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MINERVA – The roll continues.
The Steubenville football team has dominated on both sides of the ball this season, and Big Red delivered another strong showing in its 11th game of the season.
Big Red’s 1,126th game in its 115th season of football ended the way close to 70 percent of their games have ended – with a victory – as No. 1 ranked Steubenville rolled over No. 5 Salem, 46-7, in an Ohio Division IV Region 13 semifinal Saturday night at Dr. Robert H. Hines Stadium.
Big Red improves to 11-0 and will play Johnstown-Monroe in the regional final at 7 p.m. Saturday at location to be announced this afternoon. Johnstown-Monroe advanced to the regional final by defeating St. Clairsville, 42-38, at Zanesville.
Big Red will be looking to win its 16th regional title and third in a row next week.
“It doesn’t mean anything unless we win it,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia about his team going for its third straight regional crown.
Salem’s lone score of the game came against Big Red’s freshmen.
“Our defense really stung them,” Saccoccia said.
Steubenville won five regional titles in a row from 1987 through 1991. Big Red also won regional titles in 1984, 1985, 1994, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.
Salem ends the season at 10-2.
The 10-win season is Salem’s third in program history, and it is the first for the Quakers since 1929.
While Salem has reached the 10-win plateau three times, Big Red has reached the mark 23 times in school history.
Steubenville has ended a season with 10 or more wins in 2015, 2014, 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 1999, 1994, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982 and all the way back in 1925.
Since the start of the playoff system, Big Red has won three state titles on the field with those titles coming in 1984 as well as in back-to-back years in 2005 and 2006.
Steubenville also finished as state runner-up in 1987, 1988 and in 2008.
Prior to the start of the playoff system, Steubenville also won state titles in 1925, 1926, 1930, 1931, 1935 and 1951.
Including this season, Big Red has made the playoffs 28 times in school history, and this is the 15th season in a row Big Red has qualified for the postseason. Previously, Big Red qualified for the playoffs in 11 straight seasons from 1981-91, while also making the playoffs in 1994 and in 1999.
The win against the Quakers was Big Red’s 55th in the playoffs in program history, and Big Red’s overall record now stands at 776-313-36.
Steubenville’s first win came against Wellsburg in the school’s first game of the 1900 season. Big Red won that game, 5-0.
Salem has not had the same level of success as Big Red has had, especially when it comes to the postseason. The Quakers have only made the playoffs three times in school history, and the boys from Columbiana County have a record of 1-3 in postseason play.
The Quakers last made the playoffs in 2010. That year, Salem lost at Sheridan, 41-13, in the Division III regional quarterfinals.
Since the start of the playoff system, Big Red has also captured Associated Press state titles in 1988, 1994, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2011.
Saturday night’s victory enabled Steubenville to take a 2-1 lead against the Quakers. Big Red has now won two straight games against Salem. Big Red’s previous victory came back on Nov. 13, 2009 when Big Red defeated Salem, 34-10, in the Division III Region 11 semifinals at New Philadelphia.
Prior to its loss to Big Red that night, Salem recorded the program’s first playoff victory by defeating Granville, 38-31, in overtime on the road.
Salem’s lone victory against Big Red came back in the season-opening game of the 1912 season – 37-7, on the road.
Coming into the game, Big Red had outscored its opposition, 431-79, in 10 games. After the win against the Quakers, Big Red has now outscored its opposition, 477-86.
Big Red ended the regular season undefeated and untied, and that is a feat Big Red also accomplished during the 2011, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 1994, 1991, 1988, 1986, 1984, 1983, 1982, 1935, 1932, 1930, 1926 and 1925 seasons.
Big Red’s 1930 team is the only one in school history to not allow a point to be scored against them.
This year’s Big Red team is on pace to break the record set by the 1926 team for the highest average of points scored in games.
The 1926 team scored 365 points in nine games resulting in average of 40.5 points per game.