ON THE MOVE — Big Red’s Ca’Juan Bryant rushes around the edge against Linsly during Friday’s game against the Cadets at West Liberty University. - Nick Henthorn

WEST LIBERTY — Friday night was a tale of two halves between the Steubenville Big Red and the Linsly Cadets, but even with a thrilling second half story, there’d be no happy ending for the Cadets, Big Red prevailing 27-19 at West Family Stadium in West Liberty University.

After Steubenville built a 21-0 lead by halftime, Linsly fired back out of the gates, getting on the board with a 73-yard touchdown pass on their first drive of the second half, and further connected on 60 and 59-yard touchdown passes in the half to come within one possession of winning, having the ball down 27-19 with 1:06 to play.

Another big pass, 27 yards from Atley Cowan to Malte Feil, on fourth and 12 from their own one yard-line kept the drive going, but Linsly would eventually run out of time around midfield.

“I give both teams a lot of credit,” Linsly head coach B.J. Depew said. “Steubenville’s a very good football team, they played really well tonight. They were the better team tonight. But I also want to give our team a lot of credit- down 21-0 at the half, things could’ve gone much differently, but we came out, we won the second half, we played our hearts out for four quarters. I couldn’t be prouder of the effort by our guys.”

For Big Red, their big first-half lead ended up mattering very much in an eventual nail-biter.

“Nothing went right, but our kids kept playing,” Steubenville head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “It’s hard to pick it back up, and as a coach you have to have your guys ready for the second half, and I didn’t have our guys ready for the second half. Little things lead to big things. But we fought, and I’m proud of the guys, the way they played.”

“I think sometimes it’s human nature to relax. It’s a win, winning’s hard, I appreciate the win, I respect the hell out of Linsly and their coaching staff. Our kids played a great game.”

Steubenville received the ball to start the game, and threw three straight incompletions to give Linsly the ball.

The Big Red’s Aydan Manning attempted 25 passes Friday, throwing for 190 yards and a touchdown in a game where Steubenville seemed to drop back and pass a bit more than usual.

Steubenville did eventually strike first, a rollout pass to Isaac Hill going for 25 yards on a critical fourth-and-five. The conversion allowed Big Red to move the ball all the way to the Linsly one yard-line, where Manning snuck in for a score with 6:02 to play in the first quarter.

Linsly’s own offense was stalling, with the Cadets starting 0/5 from the air and constantly starting drives from deep in their own territory.

Savier Faulks scored from four-yards out to put Steubenville ahead by two scores, 14-0, with one minute to go in the first quarter.

Faulks and the Big Red ground game were largely held in check by Linsly. Faulks rushed for 30 yards on 15 carries, while running mate Cajuan Bryant rushed 14 times for 48 yards. The biggest rushing play of the game for Steubenville came on an end-around to Hill in the first which went for 37 yards, one of two rushing plays to go for double-digit yardage.

“We did make them earn it on the ground,” Depew said. “They picked up critical downs. They got us in short-yardage situations. They made an effort to throw the ball on us, they were trying to stretch us out to make the runs hit a little bit better. They called a good game. But our defense, I couldn’t be more proud. We gave up some scores but they battled a good offense tonight.”

Linsly started a late second quarter drive from their own one yard-line, and threw an interception to Big Red’s Keith Lewis on the first play.

Working with a short field, Bryant eventually dove in from one yard out to put Steubenville ahead 21-0 with 4:10 to play in the half.

Linsly looked renewed on their first drive of the second half, Cowan avoiding a sack, running out of the pocket and hooking up with Lucca Troullos for a 73-yard score down the field.

Cowan finished the game with 316 yards passing and three touchdowns, averaging over 35 yards per completion on the day.

The blows kept coming out of Linsly’s corner, next a 60-yard touchdown catch by a wide-open Jaxon Murray after Big Red appeared to bite badly on a play fake. Linsly trailed 21-13 going into the fourth.

While the Cadets kept Steubenville off the scoreboard through the third quarter, Manning found LeeAnthony Sewell for a 36-yard score with just two minutes to play in the game, seeming to put the nail in the coffin.

30 seconds later, Linsly was back in the end zone, Cowan taking a big shot while letting loose an artillery blast to Malte Feil behind the defense for a 59-yard touchdown.

Linsly’s defense forced Big Red into a fourth and two with 1:15 to play, and while Steubenville originally signaled they would go for it, after a false start backed them up, Big Red punted.

A climactic final minute drive for Linsly ended up needing more than the final minute, the game ending on an incomplete Hail Mary from midfield which ended up as moot after an illegal forward pass penalty.

Linsly moves to 3-2 while Steubenville improves to 6-1. The Cadets next travel to face Licking Valley, while Big Red returns home next week to face Taylor Allderdice.