photo by: Andrew Grimm

Steubenville’s Santino Haney fires a pass during Big Red’s game Friday against Indian Valley inside Harding Stadium.

STEUBENVILLE — Defending Division IV state champion Indian Valley and their star running back Grady Kinsey were as good as advertised Friday night at Harding Stadium.

The Braves, who have not lost since falling the 2023 regional semis to Big Red, scored early and cruised to their 18th-straight victory, 30-0, over Big Red.

The loss drops Big Red to 0-2 for the first time in more than two decades.

“It was a tough night for everybody, especially the players,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “They put a lot of hard work into preparing and usually Friday night is payday, but it hasn’t worked out that way for them yet this year. I’m sure they will all be here in the morning ready to go back to work and get better. I appreciate their effort.

“We just have to keep fighting and keep getting better as players, as coaches and as a team. It takes all three to get better. We have to get better as coaches, the players have to get better and we have to get better as a team, and I’m sure we will.”

Kinsey, one of the finalists for the prestigious Ohio Mr. Football Award last season who is already committed to play for Air Force in the college ranks, looked every bit the part of one of the state’s best players as he rushed for 197 yards and a pair of touchdowns, completed a pass, made a catch and converted a two-point conversion — all before halftime as he did not see an offensive snap in the second half.

He had 136 of his yards and both scores in the opening quarter, capping the Braves (2-0) first drive with a 17-yard scoring run before busting a 72-yard touchdown run on a direct snap to him. He now has over 500 yards through two games.

His second score made it 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, then Indian Valley QB Ryker Williams ran for an 8-yard score to add to the lead and threw an 18-yard TD to Colt James in the final minute of the second quarter, two-point conversions on each pushing the margin to 30-0 at halftime for the second half to be played with a running clock.

Big Red’s most promising drive of the opening half ended with an interception deep in the Indian Valley end of the field.

Steubenville threatened to get on the board and stop the clock on the opening drive of the second half, and appeared to have done so when Santino Haney fired a 23-yard touchdown pass, but it was called back on a holding penalty.

The drive continued though, as Steubenville marched down to the Indian Valley 4, but a penalty and a couple negative plays pushed the ball back to the 10 and the threat ended with a turnover on downs.

From there, both sides used mostly the second strings in the fourth quarter.

Haney finished with 110 yards passing in going 17 of 23 with two picks, five of his completions going to Najeh Simon for 52 yards. Haney had 94 of his yards in the second half.

“Our players always give it their all, sometimes we don’t execute, sometimes things don’t go our way but our players always keep playing hard,” Saccoccia said. “There’s a lot of football left.”

UP NEXT

Indian Valley: Takes on the Roosevelt Roughriders from the Washington D.C area next Friday night at home.

Big Red: Will have an unplanned week off to regroup as Dunbar (Pa.), its scheduled opponent in Week 3, has dropped off the schedule due to double booking. Big Red returns to action in Week 4, taking on Cardinal Mooney at home on Sept. 12.