BACK IN ACTION — After a week off, Big Red is back in action Friday night hosting Cardinal Mooney at Harding Stadium. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Big Red was in a bit of an unfamiliar position last Friday night — watching other teams play while they did not head to the stadium.

Due to a scheduling conflict, last week’s scheduled game against D.C Dunbar was cancelled, giving Big Red a bye week and a full two weeks between games.

Steubenville spent that time working hard on the practice field as it looks to bounce back from a rare 0-2 start against two very good football teams.

“We had a great week of practice last week,” Saccoccia said. “We had kind of a mediocre day on Monday, then (Tuesday) we bounced back. Had a pretty good day. As we get closer to game day, the thermometer gets turned up. We had a lot more enthusiasm (Tuesday) than we did (Monday).

“They’re excited to be preparing for a game again. It’s a great challenge for two reasons. Coming off a bye for one, and two is we’re preparing for a game against a very good football team.”

That very good football team coming to Harding Stadium Friday night to welcome Big Red back to the field is Youngstown Cardinal Mooney, who sits at 2-1.

“There’s, there’s a lot of respect between us, there’s a lot of respect between Steubenville and Youngstown as a whole going back a long way,” Saccoccia said. “There’s a lot of history and respect on both sides.”

The Cardinals have wins over Lake Catholic and Villa Angela-St. Joseph in their first two games before falling in a close game to Canfield last week. Drew Pasteur’s site has Mooney listed as having the toughest schedule of any team in Division V.

Big Red is one of six games on Mooney’s schedule against a Division III opponent. They play two Division II schools later this season and just one Division V opponent.

“This year’s Mooney team does what they do and they do it well,” Saccoccia said. “They just run a few plays, they’re not all over the place, but they run what they run very well. They do a good job of getting the ball to No. 5 (Ike Lake), and he does a great job. He has great lateral movement. He has a great finish, a good forward lane. They have a really good quarterback (Vince Gentile), he’s very accurate. And they have good receivers. They have eight kids back from last year that play good defense.”

As is the case when any of the Youngstown-area teams make the trip to Steubenville, the veteran coach knows it’s going to take four quarters of effort to come out on top.

“It’s going to be a four quarter game no matter what team you’re playing from Youngstown, especially when it comes to Mooney,” Saccoccia said. “The Mooney kids know what it’s about. They’ve had a great history since the mid 50s. We’re going to have to come ready to play our best for four quarters.”

The all time series between the tradition-rich programs stands deadlocked at 7-7. Big Red has won the last two meetings, last year in Youngstown and two years ago the last time the teams met at Harding Stadium.

“It’s just going to take four things for us to bounce back,” Saccoccia said. “It’s going to take the players and the coaches, it will take the parents, and it’s going to take the Big Red Nation. If all four of us don’t show up, we’re gonna have a tough time getting a victory for Friday night.”

The opening kick Friday night is set for 7 p.m.