Comebacks, a first win and a Tuesday game highlighted Week 7
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STEUBENVILLE -- The extended high school football week (remember it started with some Tuesday Night lights) that was left behind some moments to remember and, unfortunately, a few local teams would rather forget.
Two squads (Edison and Brooke) overcame early deficits to secure key victories. Buckeye Local, back on the gridiron after another COVID-induced week off, unleashed a powerful running game in blanking Caldwell.
Indian Creek rode a four-touchdown performance by quarterback Eli Powell to its first victory of the season. He entered the game against Martins Ferry with three scoring tosses in the first five games. Playing its first game since Sept. 17, Oak Glen went on the road to Berkeley Springs and came home with a 53-31 victory.
Meanwhile, Big Red, Catholic Central and Toronto all learned just how costly turnovers can be.
Up at Patterson Field in East Liverpool, the Potters used a 52-yard interception return to grab a 17-10 lead over Edison. The pick six came early in the second half.
The Wildcats didn't panic. Instead, they responded by scoring 24 unanswered points to earn a 34-24 victory. With the win, Edison improved to 5-2 and moved to the eighth spot in the Division V, Region 17 standings. The triumph also was Edison's first over East Liverpool since 2016.
"I was really proud of our guys," said Edison coach Mike Collopy. "We got down 7-0 early but as the first quarter went on, we kept playing better and better. Our defense played really well in the second half.
"Offensively, our line really took over in the third and fourth quarters. I thought that was the big difference in the game."
The game marked the third time this season Edison came from behind to register a win.
"We came from behind against Tuscarawas Central Catholic and Toronto," Collopy said. "We also were down at Beaver Local and came back to tie the game. Our kids are playing hard. They are very coachable and our coaches have done a great job of getting the kids prepared during the week.
"I think we are playing better as the season has gone on but we have to continue to get better. The key point to remember is no matter what happened last week, good or bad, it's all about this week. We have to continue to prepare hard, coach hard and play hard."
Gage Cline put together another stellar outing for Edison, throwing for 206 yards and rushing for 69 and three touchdowns. Talan McClurg toted the pigskin 25 times for 140 yards and a score.
Meanwhile, kicker Mason Montgomery nailed two field goals from 24 and 22 yards in addition to being four for four on extra point boots.
"Mason has done an outstanding job for us," Collopy said. "I think our protection has been pretty good -- it hasn't been perfect but our PAT team has done a good job of blocking for him.
"(Montgomery) has been in different situations this season. We haven't kicked that many field goals but he has good range. We know if we need him down the road, he is ready to go."
Jacob Cusick, the leading receiver in The Herald Star/Daily Times coverage area, hauled in five Cline aerials. He now has 38 receptions for the season. Cline leads area quarterbacks with 1,126 passing yards.
"Our kids are resilient," Collopy added. "We have played in just about every situation you can be in this season. We just keep playing and I am really proud of the kids and their ability to do that.
"Football is an emotional game. Against East Liverpool, we didn't get too caught in losing the lead or giving up a pick six. We continued to play and on our next drive, we went right down and scored."
Mac McLean's Brooke Bruins, playing for the first time in two weeks, put themselves in an early 14-point hole against visiting Marietta before rallying for a 30-21 victory.
Sophomore Jace Campinelli ran for 133 yards and two second half touchdowns while the Bruin defense recorded an interception and a safety in the final 3:43 of play to seal the deal. This is the first time since the 2015 season that Brooke has won its third football game of the season by the first week of October.
"It's still early but sitting here with three wins right now is a nice place to be," McLean said. "I know Saturday mornings have been a lot nicer this season."
Sophomore quarterback Braelyn Sperringer added 94 rushing yards for Brooke and also scored his team-best seventh touchdown.
The 3-1 Bruins will host Oak Glen Friday.
Back in action after another week off, Buckeye Local ran over, around and through Caldwell on its way to a 32-0 victory.
Hard-running junior Trey Hoover collected 177 rushing yards on 20 carries and found the end zone on runs of 14, 12, 10 and 45 yards. Skyler Ebright added 63 yards and a six-pointer. As a team, the Panthers ran for 285 yards.
Meanwhile, the Panther defense held the Redskins to 113 total yards.
Buckeye Local will travel to Seneca County Friday for a date with Tiffin Calvert, a Division VII club. Calvert owns a 3-4 record.
There was plenty of joy in Indian Creek territory after the Redskins whipped Martins Ferry 26-14 for their initial victory of the season.
"This was a long time coming for a football team that has played hard," Indian Creek coach Andrew Connor said. "Our kids grew up tonight. We made plays, I'm happy with the start, happy with the finish and I'm so proud of the kids. It's been a tough stretch for us."
Powell connected with four different receivers for the Creek scores. He hit Sam Coleman (56 yards), Caleb Bodo (7 yards), Bryson Bodo (10 yards) and Jadyn Irizarry.
"It was his moment, he grew up tonight," Connor said of Powell's performance. "He made some big throws for us and our receivers caught the ball for him. We were able to do some things to shape the momentum and that was a big thing for us."
Coleman now has 14 receptions for 201 yards and three scores to lead Indian Creek.
Oak Glen compiled 508 yards of offense in its big victory at Berkeley Springs. The Golden Bears, now 2-1, ran for 402 yards and threw for 106 more. Matt Greenlief had a huge night for Oak Glen, rushing for more than 200 yards and scoring four times.
The Bears opened a big lead at halftime and cruised to the win.
In its 36-21 loss to Columbus DeSales, Big Red turned the ball over six times (four fumbles and two interceptions). DeSales turned two of the recoveries into scores and also had a 48-yard pick six. Another fumble halted a Big Red drive deep in DeSales territory.
"You are not winning with six turnovers," Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said after watching his team fall to 5-2. "Actually, you don't deserve to win with that many turnovers."
Big Red dominated the game statistically -- running 76 plays from scrimmage compared to 49 for the Stallions. Steubenville outgained DeSales 343-271.
Barnesville recovered a fumble on the first offensive play of the game, turned it into a score and never looked back in rolling to a 37-0 victory over Toronto.
"That sums up our year to this point," Red Knight coach Josh Franke said. "We are unlucky. We fumble on the first plan and the after the scored a touchdown, we fumbled the kickoff. They fumbled twice and the ball fell right into their hands."
Catholic Central gave host Conotton Valley all it could handle before dropping a 20-14 verdict. The Rockets recovered a fourth quarter Crusader fumble in the end zone for a game-tying touchdown (the Crusaders were clinging to a 14-8 lead prior to the miscue). The winning score came after a bad snap led to a short Central punt.
"That's a good football team" Central coach Anthony Agresta said about Conotton Valley. "They can run the ball well. In the third quarter, they put two time-consuming drives together that ate up most of the quarter. But our kids were playing gritty--we made two big fourth down stops on them and went into the fourth quarter with the lead even though we only ran four
offensive plays in the third.
"Then we started making too many physical and mental mistakes at that point. You can't put in on the ground in your own end zone. We fumbled and they scored so all that work our defense did kind of got thrown away with the turnover in the end zone. To the credit of our kids, they stopped the two-point conversion and kept the game tied."
Junior quarterback Andrew Dorsey threw for 110 yards in the loss while Tyler Ialenti caught four passes, one resulting in a touchdown. The sophomore also ran for 47 yards and completed a pass for 28 additional yards.
"We continued to make more mental errors on offense and had to punt the ball back to them. They got a short field and ended up scoring," Agresta said. "Our defense was on the field for a long time in the second half and they did an admirable job. I am very proud of them. We made way too many mental and physical mistakes on the offensive side in the second half and that was ultimately the difference."
Top stats:
Running wild
• 248, Matt Greenlief, Oak Glen, 4 touchdowns
• 177, Trey Hoover, Buckeye Local, 4 touchdowns
• 140, Talan McClurg, Edison, touchdown
• 133, Jace Campinelli, Brooke, 2 touchdowns
• 131, Gavin Bozica, Steubenville, 3 touchdowns
• 98, Corey Lyons, Weir High, 2 touchdowns
• 94, Braelyn Sperringer, Brooke, touchdown
Gunslingers
• 286, Santino Arlia, Madonna, 35 of 63, 3 scores
• 206, Gage Cline, Edison, 11 of 19
• 185, Hayden Cassidy, Harrison Central, 12 of 18, 2 scores
• 144, Phaeton Hill, Steubenville, 14 of 34
• 132, Malachi Stromile, Weir High, 8 of 16, score
• 110, Andrew Dorsey, Catholic Central, 9 of 15, score
• 108, Eli Powell, Indian Creek, 4 of 10, 4 scores
Hands team
• 13, Jonah McKay, Madonna, 91
• 9, Evan Quering, Madonna, 92, touchdown
• 6, Michael Burdine, Madonna, 40, touchdown
• 5, Tre Rex, Harrison Central, 103, 2 touchdowns
• 5, Jacob Cusick, Edison, 79
• 5, Tylik Sims, Steubenville, 31
• 4, Corey Lyons, Weir High, 85, touchdown
• 4, Tyler Ialenti, Catholic Central, 57, touchdown
• 4, Carson Yobaggy, Weir High, 47