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Big Red, Park set to battle

Top 2 teams in OVAC 5A meet on Wheeling Island

KEY PLAYERS IN A KEY MATCH UP — Big Red’s Ca’Juan Bryant and Wheeling Park’s Brennan Wack will look to help lead their team’s ground attack when Steubenville travels to Wheeling Island Stadium to take on the Patriots on Friday night. - Andrew Grimm/Nick Henthorn

WHEELING — It’s the kind of game that makes you want to play football. That is how Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty described Friday night’s highly anticipated showdown between his Patriots and undefeated Steubenville Big Red.

“I think it’s a great game for the Valley,” Daugherty said. “It’s why you do it, it’s why you coach, it’s why, as a player, you go through all the stuff in the summer and in the weight room. It’s all for games like this.

“They don’t want to play someone from Maryland or wherever, and we don’t want to play someone from four hours away either, so when we can have a match up like this with teams 25 minutes apart, it’s good for our schools, it’s good for our communities and good for the players.”

Both teams are coming in to the meeting of perennial OVAC powers with momentum and highly ranked in the standings on their own side of the river.

Big Red makes the trip to Wheeling Island Stadium with a 5-0 record, fresh off its biggest win of the season, 42-7 over Division III, Region 11 foe Dover. That win moved coach Reno Saccoccia’s team up to No. 2 in the Region 11 playoff rankings and No. 3 in the latest Ohio Associated Press Division III poll with a first-place vote.

The Patriots, meanwhile, are 3-1, having defeated University 35-22 on the road last week and have won their last two games. They have wins over Mussleman and Parkersburg South as well. Park is ranked No. 3 in W.Va. Class AAAA and No. 6 in MetroNews’ power rankings.

Big Red and Park are also 1-2 in the current OVAC Class 5A standings.

“They’re probably one of the better teams in West Virginia and one of the better teams in the Ohio Valley,” Saccoccia said. “They have very good athletes, they’re very well-coached and good in all of the sports.”

The local aspect of the game is also not lost on the veteran coach.

“Anytime we play someone so close to us there’s a lot of interest, a lot of local interest especially,” Saccoccia said. “We’d like to play more Valley teams, but the ones we play are the ones that want to play and this is going to be a very good game.

“It’s not a far distance to travel, but it’s always fun to get on the road once in a while and see other stadiums and play in other stadiums. We’ve been to New Philly and Youngstown State so far. Wheeling Park has a stadium that’s one of the nicest places in the Valley.”

The meeting is the 19th all-time between the programs. Big Red leads the series by a wide 17-1 margin. It is the fourth-straight year the schools have met, Big Red winning each of the last three since the teams started playine one another again.

Last year at Harding Stadium, Park led early and it was a one-score game at halftime before Steubenville pulled away to win 42-28.

Current Big Red quarteback Aiden Davis played a big role in that game — for Wheeling Park. He threw for 320 yards. Both teams nearly eclipsed 500 yards of offense in that game.

Though he knows the capability to pass is there, Daugherty also knows Big Red likes to run the ball and can do so very effectively as well.

“It’s Steubenville football, they’re going to run the ball, and if you fall asleep, they’re going to throw the ball on you,” Daugherty said. “They’re going to use a ton of personnel groupings and a ton of formations. It’s a credit to them, you don’t see it very often in high school football all that often that a team has all of those personnel groupings and formations.

“Half the job against them is just lining up correctly and then playing football after that. We’re familiar with them and they’re familiar with us.”

For his part, Saccoccia expects a lot of the same from the Patriots, making for an interesting match up.

“They have a tailback (Brennan Wack) they really like getting the ball to, so we’re definitely going to have to be ready to stop the run,” Saccoccia said. “They’re equally good at running inside and outside so our defense is going to have to stay balanced and they’re very good on the play-action pass.

“They run a similar defense to what we do, so offensively they will be a challenge.

“I say it all the time and I mean this, the bigger the game, the more the little things matter. I thought that after the first drive Friday night we were very disciplined and did the little things well against Dover. That’s what we’re going to have to do again this week, we’re going to have eliminate pre-snap penalties, protect the football and be good tacklers.”

Wack averages 176 yards per game on the ground and has already found the end zone 10 times for Park in four games. He averages over seven yards per carry.

Jay Bordas, Park’s sophomore QB, averages about 110 passing yards per game and has thrown six scores with just one interception. He gets the ball to multiple receivers, including Kolin Wiley, Owen Dobrzynski-Hines and Jameson Maynard, each of whom have over 100 yards and two touchdown catches on the season.

For Big Red, Davis has completed over 75 percent of his passes for 736 yards and six touchdowns with just one pick, while also rushing for another six touchdowns.

On the ground, Jalen Minnifield has 347 yards and a pair of scores and Ca’Juan Bryant has 198 yards and two scores. Six different receivers have caught a TD for Big Red.

Steubenville also had a defensive score last week, and Cole Bowers has made three field goals.

“I would like to think we would help get them ready for a playoff run in Ohio and they definitely get us ready for a West Virginia playoff run,” Daugherty said. “I have always said we’re going to be a little bit better of a team when this game is over. Whether we win or lose, I don’t know, but we’ll be better.

“A game like this requires so much of you as a coach and as a football team that it’s definitely going to make us a better football team.”

Fans attending the anticipated match up are reminded Wheeling Park sells game tickets online only and does not accept cash at the gate. Those headed to Wheeling Island Stadium are encouraged to buy tickets beforehand on the GoFan app or online. Only credit/debit cards will be accepted at the gate.

The opening kick is set for 7 p.m.

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