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Bulldogs Rout Paden City

Ray Earns First Win as Coach

Photo by Kristin Mazgaj Paden City’s Alex McCoy is brought down by a Bridgeport defender Saturday in Martins Ferry.

MARTINS FERRY — It’s been quite an eight days for Fred Ray at the Dave Bruney Football Complex. The Martins Ferry graduate was inducted into the Purple Riders Athletic Hall of Fame a little more than week ago, and Saturday night he picked up his first head coaching victory at Bridgeport.

The Bulldogs (1-3) had been plagued by turnovers and a lack of offensive firepower in their first three outings. That was not the case as they roared to a convincing, 70-32, triumph over visiting Paden City.

“This is our last time playing here this year, so it is huge that we won here,” Ray said. “It’s pretty exciting.”

Ray, who was a running quarterback during his prep days and then later at Ohio University, knows that it takes a strong running game for a team to be successful. The Bulldogs ran for 434 yards (not counting 56 they lost on bad snaps) and had a trio of backs eclipse the 100-yard barrier.

“You learn as a head coach that if you want to go on and play in the postseason, you have to be able to run the ball and stop the run,” he explained. “We stopped the run early in the game and we finished with almost 500 yards rushing.”

Speedster Trevonn Ray led the way with 153 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries. He scored on runs of 52 and 51 yards, while quarterback Tino Kusic added 133 and TD runs of 1 and 54. Mason Kuneff, playing football for the first time in his career, added 126 and sprinted in from 59 yards out. Jaylon Addison chipped in 76 yards and found the end zone on runs of 1 and 44.

The offensive line of tackles Walker Dubil and Hunter Duffey; guards Devin Danhart and Ryan Stewart; along with center Zachary Kuneff and tight end Jacob Waterman paved the way.

Kusic, who only played the first half, completed all three of his passes for 86 yards and touchdowns of 18 yards to Ray and 21 yards to Chandler Rogers.

The Bulldogs defense even got into the scoring act when Anthony Jaworski stripped the ball from a Wildcat and rumbled 20 yards to paydirt.

Senior foreign exchange student Mateo DuMortier kicked four PATs. Izaac Jozwiak ran for two points and caught a 2-point pass. Christian Waterman also landed a 2-pointer.

Paden City totalled 306 yards of total offense, albeit most came when the game was out of hand. Senior Ryan Cross rushed for 119 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries. Matt Saxon added 73 while also catching two passes for 83 yards, including an 80-yarder. He also returned a punt 55 yards for a score.

“They’ve got some speed on that team, obviously. They’ve got some good athletes,” Paden City coach Brent Croasmun said. “We were lucky to put enough players on the field. We had 12 kids practicing on Tuesday. We lost eight guys last week and some of these guys that played (Saturday) didn’t practice all week. They just suited up. We found out (Friday) that three of them we didn’t think we were going to have were able to play.

“We showed up and we played, but we just couldn’t keep up with their speed and athleticism.”

Madonna 40, Beallsville 20

WEIRTON — Madonna dominated Beallsville in every phase of the football game Saturday night behind a career performance from sophomore running back Thomas Sessi’s 449 total yards and walked out of Jimmy Carey Stadium with a victory.

Sessi, in his first season as a starter after seeing some action last year as a freshman ran for 234 yards, caught eight passes for 140 yards and returned a kickoff 75 yards. And, he scored four of the six Blue Don touchdowns.

The Madonna defense, which allowed the Blue Devils only 83 yards rushing, got a turnover to end Beallsville’s first possession of the game and, later in the first period, sophomore defensive tackle Jacob Bonner intercepted a Dakota Phillips pass after it deflected off a Blue Devil receiver at midfield and rambled to the Beallsville 25.

A big chunk of Bonner’s return was for not as the Blue Dons were called for unsportsmanlike conduct. Putting the ball in play at the Blue Devil 40, Sessi lost 3 yards on a run, but he caught a pass from freshman quarterback Santino Arlia and ran down the right hash marks in a scoring operation that covered 43 yards. The center snap missed the mark on Joe Soos’ extra point placement, so the Blue Dons got on the board first with a 6-0 lead.

Beallsville matched it in the second quarter when Phillips faded to pass and then decided to run from the Blue Don 39. He got a key block at the Madonna 20 that opened his way to the end zone. Phillips, who did just about everything for the Blue Devils, missed the extra point.

Blue Don senior Dylan Austin ran the ensuing kickoff from his own 31 to the Beallsville 49 to set up the second Madonna score. Two plays into the drive, Arlia and Sessi hooked up again. This time it was a 38-yard pass and run as Arlia found Sessi wide open down the middle of the field. Arlia added the two-conversion with a run.

A Phillips punt from his own 15 rolled dead at the Beallsville 49 and, with the good field position, the Blue Dons drove to the Blue Devil 30 from where Sessi burst up the middle through a huge hole for the touchdown.

Sessi got a lot of plays as he rushed the ball 31 times for 234 yards and three touchdowns. Sessi got a lot of his carries from the wildcat formation in which he got a direct snap from the center.

The Blue Devils answered Sessi’s score on the first play after Soos’ kickoff was covered at the Blue Devil 30. Phillips hit Schnegg out of the backfield down the right sideline, and the husky running back shook off a couple of tacklers going 70 yards on the play. A Phillips toss to Wyatt Moore for the two-pointer closed the Madonna gap to 20-14 at the half.

Madonna opened the second half with a long, 11-play drive that consumed nine and a half minutes off the clock. It ended with a touchdown sweep of 7 yards by junior Anthony Daddario. A conversion pass failed, leaving the Blue Dons with a 26-14 lead.

Beallsville wouldn’t throw in the towell and came right back on the next possession with a 53-yard drive that was aided by a Madonna interference penalty. Schnegg scored again on a pass from Phillips from 25 yards out. A run for two points was stopped by the Blue Dons, who were now clinging to a 26-20 lead.

Sessi all but put the game away when he received the Phillips kickoff at his own 25 and raced the 75 yards to pay dirt. Ty Ingram ran the two-point conversion on a sweep that gave the Blue Dons some breathing room with a 34-20 lead.

Madonna capped the scoring with a Daddario 12-yard blast through tacklers with 2:21 left in the game.

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