110 on 20 trips against Toronto. For the season, he now has 935 yards and eight rushing touchdowns.

Top stats:

Running wild

≤ 180, Tyler West, Harrison Central, 2 touchdowns

¯ 151, Max Tice, Toronto, touchdown

¯ 119, Justin Hartzell, Catholic Central, touchdown

¯ 117, Cody Enrietti, Weir High

¯ 110, Seth Cade, Edison

≤ 105, Jesse Ball, Harrison Central, 2 touchdowns

¯ 94, Khalib Smith, Madonna

¯ 93, Caleb Mitchell, Big Red, touchdown

Gunslingers

¯ 148, Gage Yost, Brooke, 13 of 30

¯ 144, Justin Hartzell, Catholic Central, 6 of 14, 3 scores

¯ 138, Dustin Brown, Madonna, 6 of 18, score

¯ 100, Nate Karaffa, Toronto, 6 of 9, score

Hands team

¯ 7, Chris Yachini, Brooke, 69

¯ 3, Geno DiBiase, Catholic Central, 99, 3 touchdowns

¯ 3, Tavon Jeter, Madonna, 80, touchdown

¯ 3, Jake Keenan, Toronto, 70, touchdown

¯ 3, Dan Callarik, Buckeye Local, 63

¯ 3, Ethan Secrist, Brooke, 55

(Editor’s Note: Sports writer Matt Peaslee contributed to this story.)

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