1981

2nd in Division II Region 7

 

 

BR	1981 Hedmond	OPP
7	Dover	6
14	@ Wheeling Park Wva.	0
30	Akron East	0
20	@ Warren G. Harding	7
23	Cleveland John F. Kennedy	8
21	Youngstown South	6
12	Wintersville	20
0	Hubbard	3
15	Massillon Perry	13
24	Steubenville Catholic Central	10
0	N Youngstown Cardinal Mooney	49
166	8-3-0	122

Regional Final, Friday November 13th, 1981, Big Red (8-2) vs. Youngstown Cardinal Mooney Cardinals (9-0) at Austintown Fitch Falcon Stadium.

Before the start of this playoff game with Cardinal Mooney, Steubenville football coach Bob Hedmond and his staff knew what their team had cut out for it. The Cardinals, defending Division II champions, had rolled to a 9-0 mark this season. Tonight, they put on an awesome offensive show, as Mark Kachmer scored 3 touchdowns to lead them past Big Red 49-0. A crowd of over 10,000 looked on at Falcon Stadium in Austintown as the Cardinals, now 10-0, rolled to 393 total yards, 116 of which belonged to Steve Johnson. Johnson, who missed the first 5 games of the season with a knee injury, scored 2 touchdowns in the 1st half, as the Cardinals rolled to a 35-0 lead at intermission. The closest Big Red would come to scoring in the game was in the 4th period when it moved to the Mooney 6-yard line, only to have a 4th down pass into the endzone from backup quarterback Tor Hill miss the mark. Mooney's defense-which is known for its intimidation-was at its best, holding Big Red to 144 yards in total offense. That included passes to Henry Hython of 41 and 42 yards. Quarterback Andre Creech completed 4 of his 12 passes for 100 yards, but suffered 3 interceptions, the last of which cut a Steubenville drive short and set up Mooney's final score when the defender returned the ball from 2 yards deep in the endzone to the Big Red 30 yard line. So devastating was the Mooney defense, that Big Red was held to just 6 first downs and ran a total of only 36 plays.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, rolled to 21 first downs. Jim Toothman, the Big Red punter, also had a busy night, being forced to kick 6 times. Rich Shepas, the Mooney punter, only had to kick the ball once, as his team scored 7 of the 9 times it had the football. When Big Red failed to move the ball following the opening kickoff, Mooney wasted little time in scoring, driving 57 yards on 2 plays. After Toothman's 30 yard punt put the ball on the Mooney 43, Johnson ran for a yard before the Cards hit Big Red with some razzle-dazzle. Quarterback John Saadey took the snap and rolled left to the Big Red 40, where he tossed the ball to Johnson, who took it the rest of the way for the score. Jack Kohl's kick made the score 7-0 with only 2:31 gone in the game. Kohl would have a quiet a night for the Cardinals, making good on all 7 conversion attempts. That pulled him within 1 of tying the Mooney record of 8 straight in a single game. Big Red showed some signs of life after that, as Mike Mayo rambled 14 yards and his team's first first down on its next possession. Two sacks and an offsides penalty moved the ball back to the 5 and forced Toothman to kick from the endzone. That kick was returned to the 27, and 3 plays later, Saadey rolled into the endzone from 14 yards out. Mooney was just getting started and had scored 3 more touchdowns in the 2nd quarter. The first came with only 59 seconds into the period when the Cardinals drove 67 yards in 2 plays. Johnson rambled 22 yards and then Saady found Shepas on a 46 yard scoring toss. After forcing Big Red to punt, Mooney put together a 53 yard drive that ended when Kachmer rolled into the endzone from 26 yards out. Kohl's kick made the score 35-0. That drive almost turned out differently. Johnson pulled what looked like to be a sure interception away form John Baldwin on the first play of that drive. Kachmer did all the damage in the 2nd half, scoring on 3rd quarter runs of 5 and 7 yards as the Cardinals extended their winning streak to 25.

So impressive was the Mooney offense that it was able to hold the ball for the final 8:32 of the game. Ben Wiggins paced the Big Red attack with 30 yards, while Mayo added 28. Hython hauled in 3 passes for 80 yards. Saadey added 53 yards for Mooney while Kachmer had 50 and George Saadey had 45. Shepas caught 3 passes for 82 yards.

 

 

 

1981~
Nick Balakos g
Rich Blackburn t
Curt Braun fb
James Callas c
Fazel Culbreath te
Tony Demitras g
George Georgiafandis g
Lavont Hudson rb
Henry Hython wr
Rodney James cb
Robert Jones t
Niko Mastros qb
Frank Noble t
Mike Tluchowski fb
Jim Toothman cb
Kirk Walker t
John Wilson t
John Baldwin rb
John Blangor rb
Bryan Bunch rb
James Cain rb
Andre Creech qb
Bob Demjan wr
George Harper wr
Neal Hudson te
Steve Hython fb
Tom Kerr g
Jeff Linn qb
Frank Littlejohn s
Terry Mamula g
Doug Milewsky c
Don Perine g
Ray Poole t
Clifton Spinner t
Ray Talamine te
Frank Torini t
Lee Vinson g
Clint Watts wr
Tim Whetstone rb
Ben Wiggins rb
Mike Beal g
Benny Boykin rb
Rob Boykin rb
George Busby t
David Clark wr
Richard Crossley t
Doug Dalbenzio fb
Tor Hill qb
Charles Kausky tb
Fred Kosanovic te
David Madison rb
Mike Mayo rb
James Mitchell rb
Brian Morrow te
David Murray fb
Shawn Needham cb
John Prayso c
Ken Shively wr
Kevin Shively wr
Derek Smith wr
Remo Stripe g
Ron Taglione c
Tim Villes qb
Paul Wallace rb
Paul Williams g