Andrew Grimm TOUGH RUNNING — Big Red’s Will Taylor pushes forward for extra yardage through a hit from a Dover defender during Friday’s game at Harding Stadium.

STEUBENVILLE — Through the first quarter, the anticipated match up between Big Red and Dover was deadlocked in a scoreless tie and looked poised for a classic battle.

That all changed with a big defensive play early in the second quarter.

Big Red’s Noah West forced a fumble and Landon Crosier scooped it up and ran 21 yards to open the scoring. From there, Big Red rolled.

That play ended up starting a 30-point Steubenville onslaught to end the second quarter and Big Red never looked back on the way to an impressive 42-7 victory inside a packed Harding Stadium.

Big Red, which entered the game ranked No. 4 in Division III by Ohio AP Poll voters, improved to 5-0 with the victory. Dover, who was just one spot behind Big Red in the Region 11 standings, drops to 3-2.

Big Red now leads the all-time series with the Crimson Tornadoes 22-6-1.

“Defensively we didn’t start out real good, we gave up (first downs on) a couple third downs … we had a good pass rush, but we weren’t finishing. After that (play), we played good defense and offense. That got us started,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “I thought we played a great second and third quarter.

“Thanks to our coaches and our players, we had a great week of preparation that led to tonight. We had a great Monday through Thursday to be ready for this game.”

Aiden Davis went 14 of 18 for 152 yards and two touchdowns, while eight different receivers caught a pass for Big Red. On the ground, Steubenville compiled three scores and 133 yards from eight different ball carriers.

“I just thought that the game plan we had on both sides of the ball was executed really well,” Saccoccia said. “That’s a credit to the kids, our kids worked really hard this week, not just physically, but mentally. They did a really good job.”

After the Crosier return for a score, Dover fumbled on the ensuing drive when a lateral hit the turf and Big Red was there to recover again. That set up a Jalen Minniefield (44 yards) 5-yard scoring run for touchdowns less than a minute apart.

“It did get them going, but they were flat out better than we are,” Dover head coach Dan Ifft said. “We knew we needed to do what we did on the first drive, keep the chains moving and take time off the clock. We didn’t score, though, and then on the second drive we had the turnover for a touchdown and that stuck a knife in it a little bit. Then we turned it right back over and you just can’t do that against a team like that, they are just flat out better than we are. That’s what happens.”

On the next Big Red drive, Davis fired a well-placed ball over the shoulder and into the hands of Brody Saccoccia for a 31-yard TD connection to make it 19-0.

After a Cole Bowers 26-yard field goal on the next drive pushed the lead to 22-0, Saccoccia intercepted a Jack Judkins pass with just over a minute before the break and Big Red moved down the field quickly, Davis capping the fast scoring drive with a 10-yard TD toss to Minniefield, then running for a two-point conversion to make it a 30-0 Steubenville lead at halftime.

Big Red got the ball to start the third quarter and again moved down the field, this time with a long, slow march to chew up more than half of the third quarter clock. The nine-play, 60-yard drive ended with a Ca’Juan Bryant 3-yard scoring run to make it 36-0.

After Dover’s Justice Hughes broke an 80-yard scoring run to momentarily stop the running clock in the fourth quarter, Ta’Jon Hython capped a nice drive by the Steubenville reserves with a 5-yard touchdown run to cap the scoring.

UP NEXT

Dover: The Crimson Tornadoes return home to host Canfield next Friday.

Big Red: Starts the second half of the regular season with its final road game next Friday, taking a trip down the river to Wheeling Island Stadium to battle 3-1 Wheeling Park.

Big Red 42, Dover 7

D 0-0-7-0 – 7

BR 0-30-6-6 – 42

SCORING PLAYS

First Quarter

None

Second Quarter

BR: Crosier 21 fumble return (Bowers kick) 11:50

BR: Minniefield 5 run (pass failed) 10:52

BR: Saccoccia 31 pass from Davis (pass failed) 7:22

BR: Bowers 26 field goal 1:56

BR: Minniefield 10 pass from Davis (Davis run) :08

Third Quarter

BR: Bryant 3 run (kneel down) 5:04

D: Hughes 80 run (Marlatt kick) 3:37

Fourth Quarter

BR: Hython 5 run (kneel down) 5:25

RUSHING: Dover 23-107-TD (Judkins 8-1; Patton 2-9; Hughes 5-83-TD; Renicker 1-(-5); Schie 1-1; Weber 1-9; Clark 2-9; Copple 1-2; Ring 1-(-2); McGarry 1-0); Big Red 23-133-3TD (Davis 2-6; Minniefield 5-44-TD; Bryant 4-31-TD; Scurry 2-13; Crosier 1-4; West 3-11; Hython 4-10)

PASSING: Dover 8-18-59-INT (all by Judkins); Big Red 16-20-169-2TD (Davis 14-18-152-2TD; Haney 2-2-17)

RECEIVING: Dover 8-59 (Hughes 3-5; Clark 2-14; Schie 2-30; Oswald 1-10); Big Red 16-169-2TD (Taylor 1-6; Minniefield 4-29-TD; Saccoccia 2-38-TD; Faulks 1-6; Hinton 2-14; Edwards 1-8; Scurry 3-33; Simon 2-35)

FIRST DOWNS: Dover 6; Big Red 13

PENALTIES-YARDS: Dover 5-27; Big Red 5-40

FUMBLES-LOST: Dover 2-2; Big Red 2-0

PUNTS-AVG: Dover 3-24.6; Big Red 2-56