TOUGH YARDS — Big Red tailback Jalen Minniefield fights his way over and through attempted tackles from McDowell defenders during Friday’s game at Harding Stadium. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — If Friday’s visit from Erie McDowell was a big test, Big Red passed it with flying colors.

The defense forced the visiting Trojans to punt on their first six possessions and the offense got rolling as Steubenville stayed in the ranks of the unbeaten with a dominant 44-21 victory.

Big Red, now 9-0, scored the first 29 points and led 44-7 before the Trojans added a couple fourth quarter scores with the reserves in.

“Our kids prepared hard and played hard,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “We’ve had great mental preparation for the last month. We had a great, physical game tonight and it took every bit of preparation throughout the week. Offense, defense, special teams, everyone did a good job.

“I’m so proud of these players. We tell them trust us, and we’ll trust your execution. They trusted us tonight and we trusted their execution and that’s called a team effort.”

Big Red, the No. 3 ranked team in Division III in the latest Ohio Associated Press poll, racked up 267 rushing yards and had eight different players catch a pass in racking up 370 yards of offense.

Steubenville scored 22 points in the second quarter to pull away after leading 7-0 after the first quarter.

Before the Trojans (6-3), a Division I team by Ohio enrollment standards, put together a late scoring drive to end the first half, Big Red had a 9-1 advantage in first downs and the defense had held the visitors to just 28 yards on their first six drives.

“I want to thank our coaches for a beautiful game plan and thank our players for executing that game plan,” Saccoccia added. “It was just an overall team effort.”

The Big Red defense held McDowell quarterback Blayze Myers, who was coming off a 400-yard performance against Austintown-Fitch last week and is a 2,000-yard passer this season, under 100 yards at just 9 of 17 for 92 yards. Big Red’s Will Taylor also intercepted one of his passes, which set up the first Steubenville score.

Aiden Davis, the senior Big Red signal caller, used his legs early on to get Big Red on the board. He rushed for 64 yards, 49 of which came on the first Steubenville scoring drive, which he capped with a 1-yard plunge.

He went 8 of 11 for 81 yards passing with another score.

Jalen Minniefield, who finished with 112 yards and two scores on just eight carries, capped the next scoring drive with an 8-yard run for his first TD, then, after the defense held again, Ca’Juan Bryant (81 yards on 14 carries), powered just across the goal line on what was a fourth-and-goal to cap a 12-play march that made it 21-0.

The next drive after another McDowell punt was much quicker, this time just two plays as Davis fired a 21-yard pass to Bryant then hit tight end Nolan Blackburn in space, and he took it 31 yards to the end zone, a Taylor conversion run making it 29-0.

Up 29-7 to start the third quarter, Minnifield wasted little time in getting the running clock going, taking the first carry of the third quarter 65 yards to score, a Davis to Tre Wiggins pass on the conversion pushing the margin to 30.

Backup QB Santino Haney fired a 32-yard touchdown pass to Najeh Simon later in the quarter to push the margin to 44-7 before the McDowell scores in the fourth.

NOTES

• Joe Eitel’s unofficial rankings as of Friday night had the win keeping Big Red in second place in the Region 11 standings, just a fraction of a point behind Columbus Bishop Watterson.

• Also according to Eitel, Big Red has clinched a top-four finish in the region, locking up potential home games in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

• Big Red looks to close an unbeaten regular season back at home next Friday hosting Long Island Lutheran out of New York. Lutheran was 4-1 headed into a Saturday game.

Steubenville 44, McDowell 21

M 0-7-0-14 – 21

S 7-22-15-0 – 44

SCORING

First Quarter

S: Davis 1 run (Bowers kick) 5:01

Second Quarter

S: Minniefield 8 run (Bowers kick) 11:46

S: Bryant 1 run (Bowers kick) 5:36

S: Blackburn 31 pass from Davis (Taylor run) 3:40

M: Magorien 25 pass from Myers (Sontheimer kick) :15

Third Quarter

S: Minniefield 65 run (Wiggins pass from Davis) 11:39

S: Simon 32 pass from Haney (Bowers kick) 3:24

Fourth Quarter

M: Zigler 25 pass from Myers (Sontheimer kick) 11:36

M: Bastow 1 pass from Kuhn (Sontheimer kick) 1:33

RUSHING: McDowell 20-121 (Myers 6-43; Porter 8-48; Bonsell 5-27; Kuhn 1-3); Steubenville 37-267-4TD (Davis 8-64-TD; Bryant 14-81-TD; Minnifield 8-112-2TD; Haney 3-(-7); Hython 4-17)

PASSING: McDowell 12-20-112-3TD-INT (Myers 9-17-92-2TD-INT; Kuhn 3-3-20-TD); Steubenville 9-12-113-2TD (Davis 8-11-81-TD; Haney 1-1-32-TD)

RECEIVING: McDowell 12-112-3TD (Magorien 5-36-TD; Porter 2-16; Dickerson 2-15; Zigler 1-25-TD; Neff 2-19; Bastow 1-1-TD); Steubenville 9-113-2TD (Saccoccia 1-9; Wiggins 1-0; Taylor 1-3; Crosier 1-4; Bryant 2-24; Blackburn 1-31-TD; Hinton 1-10; Simon 1-32-TD)

FIRST DOWNS: McDowell 12; Steubenville 13

PENALTIES-YARDS: McDowell 6-38; Steubenville 6-50

FUMBLES-LOST: McDowell 0-0; Steubenville 1-1