Andrew Grimm MAKING ROOM — Big Red tailback Ca’Juan Bryant pushes his way to extra yards against Farrell Friday night at Harding Stadium. Big Red won, 40-24, for its fourth-straight victory.

STEUBENVILLE — The Big Red football team turned in a big performance in front of a big crowd on homecoming night.

Making its return to a packed Harding Stadium after two weeks on the road, Steubenville continued its win streak with a 40-24 victory over visiting Farrell on Friday night.

The win is Big Red’s fourth-straight after a 0-2 start and the third week in a row it has scored 40 or more points.

“That was a great football game,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “I’m really proud of the players and coaches. A lot of people counted us out when we were 0-2, but we weren’t dead, and these guys have done a great job of turning it around and sticking with it.

“We made the key plays, we had key runs, key catches, key stops, key first downs, key kicks.

“I want to give credit to our coaches and players; they stuck with it. The fans were with us, it was just a full Big Red win on homecoming.”

Big Red was nearly perfectly balanced on offense (186 yards rushing and 170 yards passing) and, despite giving up a couple big plays to the talented Steelers, made the stops when they needed to on defense.

A pair of Cole Bowers field goals and stopping four Farrell two-point conversion tries were key to Big Red having a two-score lead in the fourth quarter to run out the clock.

“Those two field goals were very important, they kept us in front,” Saccoccia said. “The second half, we did a great job. They’re a good football team, we’re a good football team. We were just a little bit better tonight. Even when we didn’t gain anything, we did gain something because we kept pounding and kept pounding and wore them down. Our formula has been the same for 50 years, run the ball and play action pass, and that’s what we did tonight. I thought the whole second half we really wore them down.”

Farrell led briefly, 12-10, in the second quarter following a Juelz Johnson interception return for a touchdown. From there, Big Red out-scored the Steelers 30-12.

Bowers had opened the scoring with a 36-yard field goal and later booted a 40-yarder at the end of the third quarter that put Big Red on top by eight points going to the fourth quarter.

Santino Haney had a sparkling night outside the one interception, going 16 of 18 passing for 170 yard and pair of scores, a 30-yard strike to Tre Wiggins in the first quarter and a 9-yard connection with Jeremiah Hinton late in the opening half to give Big Red a 16-12 lead at the break.

In the second half, Ca’Juan Bryant (75 yards on 22 totes) had a 7-yard scoring run, while James Turner had scoring runs of 1 and 6 yards, both in the fourth quarter, to help Steubenville pull away.

Farrell standout running back Juelz Johnson broke a 54-yard scoring run in the third quarter but was limited to negative yardage on his other seven carries. He also had the interception return on defense.

Steelers QB Aaron Pegues (145 yards, two scores) had a 77-yard scoring pass to Dorean Cain in the fourth quarter.

HOMECOMING

Chloe Gorman selected the odd colored rose at halftime to be crowned homecoming queen.

UP NEXT

Big Red is back at home next Friday night to host Canisius (2-2) from the Buffalo, N.Y. area.

Steubenville 40, Farrell (Pa.) 24

F 0-12-6-6 — 24

S 3-13-10-14 — 40

SCORING

First Quarter

S: Bowers 36 field goal 1:55

Second Quarter

S: Wiggins 30 pass from Haney (Bowers kick) 10:16

F: Johnson 16 pass from Pegues (pass failed) 6:24

F: Johnson 33 interception return (run failed) 1:54

S: Hinton 9 pass from Haney (Bowers kick) :14

Third Quarter

S: Bryant 7 run (Bowers kick) 7:05

F: Johnson 54 run (pass failed) 1:35

S: Bowers 40 field goal :00

Fourth Quarter

S: Turner 1 run (kick failed) 11:33

F: Do. Cain 77 pass from Pegues (pass failed) 10:54

S: Turner 6 run (Bryant run) 7:05

RUSHING: Farrell 21-141-TD (Johnson 8-52-TD; Pegues 10-69; Marshall 2-(-15); Vincent 1-35); Steubenville 39-186-3TD (Bryant 22-75-TD; Haney 2-8; Henderson 7-45; Crosier 3-30; Muntz 1-11; Turner 4-17-2TD)

PASSING: Farrell 7-16-145-2TD (all by Pegues); Steubenville 16-18-170-2TD-INT (all by Haney)

RECEIVING: Farrell 7-145-2TD (Jones 2-33; Johnson 2-21-TD; Marshall 1-13; Dunbar 1-3; De. Cain 2-75-TD); Steubenville 16-170-2TD (Crosier 4-32; Hinton 3-30-TD; Bryant 3-0; Adams 1-29; Scurry 3-40; Wiggins 1-30-TD; Blackburn 1-9)

FIRST DOWNS: Farrell 5; Steubenville 16

PENALTIES-YARDS: Farrell 11-105; Steubenville 9-65

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

PUNTS: Farrell 5-27.3; Steubenville 1-31