Photo by Lauren Florence Linsly’s Alex Taylor fight through the tackle of St. Clairsville’s Gavin Schoolcraft during the Cadets’ 30-16 win Friday night.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — It’s amazing how quickly momentum can shift in sports.

Case in point was late in the third quarter Friday night at Red Devil Stadium.

Trailing 20-14, St. Clairsville appeared to have swiped the momentum from Linsly after recovering a fumble and proceeding to march 64 yards in 15 plays to get to the Cadets’ 1 yard line.

The momentum swung back to the Cadets on the ensuing play, which was a fourth down, when a Red Devils’ running back had the ball jarred loose as he tried to battle his way into the end zone.

Instead of the Red Devils taking the lead, the Cadets proceeded to march 99 yards in six plays with senior standout Luca DiLorenzo capping the drive on a 2-yard plunge. Kicker Santiago Graneros, who had his footprints all over the game, was perfect on the PAT and just like that the Cadets had converted a 14-point swing and they never looked back en route to claiming a cherished 30-14 victory against the Red Devils (3-2).

“To win here, against a good football team feels really incredible, and I couldn’t be happier for our guys,” a relieved Linsly head coach B.J. Depew said. “This was by no means easy, but they came here and played their hearts out. We made plays when we had to.”

The biggest play was clearly at the goal line when the Red Devils appeared to be on the brink of taking the lead, but the Cadets were able to stifel St. Clairsville’s momentum each time it appeared to seize it thanks to a brilliant passing attack which was triggered by junior quarterback Atley Cowan.

“I think our receiving corps is as good of a group of players as we’ve had here since I’ve been the coach,” Depew said. “We needed someone to get them the ball and Atley did that (Friday). He made good decisions and played well. We gave our playmakers a chance to make plays and they responded.”

Indeed.

Cowan, who threw for 291 yards, spread the wealth. While the aforementioned DiLorenzo scored the touchdown to cap the 99-yard drive, he was quite active on that drive as a receiver, too. For the game, he caught five passes for 166 yards, but during the decisive scoring drive he caught two passes for 68 of those yards.

“The play on the goal line is going to be hard to swallow,” St. Clairsville head coach Brett McLean said. “These were two very contrasting styles offensively, but give (Linsly) credit for stopping us because that could have been a huge momentum swing, but they made some serious plays when they needed to. We knew how fast and athletic DiLorenzo was and they really highlighted him quite a bit.”

St. Clairsville — using its strong running game — struck first in the game when senior quarterback Andrew Vera picked his way for a 14-yard touchdown. Strong-legged junior Jacob Meager drilled the first of his two PAT kicks, making it a 7-0 reading.

The Cadets weren’t down for long. They went 65 yards in 10 plays before Kevin Stanisi scored from 2 yards out. Graneros, who scored 11 points in the game, was perfect on the PAT.

That score started what was a 17-point Cadet scoring burst. Graneros connected on a 26-yard field goal and then after an interception, Cowan found speedy senior JyLiek Johnson on a 51-yard pitch and catch as he was completely wide open behind the Devil defensive backs.

St. Clairsville stopped the bleeding on the ensuing possession. Junior Cole Thoburn took a kickoff back 70 yards to put the Devils in business. Seven plays later, senior running back Jacob Walker, who ran for a game-high 89 yards, scored from 2 yards out. Meager’s placement made it 17-14.

Linsly was able to get on the board again with just a minute to go before halftime when Graneros buried a 24-yard field goal. He eventually capped the scoring and put the game out of reach with a 34-yarder in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Linsly’s defense drew high praise from its head coach. The Cadet stop troops limited the Red Devils to 156 yards on the ground and just 209 yards of total offense on top of pitching a second-half shutout.

“We hadn’t played a team that committed to the run like St. Clairsville does and they’re very good at it,” Depew said. “They were able to push it at us a good bit. We have to tighten that up.”

St. Clairsville has no time to sulk. The Red Devils go on the road for just the second time this season to take on Harrison Central for the coveted Coal Bucket.

“We don’t like losing and we’re never going to, but the sun will rise (Saturday) and we will need to continue to push ahead and get better,” McLean said. “I like the mentality of our team and as long as the kids stay positive and people can handle a loss here or there it can sometimes make you even better as a group and more of a unit.”

Linsly 30, St. Clairsville 14

Linsly 7 13 0 10 – 30

St. Clairsville 7 7 0 0 – 14

StC – Vera 14 run (Meager kick).

L – Stanisi 2 run (Graneros kick).

L – Graneros 26 field goal.

L – Johnson 51 pass from Cowan (Graneros kick).

StC – Walker 2 run (Meager kick).

L – Graneros 24 field goal.

L – DiLorenzo 2 run (Graneros kick).

L – Graneros 34 field goal.

RUSHING: Linsly, 32-72-2td (Cowan, 7-(-16); DiLorenzo, 2-16-td; Taylor, 14-55; Weiner, 5-19; Stanisi, 1-2-td; Paull, 1-0; Team, 2-(-4)). St. Clairsville, 39-156-2td (Vera, 16-36-td; Walker, 16-89-td; Porter, 1-4; Schoolcraft, 4-24; Zebbs, 2-3).

PASSING: Linsly, 13-20-291-td (All by Cowan). St. Clairsville, 8-14-53-1x (All by Vera).

RECEIVING: Linsly, 13-291-td (DiLorenzo, 5-166; Feil, 3-25; Coleman, 2-22; Johnson, 3-78-td). St. Clairsville, 8-53 (Thoburn, 4-29; Zebbs, 2-1; Westlake, 1-15; Schoolcraft, 1-8).

First Downs: Linsly, 16; St. Clairsville, 17.

Penalties: Linsly, 4-25; St. Clairsville, 4-20.

Fumbles: Linsly, 3-1; St. Clairsville, 1-1.