TOUCHDOWN — Big Red’s Savier Faulks is greeted by teammate Ty Pierce in the endzone after scoring a 75-yard touchdown during Friday’s Division IV, Region 15 playoff game against Bishop Hartley at Harding Stadium. Big Red rolled to a 31-0 win. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Big Red punched its ticket to the Division IV Sweet 16 with a dominating 31-0 mercy rule victory over Columbus Bishop Hartley Friday inside Harding Stadium.

The second-seeded Big Red will take a 10-2 mark into next Saturday’s Region 15 semifinals where it will test Columbus East, the third seed. The Tigers, now 10-1, advanced with a thrilling 40-39 double overtime victory over Cambridge. The location for that contest will be announced Sunday by the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

In the other Region 15 semifinal, Columbus Bishop Ready, which knocked off top-seeded St. Clairsville, will tangle with Indian Valley.

Hartley finishes its season at 5-7.

“I know one thing — our coaches had our players ready to go,” Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said after delivering a post-game talk to his squad. “They went out there as a team. Each coach went out with his position players and everyone was ready.

“The coaches had them ready and our kids had themselves ready. It was just beautiful from the opening kick to the final whistle.”

Steubenville gave the large crowd a sign of things to come when it took the opening kick and marched 65 yards for its initial touchdown. The 10-play drive chewed up 5:56 of the first quarter and 53 of the yards came on the ground. Hard-running senior Spenser Ostovich capped things off with a 7-yard burst. Cole Bowers’ kick made it 7-0.

Big Red’s defense held the Hawks to just five yards on their first possession and forced a punt from deep in Hartley territory. The snap was bad and the football rolled into the end zone, Hakim Edwards falling on it for Steubenville’s second score. Bowers nailed his conversion kick and Big Red led 14-0 with 4:45 remaining in the opening period.

“We put on the board — start fast and finish strong and we did that tonight.” Saccoccia said. “I am just happy right now and especially happy for our seniors. They locked the gate up at Harding Stadium with a win and that is a win they will never forget.”

The score remained 14-0 until the 9:25 mark of the second quarter when Bowers drilled a 32-yard field goal. His kick capped a nine-play Big Red drive which covered 57 yards.

Following Bowers’ three-pointer, Hartley’s offense showed some signs of life, moving from its own 23 to the Steubenville 35. The drive was aided by a pass interference penalty against the Big Red. The scoring threat ended when Brody Saccoccia picked off a Peyton Underwood pass at the Steubenville 25.

Big Red needed just one snap to make the Hawks pay for that turnover. Phaeton Hill handed the ball to junior Savier Faulks. He burst through a huge hole and outraced Hartley’s defenders to the end zone. The 75-yard sprint combined with Bowers’ third PAT made it 24-0 Steubenville at the half.

On the opening possession of the second half, Hartley found itself in a huge hole following penalties for motion and holding. Underwood went to the air but his pass was picked off again by Brody Saccoccia. The sophomore safety returned this interception 18 yards for what turned out to be the final touchdown of the night. Bowers’ kick ended the scoring and started the running clock.

“That is beautiful — isn’t it?” Saccoccia asked when talking about his Big Red producing touchdowns with its offense, defense and special teams.

“We recovered the snap in the end zone, that was a great job,” he said. “We did grunt work for our first touchdown and had a big run for a score. Then the defense delivered a score too. It was just a great all-around team effort.”

Big Red ran just 32 plays from scrimmage in the fast-moving contest and finished with 224 yards of offense (184 rushing and 40 passing). Faulks led the ground attack with 103 yards. Senior Gavin Bozica contributed 53.

“Our game plan was to do whatever they gave us,” Saccoccia said. “I thought our quarterback (Phaeton Hill) did a great job of running the huddle because the type of offense we were running today was pretty hard to digest.

“It was just a good night. I could sit here all night and talk about the positives. We’ll watch film (Saturday) and we will look for all the negatives probably. We made a lot of mistakes tonight but we made aggressive mistakes.”

Big Red’s defense totally shut down Hartley’s offense, which entered the game averaging 26 points a contest and 355 yards. The Hawks could manage just 95 total yards (71 rushing and 24 passing). They had just 24 yards of total offense in the first half. More than half of their rushing yards (39) came late in the game against Steubenville’s second team defense.

The shutout was the third of the year for the Big Red defense.

UP NEXT

“We’re moving on, that’s the goal. We are still going,” Saccoccia said. “Like I said I’m happy for the team and especially happy for our seniors.

“One of our coaches made the comment that the majority of our seniors have never missed a day since sixth grade lift club. Their attitude has been great and their effort has been great. Even when we were bad, they attitude and effort were great. It’s tough to be energetic and have good practices after a loss but we continued to work hard, improve and stay focused on what we are doing.

“We’ll take (Saturday) and Sunday off and be ready to go Monday since we don’t play until next Saturday.”

Big Red fans are reminded tickets for the quarterfinal game must be purchased in advance at www.ohsaa.org/tickets.

Steubenville now has an all-time playoff record of 71-30.

Steubenville 31,

Columbus Bishop Hartley 0

Hartley 0-0-0-0

Big Red 14-10-7-0

First Quarter:

BIG RED: Ostovich 7 run (Bowers kick)

BIG RED: Hartley punt snap recovered in end zone by Edwards (Bowers kick)

Second Quarter:

BIG RED: Bowers 32 field goal

BIG RED: Faulks 75 run (Bowers kick)

Third Quarter:

BIG RED: Saccoccia 18 interception return (Bowers kick)

RUSHING: Hartley 25-71 (Lathon 14-27; Wooten 7-57; Ralston 3-6 Team 1-(-19)); Big Red 27-184-2 (Faulks 7-103-1; Bozica 9-53; Ostovich 1-7-1; Manning 1-0; Minniefield 6-23; Kyleigh Hopkins 1-1; Simmons 1-(-3); Douglas 1-(-1)).

PASSING: Hartley 2-9-24-2ints (all by Underwood); Big Red 3-5-40 (all by P. Hill)

RECEIVING: Hartley 2-24 (Perry 1-12; Winbush 1-12); Big Red 3-40 (I. Hill 1-12; Sewell 1-17; Sims 1-11).

FIRST DOWNS: Hartley 6; Big Red 10.

PENALTIES-YARDS: Hartley 10-70; Big Red 9-60.

PUNTS: Hartley 4-37; Big Red 1-46.

FUMBLES-LOST: Hartley 1-1; Big Red 0-0.