Andrew Grimm AROUND THE EDGE — Central’s Daveon Thorn finds running room against Danville during Friday’s playoff game at Harding Stadium.

STEUBENVILLE — Catholic Central defied the odds and preseason predictions to put together a winning season and earn a home playoff game.

Unfortunately for the Crusaders, that is where things ended on Friday night.

Visiting Danville, the defending Region 27 champion that made a state semifinal appearance a year ago, struck early and often to pull away for a 54-0 victory over Central inside Harding Stadium in the opening round of the Division VII playoffs.

Central, which was the No. 6 seed, closes its season with a mark of 6-5.

“I’m proud of our kids,” Central head coach Eric Meek said. “We had a winning season and a home playoff game and a lot to be proud of. It just didn’t end on a really good note. That happens in life sometimes; it doesn’t always go the way you plan.

“Nothing tonight takes away from what this group was able to do this year. We got better as the season went and we just ran into a good team.”

The 11th seeded Blue Devils, who improve to 6-5 and will face No. 3 seed Lancaster Fisher Catholic next week, scored on their opening possession, recovered a surprise onside kick, then scored again to jump ahead 16-0.

In that span, Central senior quarterback Matthew Sprochi was injured on defense. He re-joined the action for a couple of plays on the next Central offensive possession, but left the game again and did not return, leaving the Crusaders down their leading rusher, passer, starting safety and kick returner the rest of the way.

“It kind of snowballed, give them credit. They have a great football team,” Meek said. “We moved the ball good in the first quarter and then kind of bogged down. We did some good things on defense at times and sometimes we didn’t. Our quarterback went down, and guys had to switch positions like any small school. We had some special teams blunders, we worked on the onside kick all week because we saw on film they do that, and we just didn’t cover it.

“We made some mistakes early that put us in a hole and were never able to recover.”

After Central got a fourth-down stop and moved the ball into the Danville end of the field, a Crusader fumble at the 17 ended their best scoring threat of the night, and on the next play, the Blue Devils’ Cyren Wallace ran 60 yards to score his second long TD of the night. He had also broke a 42-yarder for Danville’s second score of the game on what was a fourth down.

From there, the Blue Devils were well on their way to the next round.

Danville QB Parker Proper, who ran for their opening score, fired a pair of scoring passes late in the first half, the second of which came on the first snap after Central turned the ball over again, making it a 40-0 game at halftime.

Danville’s Briggs Wallace, who also had a touchdown receiving, took the opening kick of the second half 80 yards to score. Wesley Payne ran for a 39-yard score in the fourth quarter.

Danville went for two on each score, only not coverting on the last time, and had starters in the game well into the fourth quarter.

For the Crusaders, Ryan Holzworth led the way with 45 yards on 14 totes, while Daveon Thorn caught two passes. Thorn also recovered a fumble on defense, while Nick Mascio and Matty Jones had a tackle for loss and Zach Bryan recorded a sack.

In addition to Sprochi, Friday was the final time suiting up in Blue and Gold for fellow seniors Bryan, JohnPaul Gessler, Santiago Descalzo, James McInnis, Alex Federoff and Justin Roe.

“It’s the hardest part of coaching,” Meek said of saying goodbye to seniors.

“It’s not the losses that are the hardest part. When you’re a head coach at the high school level and you see the kids every day, you’re around them in the school and at practice and you get to know them and see them grow as people, having to say goodbye to them at the end is the hardest part for me.”