Steubenville Pulls Away In Second Half vs. Riverside
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STEUBENVILLE -- There is an old saying that the best offense is a good defense. For Big Red on Friday, a good defense helped the offense put away an opening night win.
With Painesville Riverside in the Big Red end of the field looking to make it a one-score game in the third quarter, the Steubenville defense came up with a big stop on a fourth down play to end the threat. The offense then put together a 15-play, 76-yard drive to all but seal the deal on a 35-14 Big Red victory inside a packed Harding Stadium.
“It was a good start to the season,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “That third quarter we were lackadaisical, they had the momentum. The key was that big stop. We didn’t let them score again, stopped them on fourth down and had a big drive for a touchdown. That was the turning point in the game.”
The key fourth down stop was one of a couple of key momentum swing sparked by the defense. After Steubenville had driven down the field and taken a 21-7 lead late in the second quarter, Saige Smarrella intercepted a Riverside pass in the final minute of the half. On the next play, Big Red senior quarterback Santino Haney scrambled around, broke a tackle and hit an open Braidyn Edwards in the end zone to turn what was a one-score game into a 28-7 halftime lead.
“The big run got us going, that was a big momentum shift, then the big stop and touchdown drive in the second half was another big momentum shift,” Saccoccia said. “It’s a good way to start the season.”
After a scoreless opening 12 minutes, Colton Henderson had the first big play of the game, breaking free for a 64-yard touchdown run on the first snap of the second quarter to put Big Red on the board first. He added a 6-yard scoring run to cap the next Big Red drive.
After Riverside got on the board to make it 14-7, Steubenville went on an 11-play, 68-yard march that was capped by a James Turner 2-yard plunge into the end zone.
Down 28-7 at the half, Riverside got themselves back in it with a stop on Big Red’s first drive of the second half then a 55-yard Jaxon Moore punt return, setting up his second touchdown catch of the game.
The Beavers then intercepted a pass to get right back in business deep in Big Red’s end of the field, but the defense held strong and got the four-and-out to give the offense the ball back and set up the game-sealing drive.
Haney capped the 15-play march that spanned more than eight minutes of clock with a 27-yard scoring strike to Stephen McShan. Haney finished 13 of 17 for 122 yards with the two key touchdown tosses. He also completed a two-point pass on a fake extra point.
On the ground is where the offense racked up the bulk of its 383 total yards as Steubenville toted the ball 42 times for 261 yards, led by 22 carries for 160 yards from Henderson.
Defensively, Turner had a sack in addition to his scoring run, while Orlando Anderson broke up three passes and Chevy McGee had an interception. The defense held Riverside to 220 total yards.
UP NEXT
Big Red will welcome Dover to Harding Stadium next Friday. The Crimson Tornadoes pulled away from GlenOak for a 36-21 win in their opener.