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Southern Local hands Catholic Central 41-7 defeat

SALINEVILLE — On its Hall of Fame Night, the Southern Indians football team turned in a Hall of Fame-like performance, rolling to a 41-7 win over tradition-rich Steubenville Catholic Central Saturday night at Wigwam Stadium.

“It’s the first time we started putting things together,” said Southern coach Rich Wright. “We played real well and we know we’re not going to be at home for the next couple weeks, so we challenged them all week and had an extra day of preparation.”

With the win, Southern remains unbeaten at 3-0, while Catholic Central, which is very young this season, fell to 1-2.

“That is a real good football team that we’re not physically prepared to play with right now with as many freshmen as we have,” said Steubenville Catholic Central coach Anthony Agresta.

How impressive were the Indians who returned a majority of their playoff squad from a year ago?

Southern raced to a 41-0 lead by halftime, while rolling up 396 yards of total offense in the first two quarters. The Indians were extremely efficient on the ground and through the air.

“We knew we needed a game like that,” said Wright. “We try to mix it up (with the run and pass). We’ve got a good senior class and a lot of good athletes.”

Spearheading the attack was senior quarterback Jayce Sloan, who accounted for 209 yards of total offense in two quarters of play, including 74 on the ground with a rushing touchdown and 135 yards and a touchdown through the air.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time,” said Jayce Sloan. “Last year we looked too far ahead and this year we’re just taking it one game at a time. My team does everything for me, I can’t take any credit for that. I credit my line, my running backs and my wide receivers because they make the plays out there.”

The Indians scored five of their first-half touchdowns on scoring runs of 2 yards by Sloan, 59 yards by Cam Grodhaus, 1 and 8 yards by running back Dylan Milhoun and two yards by fullback Mark Soukup.

Sloan also had a 31-yard scoring pass to Grodhaus as Southern led 20-0 after one period and 41-0 at the break.

At halftime, Southern led in total offense, 396-94 and in first downs, 15-4.

On defense, Southern’s Latrell Crute, Jamar Allen and Colton Bonam had fumble recoveries and Giovanni Estrada and Chance Wooley had interceptions.

Anthony LeFever had an interception for the Crusaders.

The two teams played with a running clock the entire second half as many backups saw the field.

“The thing we’re excited about is everybody here played tonight and that might help us in practice,” said Wright.

The Crusaders had their most impressive march on their opening drive of the second half, advancing 61 yards to score on a 1-yard run around the right side by running back Jefferry Dawson. Daniel Kissinger added the PAT boot to make it 41-7 at the 6:47 mark of the third quarter which closed the scoring.

Agresti is hoping Catholic Central’s tough early-season schedule will help his young team moving forward.

“We just went through a pretty tough stretch of the schedule,” he said. “The last two games against Wheeling Central and this team, we’re not going to see anyone better the rest of the way out. It will help prepare us for the rest of the way. We’re going to get better every week, I can promise you that.”

GAME NOTES

Southern won last year’s meeting with the Crusaders by a 26-13 final in Steubenville.

Steubenville Catholic Central returns home next Saturday host to host the Edison Wildcats (0-3).

“We’re going to have to figure out a way to make this things work with the small kids in there for the rest of the year,” said Agresta. “We’ll figure it out.”

STEUBENVILLE CC: 0- 0-7-0-7

SOUTHERN: 20-21- 0-0-41

SCORING

SL-Jayce Sloan, 2 run, 8:39 1st (Cam Grodhaus pass from Jayce Sloan)

SL-Cam Grodhaus, 31 pass from Jayce Sloan, 7:35 1st (Run failed)

SL-Cam Grodhaus, 59 run, 5:27 1st (Kick failed)

SL-Dylan Milhoun, 1 run, 11:56 2nd (Nate Webster kick)

SL-Dylan Milhoun, 8 run, 4:04 2nd (Nate Webster kick)

SL-Mark Soukup, 2 run, :09 2nd (Nate Webster kick)

SCC-Jefferry Dawson, 1 run, 6:47 3rd (Daniel Kissinger kick)

SCC SL

First downs 10 20

Total Yards 202 471

Rushes-yards 24-62 36-336

Passing 140 135

Comp-Att-Int 10-14-2 5-7-0

Punts 4-.34 3-.35

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-1

Penalties-Yards 7-55 6-45

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING-Southern, Jayce Sloan, 6-74, Dylan Milhoun 8-52, Cam Grodhaus

5-94, Mark Soukup 4-70; Steubenville CC, Jefferry Dawson, 11-44.

PASSING-Southern, Jayce Sloan, 5-7-135-1-0; Steubenville CC, Ryan

Gorman, 10-14-190-0-2.

RECEIVING-Southern, Mark Soukup 2-43, Cam Grodhaus, 1-31, Latrell

Crute, 1-30; Steubenville CC, Anthony LeFever, 4-40.

INTERCEPTIONS-Southern, Giovanni Estrada, Chance Wooley; Steubenville

CC, Anthony LeFever.

FUMBLE RECOVERIES-Southern, Latrell Crute, Jamar Allen, Colton Bonam.

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