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Big Red rolls on Legends Night

By ANDREW GRIMM 5 min read

STEUBENVILLE -- On a night they were honoring legends of the past, the Big Red football team put together a legendary performance.

Steubenville scored the first 30 points of the game and did not look back, rolling to a 44-14 running clock win over visiting Dover on Legends Night at Harding Stadium.

"It was a much different game that last year, last year they took it to us at the start and tonight we came out ready to play football. That's two weeks in a row that our kids come out ready to play," Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. "I appreciate the effort of every kid that played. It was a total team effort. Our coaches were prepared, our players executed the plan."

Steubenville honored the 2005 and 2006 state championship winning teams prior to the game and had a lot of alumni in attendance.

"Before the game we told the 05 and 06 teams how much we appreciated what they did for the school and how they defended the Crimson and Black of 420 North Fourth Street," Saccoccia said. "We said that the 2026 squad wanted to show that only the names have changed and we still play with the same speed, aggressiveness and love of the game. We wanted them to be as proud of us and we are of them."

Big Red, which improved to 2-0 on the season, racked up 249 yards on the ground with nine different ball carriers, scoring five of their six touchdowns on the ground. Colton Henderson led the charge with 84 yards on 11 carries, all in the first half, and the first of the scores. James Turner turned his five carries into 37 yards and three trips to the end zone.

All told, Big Red racked up 467 yards of offense and 23 first downs.

The Big Red defense was stout and set the tone early, holding the Crimson Tornadoes (1-1) to negative yardage in the first quarter and under 90 yards in the first half. They finished with just 163 total yards and eight first downs.

Highly touted Dover quarterback Dieter Weber was sacked five times and tackled for a loss on two other rushing attempts.

Turner had two of the sacks, Derek Smith recording two as well and Cleveland King also getting in of the sack action with one.

"We got good pressure on the quarterback," Saccoccia said. "Their quarterback is a good quarterback, but we got pressure on him and had a good defensive game.

"That is starting to be the biggest play in football -- the sack. Getting sacks and pressure on the quarterback makes a big difference. I thought we did a really good job of getting pressure and getting to him to keep him out of rhythm."

Weber did throw for 158 yards and two scores, but was charged with a loss of 26 yards between the sacks and negative rush attempts.

Senior quarterback Santino Haney had an efficient night for Big Red, going 9 of 11 for 194 yards and a touchdown -- all in the first half. His touchdown throw came on a play in which he broke multiple tackles and got free to fire a strike into the end zone to Braidyn Edwards.

Big Red finished with 218 passing yards.

"We made some nice passes, some nice catches and some nice runs," Saccoccia said. "It started up front, I thought our line blocked really well.

"We played well offensively and defensively and it was a total team effort from everyone that got in the game, the guys who came out early when we subbed and guys who went into the game in the second half and kept it going.

"It's a good win, now we have to keep it going."

The Steubenville defense got a stop on the opening drive of the game and the offense wasted little time in taking the lead, Henderson breaking a 29-yard touchdown run to cap a quick, three-play drive that also featured a 27-yard Landon Crosier run.

The defense got another stop, and five plays later Turner made it 14-0 with a 5-yard scoring run after Haney had hit a big pass to Quintavius West.

After another quick stop, Big Red went on the march again and covered 80 yards in five plays, Turner powering his way through tacklers for a 10-yard scoring run on the first play of the second quarter to make it 21-0.

Dover got pushed back deep in their own end and forced to punt, and Stephen McShan -- who also had 89 receiving yards -- broke through blockers and blocked the punt, which went out of the back of the end zone for a safety to make it 23-0.

Big Red then went on a 10-play, 80-yard drive after the ensuing kick, capped by Turner powering in from the 1 for a 30-0 lead.

After Dover got on the board with a Weber 37-yard pass play, Big Red again put together an 80-yard scoring drive, this time Haney making his elusive moves and finding Edwards with less than a minute to go before halftime for a 26-yard score and a 37-7 lead at the break.

With the clock running, Steubenville's second string offense put together a 14-play drive that chewed 10 minutes off the clock to start the third quarter, Karson Simmons capping the methodical drive with a 1-yard plunge.

Weber added a 12-yard TD toss in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.

UP NEXT

Big Red is back at home next Friday night to host Linsly, who dropped its opener at Girard on Friday night 56-14.

Starting at /week.