Andrew Grimm BREAKING TACKLES — Big Red’s Savier Faulks breaks through tackles from University School defenders during Friday’s game at Harding Stadium. 

STEUBENVILLE — Senior quarterback Aydan Manning fired three touchdown passes and spread the ball to eight different receivers, while the defense pitched its second-straight shutout as Big Red blanked visiting University School, 28-0, for its eighth-straight win to improve to 8-1.

“That was a hard-fought game,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “I’m happy that we stuck with it, we finished strong. We have to learn from it and keep improving. There is something to learn win, lose, or draw.

“A win is a win, we did what we had to do.”

While it was Big Red’s final home game of the regular season and senior night at Harding Stadium, the victory over the Preppers, a playoff-bound Division III school, clinched at least one more Friday night in front of the home crowd as Joe Eitel’s rankings showed Big Red as having clinched home field in Round 1 of the playoffs following the win.

The victory also boosted Steubenville to the top spot in the Division IV, Region 15 rankings, according to Eitel.

The lesson to be learned from it, the Hall of Fame coach pointed out, is his team still has work to do on the penalty front as it was flagged 17 times for 130 yards.

Manning’s 244-yard, three touchdown performance and the defense racking up six sacks and an interception in keeping the visitors from Hunting Valley off the scoreboard were more than enough to overcome the setbacks, though.

“We made a lot of pre-snap mistakes, we’ve got to fix that,” Saccoccia said. “You have to take something to work on from the wins and something from the losses — we have to work on the penalties. We have to learn from what did good and learn from our mistakes and finish the regular season strong.”

Big Red scored on its first possession — Savier Faulks, another of Big Red’s 14 seniors who were introduced individually and greeted by Saccoccia before taking the field, capping a quick scoring drive with a 6-yard run.

One of the OVAC’s leading rushers, he finished with 77 yards on 13 carries.

The Preppers (5-3) lost starting QB Jackson Boland to an injury on the initial drive of the game, but managed to threaten to tie the game with a 19-play drive deep into Big Red territory, but the Steubenville defense forced a turnover on downs at the 5 to end the threat.

University School got the ball in good field position on its next drive, but Kyleigh Hopkins stepped in front of a Carson Panteck (10 of 20, 75 yards) pass for an interception. He returned it to score, but it was called back for a block in the back. The penalty, though, just delayed Big Red adding to the lead as Manning connected with Sabron Felton, another senior, for a 24-yard scoring strike to make it 14-0 at halftime.

After a scoreless third quarter, Manning hit senior Isaac Hill — who had a big night with eight catches for 104 yards — for a 29-yard score to make it 21-0 early in the fourth and cap an 80-yard drive.

Manning and Felton connected for a 27-yard score with under five minutes to play to cap the scoring.

“It was a great night for the seniors,” Saccoccia said. “I appreciate them and thank them for all of their hard work, but we’re not done, we’ve got more games to play.”

UP NEXT

University School: Goes on the road to winless Howland next Friday to end its regular season.

Big Red: Finishes the regular season with a trip to Div. III Louisville next Friday. The playoffs open on Oct. 27.

Steubenville Big Red 28, University School 0

US 0-0-0-0 – 0

BR 7-7-0-14 – 28

BR: Faulks 6 run (Bowers kick) 8:45

BR: Felton 24 pass from Manning (Bowers kick) 3:13

BR: Hill 29 pass from Manning (Bowers kick) 11:01

BR: Felton 27 pass from Manning (Bowers kick) 4:48

RUSHING: Univ. School 39-114 (Minello 1-2; Boland 2-4; Malone 17-78; Alvarez 3-8; Forrest 11-32; Car. Panteck 4-(-14); Diaz 1-4); Big Red 24-134-TD (Faulks 13-77-TD; Bryant 7-34; Minniefield 2-10; Simmons 2-12; McAllister 1-1

PASSING: Univ. School 10-22-75-INT (Boland 0-1; Car. Panteck 10-20-75-INT; Malone 0-1); Big Red 20-27-257-3TD (Manning 19-26-244-3TD; McAllister 1-1-13)

RECEIVING: Univ. School 10-75 (Brennan 3-25; Diaz 1-4; Morelli 2-5; Malone 2-12; Forrest 1-20; Cal. Panteck 1-9); Big Red 20-257-3TD (Hill 8-104-TD; Blackburn 1-3; Sewell 1-4; Mullins 1-2; Felton 5-77-2TD; Saccoccia 1-5; Bryant 1-41; Kernahan 1-8; Hinton 1-13)

FIRST DOWNS: Univ. School 16; Big Red 14

PENALTIES-YARDS: Univ School 5-45; Big Red 17-130

FUMBLES-LOST: Univ. School 0-0; Big Red 1-1

PUNTS-AVG: Univ. School 3-32.7; Big Red 2-43