Andrew Grimm BREAKING FREE — Big Red’s Jeremiah Hinton shakes off Wheeling Park’s Michael Nieder for yards after the catch during Friday’s game.

STEUBENVILLE — There’s an old saying in sports that it’s not about how you start, but how you finish. Big Red’s finish to the regular season could not have been much better.

Steubenville scored 38-unanswered points and executed nearly flawlessly in all three phases of the game to earn an impressive 38-7 victory over Wheeling Park on senior night.

The win is Big Red’s seventh-straight after an 0-2 start to finish the regular season 7-2 and likely clinched a top-four finish in Division III, Region 11 and bye in the opening round of the postseason.

“They don’t get much better than that,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said as his team chanted, ‘We are Big Red,’ in the locker room. “We did it against a good football team, too. From where we were (after Week 2), to where we are now, it’s beautiful. I have so much respect for the people I work with, the coaches and the players; I respect the (heck) out of them and what they accomplished.

“I can’t thank everybody enough that is a part of Big Red nation. They stuck with us, and we appreciate all the support. I appreciate the seniors and their efforts. It’s just a good night.

“Now it’s playoff time.”

Santino Haney had perhaps his best night as a starting quarterback, going 18 of 24 for 261 yards and three touchdowns while showing he can do it with his feet, too, adding another 78 yards on six carries to account for 339 of Big Red’s 476 yards of total offense.

He broke a 52-yard run on a designed keeper that helped set up Big Red’s first score.

Haney fired two touchdowns to Ziare Scurry (six catches, 80 yards) covering 31 and 23 yards and a 29-yard TD pass to Jeremiah Hinton (four catches for 84 yards). He spread the ball around, completing passes to eight different receivers.

On the ground, Big Red racked up 215 yards as a team, led by Haney’s 78 and Ca’Juan Bryant’s 66 yards, while backup QB Karson Simmons and short-yardage specialist James Turner each scored 1-yard touchdowns.

Defensively, Big Red limited Wheeling Park standout tailback Brennan Wack to just 72 yards on 19 carries and held the Patriots (5-4) to 244 yards of total offense.

And, on special teams, Big Red converted on both a fake field goal and a fake punt, and Army recruit Cole Bowers booted a 35-yard field goal that would have been good from far longer.

After the Patriots struck first on the opening possession, capped by a Wack TD run that was set up by a 60-yard Jay Bordas (7 of 9, 94 yards) to Preston Heatherington (five catches, 74 yards) connection, it was all Big Red.

Park had 12 penalties for 86 yards, including several costly ones that turned third and short into third and long and killed multiple drives.

After the game was knotted 7-7, Big Red surged ahead 24-7 at halftime with 17 points in the second quarter, 10 of which came in the final 1:47 of the half. Steubenville scored on its opening drive of the second half to leave little doubt about the outcome, then salted things away with a 20-play, 99-yard touchdown drive that took nearly 10 minutes off the clock.

“We got off to a good start, and it got away from us from there. That tends to happen to a lot of teams here,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “Big Red does everything right, credit to them. I thought we matched them well in the first half, I thought we did a good job and we would have liked to got into half at 14-7, but we kind of gave them some points at the end of the half. Our kids kept battling, but credit to Steubenville; it just seems like they do not make mistakes. They’re a great program.

“Hopefully they make a run in Ohio and we get ready for one of our own run. Win or lose, you get better when you play Steubenville.”

UP NEXT

Wheeling Park: Has its scheduled bye week before taking on rival John Marshall on Nov. 7 to close its regular season.

Big Red: Will wait and see how the standings shake out and will either host a playoff game next Friday or Nov. 7 if it gets a bye. The official playoff pairings will be released on Sunday by the OHSAA.