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STEUBENVILLE -- The Big Red football is coming off its biggest win of the season and have their playoff position locked down. Now they're looking for one more big regular season win for their seniors.
Big Red will look to get the senior group a victory on senior night and close the regular season on a high note when Digital Pioneers Academy comes to Harding Stadium from the Washington, D.C. Area Friday night.
The game features a special 6 p.m. opening kick time.
"I just hope our sophomores and juniors respect the seniors enough to give them 1,000 percent and I hope that the seniors respect themselves enough to give themselves 1,000 percent," Saccoccia said.
With the win over Columbus DeSales last week, Big Red is No. 1 in Division III, Region 11 headed into the final regular season game. Joe Eitel has Steubenville as having clinched a 26th-straight playoff trip and locked up a bye in the opening round and a home playoff game in Round 2. His projections have Big Red finishing no worse than third in the region regardless of Friday's result.
Big Red was ranked No. 5 in Division III in this week's Ohio AP Poll. Martin RPI's rankings have them at No. 5 as well, Eitel at No.2 overall in D3 and MaxPreps at No. 1.
The opponent this week has a familiar face bringing them to town as Robert Harris guides the Pythons. Harris previously brought Archbishop Carroll to Harding Stadium most recently in 2022 before taking over DPA in 2023. This is his first trip to Steubenville with the Pythons.
"I've known the head coach for a long time," Saccoccia said. "We've played a couple of his teams before, although we've never played this team before. They have some pretty good talent. They have some good players that we're going to have to really respect."
The Pythons bring a 5-2 mark to Steubenville. All of their prior games this season have been against competition in the D.C. area, including teams in Maryland and Virginia. DPA is a Division V equivalent by OHSAA standards. They are ranked fourth in the D.C area and No. 1 in D.C. Class A by MaxPreps.
The Pythons offense has a talented freshman QB in Santana Smith, who has thrown for 698 yards and six scores with just three picks. However, the run game is where DPA has done a lot of its damage, as sophomore tailback Laroy Williams has already hit the 1,000-yard mark and scored 16 TDs, averaging 16.6 yards per carry. As a team, the Pythons have rushed for over 1,600 yards and 21 scores.
Smith's top receiving threat is senior Johntae Johnson with three touchdowns and 204 yards, averaging over 20 yards per catch.
Defensively, senior Na'Kayden Green is their leading tackler with 44 tackles and five tackles for loss. Senior Amarri Bandele has eight TFLs and five sacks and junior Wykeem Williams has 6.5 TFLS and 3.5 sacks. Senior Nicholas Reynolds has four interceptions in the secondary and Qualoe Parker has tweo picks and eight pass break ups.
The Pythons score an average of 33.4 points per game and allow just 9.1. Big Red is scoring an average of 32.5 points and allowing an average of 19.1.
"They have talented players," Saccoccia said. "The quarterback is only a freshman, but he's a pretty good freshman, and they have some good players around him, so we have to get after him.
"They run a little bit of option, option pass, a little bit of RPO, they just get the ball to their players in open space. Open space is the toughest place to tackle, so we're going to have to tackle well."
Big Red's run game and line have been strong, and was again against DeSales, accounting for 212 of Steubenville's 252 yards of offense in the win. Saccoccia wants to see them take another step headed into the playoffs.
"Another goal we have is for offensive line just to improve just a little bit more," he said. "They're getting on the right spots and they're blocking the right people, if we just stay on the block a little bit longer and our running backs to trust their eyes, that's something that's a goal this week."
After Friday, Big Red will have a week off before hosting their playoff opener on Nov. 6.