photo by: Andrew Grimm

The Steubenville Big Red, pictured after winning the East/Southeast District championship on Sunday at Ohio University

STEUBENVILLE – The City of Murals had plenty to cheer for after a triumphant weekend for the Big Red and Crusaders, who both snagged District championships to advance to the regional tournament. Those events transpired outside of Steubenville- in Athens and St. Clairsville, respectively- while inside the city limits, the Ohio Division II Eastern/Southeastern District Tournament unfolded within the Crimson Center.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Steubenville Catholic Makes History Against Bishop Rosecrans

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Catholic Central keeps achieving history.

In a season that’s already seen the program’s first OVAC championship in more than three decades and senior standout Benji Rook become its new all-time leading scorer, the Crusaders added a couple more accomplishments to the list Saturday night.

Those accomplishments are the program’s first regional appearance in 41 years and matching the prior program record for wins in a season, and they did it by winning the Division VII, East District championship in convincing fashion, 56-37, over Bishop Rosecrans inside the ECO Center.

“Someone joked we should try to play the rest of our games here,” Crusaders head coach Don Ogden said of the ECO Center, where Central won its OVAC 2A title two weeks earlier. “I could not be prouder of this group, not only as basketball players, but as young men. It’s a huge accomplishment for the program to win a district title.

Central, which matched the school mark with its 22nd victory against just three losses, advances to the Region 27 tournament at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus. They’ll take on the winner of the Southeast 2 District in the regional semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Thursday night.

“I told the guys to have a sense of accomplishment tonight, because it is a great accomplishment, but don’t be satisfied because we’re hopefully not done yet,” Ogden said. “We tied the school record for wins, but we want to break it.”

Tommy Pergi led the Crusaders with a game-high 17 points, eight rebounds, two assists and a steal. Rook followed close behind with 16 points, including a pair of 3s, and eight rebounds. Andrew Rohde tallied a double-double to put three in double figures, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds while also tallying three assists and two steals.

Big Red Downs Previously-Undefeated Miami Trace

ATHENS — Veteran Big Red head coach Mike Haney has said all season his team, full of offensive talent as it may be, is at its best when it uses strong defense to create its offense.

His team showed his philosophy in action to near perfection on the biggest stage it’s played on to date Sunday afternoon.

After trailing at the end of the first quarter, Big Red turned up the pressure on the defensive end and got its offense rolling in a hurry at the other in the second quarter, turning a five-point deficit into a double-digit lead in a matter of under three minutes.

The 14-straight Steubenville points that resulted proved to be the turning point in a 69-52 victory over previously unbeaten Miami Trace to capture the Division III East/Southeast District championship inside Ohio University’s Convocation Center.

“It’s a great feeling to come down here and win this,” Haney said. “The kids deserve it, they’ve worked hard. They have great chemistry, they enjoy each other and practice hard every day. They’ve been going hard since summer and they deserve it.

“It’s a great atmosphere down here, we had a lot of fans here, it was great to see. The best part is we’re moving on to the next one.”

Big Red, which won for the 21st time this season in 24 games, will now set its sights on the regional tournament, as it advances to the Region 11 tournament this week at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus. Big Red will play Central District champ Bishop Hartley Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in the regional semis. It is Big Red’s first regional appearance since 2019, when they last played in the Convo.

Big Red’s Aiden Davis finished with five makes from beyond the arc for a game-high 26 points to go with five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Backing Davis’ big day was Santino Haney with a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double, while he also had a game-high six assists and three steals. He went 8 for 8 from the line, 6 for 6 in the fourth quarter with the Panthers forced to foul.

Will Taylor netted 17 points and seven boards, going 7 of 9 from the line. Big Red as a team was 18 of 21 on the day, 13 of 15 in the fourth quarter to help put things away.

WRESTLING

Big Red Captures Share Of District Title, Six Earn Spots In State Tourney

STEUBENVILLE – The race for the team title at the Ohio Division II Eastern/Southeastern District Tournament Saturday inside Big Red’s Crimson Center came down to the last match of the day. Big Red trailed Beaver Local by seven points with junior heavyweight Beau Hudson wrestling Minerva junior Hatcher Sabatin. Sabatin, who finished first at last week’s sectional tournament, seemed to be in control of the match as the senior led 3-0 in the third period. It appeared as if the Beavers would win the team title and Sabatin would win the district title, however, everything suddenly changed. Hudson regrouped, turned the tide and pinned Sabatin -seemingly out of nowhere – to win the district title and give Big Red and improbable share of the team title.

Hudson, who won a sectional title last Saturday at Big Red, improved his record to 31-11 on the season, and the junior’s pin enabled Big Red to share the team title with Beaver Local as the Red-and-Black and the Beavers finished the day tied for first place with 143.5 points.

“It was a great way to end the tournament,” Big Red head coach Lucas Huffman said. “Beau had a great weekend, and he really came through in the last final and the last match of the district tournament.”

Hudson was one of two Big Red wrestlers to win a sectional title with teammate Cooper Smith (144) being the other. Smith, who is also a junior, has been on a mission all season.

Indian Valley finished in third place overall with 106.5 points. Also, East Liverpool ended up in 17th place with 47 points, Indian Creek and Tri-Valley tied for 24th place with 27 points and Edison ended the tournament with one point.

The top four in each weight class at the district tournament advanced to the Ohio State Wrestling Tournament to be held Friday through Sunday at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.

Big Red entered the district tournament with 12 district qualifiers, and the boys from Jefferson County ended it with six placers and six qualifiers to the state tournament- Hudson, Smith, Brody Saccoccia, Ethan Llewellyn, Cole Harvey and Landon Crozier.