photo by: Nick Henthorn

Wheeling Park’s Nolan Yanchak (44) and Brennan Wack (4) celebrate a touchdown during a Patriots game earlier this season against Musselman

STEUBENVILLE — Two of the most prominent athletic programs in the Ohio Valley are set to do battle on the gridiron for the 20th time on Friday night.

Those programs are Steubenville Big Red (6-2) and Wheeling Park (5-3), and that match up will take place on Reno Saccoccia Field inside Harding Stadium.

It will be the fifth consecutive year the OVAC powers have clashed on the football field; Big Red holds an 18-1 lead in the all-time series.

“We’re glad to be able to play somebody from the Valley,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “And Wheeling Park is probably the best team that the Valley has to offer.”

The feeling is mutual on the Wheeling Park side, despite knowing how big of a challenge Steubenville has been for the Patriots.

“I’d like to think it’s become an exciting game for the Valley,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “It’s one of the few matchups that they have in the Valley and, I won’t lie, we’re running out of matchups in the Valley, too. So it’s nice that we’re able to get together every year.”

It’s a big game in terms of playoff positioning on both sides, though in different ways. For Big Red, it’s Week 10, the final week of the regular season and the final chance to solidify a top four spot in the Ohio Division III Region 11 standings to get a first round bye.

They enter the match up sitting in fourth place and having already clinched a playoff spot. A win would clinch at least a first round home game, Eitel’s projections have Big Red finishing as high as second, and no lower than fifth, in the region with a win and as low as ninth with a loss.

Big Red is focused on the Patriots first, not looking ahead to the playoffs, though. Steubenville has made a meteoric rise up the standings with six-straight victories after an 0-2 start.

“When you came from where we came from, there’s no looking ahead,” Saccoccia said. “We’re just taking it all day-to-day. You know, sometimes your mind wanders, but as long as it doesn’t wander the two hours that we’re on the field practicing, that’s the most important thing. High school kids are high school kids, but if we can just keep their attention for two hours on Tuesday and two hours on Wednesday and an hour on Thursday, then we feel that we’ve got a good chance to be focused on Friday night.”

For the Patriots, they still have another regular season game after this one, a trip to John Marshall, and sit in fourth place in the West Virginia Class AAAA standings. The top eight host the first round, a top four finish would set up two potential home playoffs games, and the top 16 make the post season.

The test they face Friday is one Daugherty thinks will help have his team prepared for the playoffs in a couple weeks.

“I’ve always said that playing them has always helped us and made us better,” he said. “I feel like when you play Big Red, you’re ready to play anybody else in West Virginia at that point. It’s not going to get any tougher than that or any more organized than what they are and they do so many things to you offensively and defensively that you just won’t see out of other high school teams. It does get us ready for the playoff run. If we think we’re good enough to go on one, we’ve got to be able to play with Big Red.”

Friday will also be senior night for Steubenville. While it is quite likely they will have at least one more game at Harding Stadium this year, it’s still a night Saccoccia and company want to get a win for the senior class.

“It’s a really, really good senior class,” Saccoccia said. “They’re good players, but not only that, real good kids. And they’ve been a joy to coach this year. We want to get them a win on their senior night.”

For Park, playing in a packed Harding Stadium is an experience in itself.

“Steubenville is a big test no matter where you play them, but when you’ve got to go into their home stadium, it makes it even more difficult,” Daugherty said. “It’s a great football venue. It’s a great football town. Our kids and coaches enjoy playing there, at the end of the day I don’t know if there’s a better place to play when you look at high school football. It’s a great atmosphere.”

The Patriots are the latest of a slew of teams Big Red will face that brings a strong running back to town as the Patriots Brennan Wack has racked up more than 1,200 yards and 17 touchdowns in just five games this season, averaging more than 240 yards per game.

“We’ve faced some backs this year and he’s another good one,” Saccoccia, whose team has faced multiple Division I recruits at the position already, said.

Big Red tailback Ca’Juan Bryant has gotten going himself on Steubenville’s win streak, as he has 721 yards and 10 scores, also in five games. He has been a work horse of late, averaging 144 yards per game. He had 44 carries two weeks ago against Canisius.

Junior first-year starter Santino Haney has passed for more than 1,000 yards on the season as well and spreads the ball around to several targets.

“They do what they do like every other year, they fly to the ball defensively and, offensively, they’re going to make you stop the run, but then they can also kill you with the pass when you do try to take the run away,” Daugherty said.

He knows that, especially with this Big Red team that has rallied in the second half multiple times this season, it will take a four-quarter effort.

“That’s been our Achille’s heel at the times when we’ve played them,” Daugherty said. “We have had good contests with them and then halfway through the third quarter, in the beginning of the fourth quarter, something happens and we kind of fall apart. So, we’re going to have to play for four quarters. If you want to play with Big Red, it takes four quarters of your best football and our kids know that and our staff knows that.”

For Big Red, it’s a chance to finish a pretty impressive regular season turnaround.

“I told our seniors (Tuesday), after starting out 0-2 and then trailing 14-0 at the half in the next game, they have a chance to get right back to where they’ve been the last few years,” Saccoccia said. “That’s the thing that we really want to do.”

The opening kick Friday night is set for 7 p.m.