Mathews spoils Steubenville Catholic Central’s opener
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STEUBENVILLE -- Sometimes things just don't go one's way right from the start.
That was the case for Catholic Central Saturday night as visiting Mathews took the opening kick to the house and never looked back, leading start to finish to spoil the Crusaders' opening night with 38-7 victory.
In a game that was a far from clean opener for either side, that took about three hours to complete and saw a combined 20 accepted penalties, it was Mathews' big plays breaking through the Crusader defense that made the difference.
"I thought our defense kept us in the game at times," Central head coach Eric Meek, who was coaching his frist game leading the Crusaders, said. "We gave up some big plays, but our defense did some good things and we need to build on that. We were out of sync on special teams, they had two big plays on special teams (Mathews also blocked a punt), they were really just mental errors.
"Offensively, we just couldn't get anything going. We're going to have to evaluate that. We had a lot of injuries throughout the game
Dominic Toto took the opening kick 89 yards through the Central special teams for the fast start to the scoring.
Then, it was Toto again who fired a 25-yard strike to Logan Corson on the Mustangs first possession from scrimmage to make it 12-0 after one.
"He's dangerous," Mathews head coach Bill Bohren said. "He's only a sophomore, we're sophomore loaded. We have six sophomores starting this year."
From there, quarterback Ethan Petak and fullback Tim Gregorino did the bulk of the damage.
Petak threw for 126 yards and three scores, two to Gregorino, who rushed for 47 and a score and hauled in four passes for 98 and two more six-pointers.
"He had a good night and he's a good player," Bohren said of Gregorino. "We were sloppy overall, but we have talent and we overcame some things.
"I watched games (Friday) and even some Division I schools were a little sloppy with it being the first week, so it'll get better."
Central, who trailed 18-0 at halftime and had just three first downs in the opening half, moved the ball better in the second half, but were plagued by procedure penalties and were able to find the end zone just once.
That score came on a 1-yard Andrew Dorsey plunge after he set up the scoring sequence with a 22-yard keeper that came just shy of the goal line.
Mathews, though, answered on the next drive and tacked on another score in the fourth quarter to put things to rest and enact the running clock.
"We had some costly penalties," Meek said. "We had some dropped passes on both sides of the ball. We just didn't make plays, and that's disappointing. We've gotta refocus and try to get better."
Dorsey had a productive night in the loss, rushing the ball 22 times for 122 yards and the score, while passing for another 66. He accounted for 188 of the Crusaders' 202 yards of offense.
GAME NOTES
— A moment of silence was held for the late Sheriff Fred Abdalla, who died in February. Abdalla was a Catholic Central graduate and was a staple for many years on the sidelines at Harding Stadium. The Crusaders also wore helmet decals with Abdalla's initials.
— Bohren, who is 88, had a successful homecoming of sorts, as he coached Steubenville Big Red in mid-late 1970s, and spoke very fondly of city he once coached in.
"I love this place, I coached here for five years," Bohren said. "I hired Reno (Saccoccia). This is a great place; Steubenville is the best football town in America. No one is close. They say Massillon, but this is the best football town in America right here.
"This is a great facility. The Big Red can play anybody and I wanted our kids to see this place."
UP NEXT
Mathews: Will play its first of two home games at Lakeview while work on its stadium continues when it takes on McKinley on Saturday night.
Catholic Central: Travels to Caldwell on Friday night.
"We need to get better because we have a really tough Caldwell team next," Meek said.
Mathews 38, Catholic Central 7
Mathews 12-6-14-6 - 38
Catholic Central 0-0-7-0 - 7
SCORING
First Quarter
M: Toto 89-yard kick return (conversion failed) 11:45
M: L. Corson 25-yard pass from Toto (kick failed) 8:38
Second Quarter
M: Gregorino 30-yard run (pass failed) 8:23
Third Quarter
M: Gregorino 33-yard pass from Petak (Spagnoletta kick) 10:38
CC: Dorsey 1-yard run (Bolster kick) 9:14
M: Gregorino 7-yard pass from Petak (Spagnoletta kick) 3:45
Fourth Quarter
M: L. Corson 24-yard pass from Petak (kick blocked) 4:07
RUSHING: Mathews 23-74-TD (Gregorino 7-47-TD; Toto 9-17; Petak 5-17; W. Corson 2-(-7); Catholic Central 34-136-TD (Dorsey 22-122-TD; Ialenti 5-6; Rusciano 5-13; Hernan 2-(-7).
PASSING: Mathews 8-20-177-4TD (Petak 6-18-126-3TD; Toto 2-2-51-TD); Catholic Central 10-29-66 (all by Dorsey).
RECEIVING: Mathews 8-177-4TD (Gregorino 4-98-2TD; L. Corson 4-79-2TD); Catholic Central 10-66 (Fallon 1-2; DiCarlo 3-32; Hawkins 1-4; Bryan 1-4; Ialenti 3-14; Petrella 1-10).
FIRST DOWNS: Mathews 7; Catholic Central 10
PENALTIES-YARDS: Mathews 11-95; Catholic Central 9-65.
FUMBLES-LOST: Mathews 3-1; Catholic Central 1-0.
PUNTS-AVG: Mathews 6-33.8; Catholic 9-23.8.