photo by: Nick Henthorn

Linsly’s Braden Wade throws a pass during the Cadets’ week one game vs. Westinghouse.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE – It’s hard to fathom that the St. Clairsville football team has travelled approximately 500 miles before taking the field at Red Devil Stadium for the home opener, but it’s a fact.

The Red Devils (2-1) play host to Linsly (1-1) on the artificial surface in Belmont County on Friday. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

“This is the first time since I’ve been the coach here that we’ve started with three road games,” veteran St. Clairsville head coach Brett McLean said of his team’s schedule. “I don’t know if it’s been (here) done before, but it is what it is. We’ve been the road warriors thus far, and we exactly scrimmaged at Garaway in the preseason.

“I hope our crowd is as excited as our kids are to be finally playing at home,” he added. “They get to run out of their own fieldhouse onto their own turf. It’s been a long wait but it’s an exciting time. They are a lot of our fans that haven’t gotten to see us play yet.

“It was a big task for the kids to play on the road for the first two weeks and to get out of it 2-1,” he added. “We’re pretty excited about that. We played some good competition. Norwayne is on the other side of the earth and Brownsville is not much closer. Beaver Local is one of the furthest local teams that we play.”

Last week, the Red Devils stunned a decent Beaver Local squad from the outset.

“The kids got off the bus ready to play. Maybe that’s the experience of doing it three weeks in a row,” McLean offered. “They were ready when the game started and they knew there was a lot on the line in that game. It was a very important game on our schedule despite it being early in the year.”

McLean’s son, Sam, threw for four touchdowns to spark the 38-7 victory, which was McLean’s 200th of his career.

“It only reminds me of how old I am,” he said when reflecting on the milestone. “The first win was at Indian Creek and it seems like it was yesterday instead of in 2002.

“I’ve been very blessed with a ton of great coaches, some super-talented and athletic players, and a great community that loves its football. I really didn’t think about it until it happened.”

Linsly head coach B.J. Depew knows what St. Clairsville is made of.

“They’ll be fired up and ready to go. We’ve been there a couple of times,” he said of playing at Red Devil Stadium. “We’ve got a victory over there, so we’ve been on both ends.”

The Cadets opened with a lop-sided 32-07 verdict against Pittsburgh Westinghouse, but Depew said he saw some things in that game that he liked.

“Defensively, more than anything else, we made some good progress during our game with Westinghouse and it carried over to the week of practice in preparing for Brooke,” he said. “Obviously, getting a shutout against anybody is a great accomplishment.

“The win was definitely a confidence builder for us. It let us know that we can (win) and now we go into this week knowing we can (win),” Depew continued. “That’s half the battle right there. We still made our share of mistakes, but we got sparked by a big play on the first possession and we kept the field leaning in our favor with good defense and good special teams play.

On the first play from scrimmage, Linsly quarterback Brayden Wade hit Justin Heckman on a short slant that he took 73 yards to the house.

“Right away we had a lead, and as it turned out, that was all we needed.”

McLean said he’s been looking forward to this season.

“I’ve been watching this whole group of seniors growing up as my son has played with them. We are through the roof for them,” he said. “Sure Sam had a good game last week, but a lot of kids had a good game. It was a team effort. I’ve watched this group play games in the end zones as our managers five days a week when they were younger. They’ve been preparing for these types of moments.”

The all-time series is deadlocked at 12-12-2. St. Clairsville holds a 410-360 point differential. The first game was played in 1939 at Thedah Place (where Mount de Chantal Kroger currently is). This is the eighth straight trip to St. Clairsville in the series for Linsly. The 1960 contest was played at Perkins Field in Brookside, home of Bridgeport.

The last meeting came in 2022 when Linsly prevailed 30-14.