×

Scary moment late overshadows St. C’s big win over Huskies

Lauren Florence HARD RUNNING — Harrison Central’s Nathan Bertolino tries to break free from St. Clairsville defenders during Friday’s game.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Senior night is always a special occasion. St. Clairsville’s seniors will certainly remember theirs.

Five upperclassmen combined for six touchdowns and five PATs in the Red Devils’ 55-7 shellacking of visiting Harrison Central at Red Devil Stadium.

Drew Sefsick tossed four TD strikes; Jacob Jordan rushed for a pair of scores; Lucas Otto booted five point-afters; Colin Oberdick caught two six-pointers; and Austin Porter and Carson Woodford each snagged a TD to spark the hosts (5-1) who also retained possession of the coveted Coal Bucket Trophy.

“I’m happy for our seniors,” St. Clairsville veteran head coach Brett McLean said. “They’ve been a huge part of this program.”

McLean did say his mood was tempered by a scary situation midway through the fourth quarter when a Harrison Central player and a member of the Red Devil Stadium camera crew both had to be taken from the facility via ambulance.

“We had a good week of practice in preparation and I just hope everyone is healthy. That kind of shakes you up there at the end with what happened to their kid and our girl. We have heavy hearts leaving the field.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the way our kids played. They were excited. I thought we were physical and ready to go right out of the gate again tonight. It’s going to get tougher down the road. I hope we can get prepared for it.”

Harrison Central (2-4) head coach Anthony Hayes was obviously shaken by the incident which occurred with 7:46 left to play.

“I’m not sure. They are going to take him and get a look at him,” Hayes said of freshman Brodie Yeager. “I don’t want to speculate without knowing. We just pray he is okay and I’ll be in contact with his parents shortly to see how things are going.

“St. Clairsville is a really good football team. This is probably the best team I’ve seen them have since 2012,” Hayes added. “They pretty much did what they wanted, when they wanted to and how they wanted to. They did it pretty darn well every time.”

Indeed they did, exploding for 21 first-quarter points and leading 35-0 at halftime.

Jordan got the scoring started with a 10-yard scamper around his right end on the Red Devils first possession. Sefsick got his outstanding night started with a 12-yard strike to Oberdick on a crossing pattern in the end zone. He then found tight end Porter on a similar route from 14 yards out.

Woodford hauled in a 42-yarder and Oberdick outleaped a trio of Huskies to haul in a 64-yard pitch-and-catch.

Sefsick finished 9 of 12 for 224 yards. Oberdick caught three for 92. Colt Westlake had two receptions for 72 yards and Woodford landed two for 49.

“We play what we feel is the hot hand and tonight it was our passing,” McLean said. “Our quarterback and offensive line did a great job and a couple of different receivers stretched the field, got behind them and made plays on the ball.”

Cam McAfee accounted for the Harrison Central touchdown with a 33-yard interception return early in the third quarter. Jace Madzia added the PAT.

Jordan broke loose for a 52-yard scoring jaunt and Jacob Meager added the first of his two placements. Jacob Walker added a 11-yard run and Dino Burk had a 19-yard burst.

Jordan had 114 yards on just eight totes as the Red Devils ran for 187.

Meanwhile, the Huskies only managed 30 yards on 29 carries. Nathan Bertolino had 46 on 12 carries, but four other ballcarriers had negative yardage.

St. Clairsville 55, Harrison Central 7

Harrison Central 0 0 7 0 — 7

St. Clairsville 21 14 7 13 — 55

STC–Jordan 10 run (Otto kick)

STC–Oberdick 12 pass from Sefsick (Otto kick)

STC–Porter 14 pass from Sefsick (Otto kick)

STC–Woodford 42 pass from Sefsick (Otto kick)

STC–Oberdick 64 pass from Sefsick (Otto kick)

HC–McAfee 33 INT return (Madzia kick)

STC–Jordan 52 run (Meager kick)

STC–Walker 11 run (Meager kick)

STC–Burk 19 run (kick blocked)

RUSHING: Harrison Central 29-30 (Bertolino 12-46, Quito 1-2, Tweedy 2-(-1), Cassidy 8-(-2), Rapavi 4-(-2), Fluharty 2-(-13). St. Clairsville 24-187-4tds (Jordan 8-114-2tds, Sefsick 3-46, Walker 4-21-td, Woodford 1-19, Burk 1-19-td, Hoffman 1-12, Shields 1-3, Oberdick 1-1, Schafer 1-0)

PASSING: Harrison Central 9-21-77 (all by Cassidy). St. Clairsville 12-17-275-4tds (Sefsick 9-12-224-4tds, Vera 3-5-51)

RECEIVING: Harrison Central 9-77 (McAfee 3-44, Rex 2-16, J. Vermillion 2-11, Hutton 1-5, Bertolino 1-1). St. Clairsville 12-275-4tds (Oberdick 3-92-2tds, Westlake 2-72, Woodford 2-49-td, Walker 1-27, Porter 1-14-td, Pastor 1-12, Vickers 1-12, Shields 1-(-3)

FIRST DOWNS: Harrison Central 8. St. Clairsville 19

FUMBLES: Harrison Central 4-0. St. Clairsville 1-0

PENALTIES: Harrison Central 6-45. St. Clairsville 7-75

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today