1986

4th in Division II Region 7

7th rated AP Poll

 

 

BR	1986 Saccoccia	OPP
16	Youngstown Rayen	7
17	@ East Liverpool	7
21	Warren G. Harding	0
7	@ Dover	0
21	Cleveland West Tech	6
16	Cambridge	0
14	Wintersville	7
12	Bellaire	7
14	@ Niles McKinley	11
6	Steubenville Catholic Central	0
6	N Wooster	21
150	10-1-0	66

Regional Semifinal, Saturday November 8th, 1986, Big Red (10-0) vs. Wooster Generals (9-1) at Akron Rubber Bowl.

Before the start of Saturday's Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II, Region 7 semifinal game, Steubenville Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia knew the key to victory would be his team's ability to shut down Wooster tailback Tony Lee. The Big Red limited Lee to just 60 yards in the 1st half, but the 6', 180 pound junior exploded in the 2nd half, rushing for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns while leading the Generals to a 21-6 win in front of 5,855 fans in the Akron Rubber Bowl.

"They were a better team than us tonight," Saccoccia said after the loss. "Our kids played hard for the whole game. Wooster was just better than us." As a result of that win, Wooster, now 10-1, will advance to next weekend's region 7 championship game against Columbus Mifflin. Mifflin took a 21-0 win over Gallipolis in the other region 7 semifinal game played Saturday. The Wooster offense had 321 total yards, 282 of which came on the ground. Big Red on the other hand rushed for just 73 yards and finished with 110 yards in total offense. The Wooster defense also came up with 3 pass interceptions and 1 fumble recovery. "We knew they were good," Saccoccia said of the Generals. "We just couldn't seem to get anything going on offense tonight. That has been our Achilles heel all season. I take full responsibility for that as Head Coach. The kids played hard. They blocked hard, they ran hard-they did everything well, but it was not enough."

Dunyasha "Tubbo" Yetts rushed for 36 yards on 10 carries to lead the Big Red ground game. Curtis Herring was Steubenville's leading receiver with 1 catch for 30 yards. The game marked Big Red's Division II record 6th straight trip to the playoffs. Big Red also claimed the OVAC class AAAA championship and Eastern Buckeye League championship along the way. Wooster turned its fumble recovery into a quick score early in the game. Wooster's John Murphy recovered a fumbled lateral at the Big Red 11 and the Generals needed just 3 plays to get their touchdown. Lee rushed for 1 yard, fullback Brett Burdno carried down to the 4 and then Wooster quarterback Matt McCoy threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Murphy. Denny Shear's kick gave Wooster a 7-0 lead with 4:55 left in the 1st quarter. Wooster had a touchdown called back on its first drive of the evening when an apparent 22-yard touchdown pass from McCoy to Matt Smith was wiped out by a penalty. Big Red then drove from its own 34 to the Wooster 30 before the Generals' defense stiffined, forcing a Doug Charland punt. The snap from center sailed over his head, however, and his subsequent pass attempt fell incomplete, giving Wooster the ball at midfield. The Generals marched to the Big Red 20 before Steubenville came up with its biggest play of the evening. Jim Kelley scooped up a Lee fumble at the Steubenville 23 and raced 77 yards for a touchdown. Rusty Ranallo appeared to tie the game at 7 with a successful conversion kick, but Steubenville was penalized 5 yards and forced to kick again. The second kick failed and Big Red trailed 7-6 with 11 minutes left to play in the 1st half. The only other scoring chance Big Red had in the 1st half came when it drove from its own 27 to a 4th down at the Wooster 18 with 3:32 to play in the 2nd quarter. The Generals' defense stiffened on the 4th down play and stopped the drive. Wooster used 11 plays to drive 80 yards to a touchdown on its first possession of the second half. Lee carried for 42 yards on the drive and scored the touchdown on a 1-yard run. Shear's kick gave Wooster a 14-6 lead with 4:39 to play in the 3rd quarter. Steubenville appeared to get a break in that drive when Lee fumbled on a 3rd down and two play from the Big Red 22. Smith fell on the ball for Wooster at the Steubenville 9, however, and the Generals scored 2 plays later. Wooster closed out the scoring early in the 4th quarter when Lee scored on a 4-yard run to cap an 8 play, 85-yard drive.

 

 

1986~
James Creech qb
Curtis Herring wr
Mike West db
Rusty Ranallo k
Rob Bryan lb
Jimmy Kelley rb
Jerome Peterson wr
John Haynes wr
Dunrick Yetts fb
Hans Yetts lb
Dunyasha "Tubbo" Yetts tb
Travis Jackson wr
Paul "Cue-ball" Shephard db
Lance Bickerstaff db
John Lytle db
Scott Boulson wr
Lamar Kelley db
Paul "PJ" Pyle t
Henry Taglione t
Jeff Yeaman t
Ron Millanti c
Jeff Hargrove t
Dan Keenan lb
Doug Charland t
Gerry Morrison g
Perry Jeter g
Nate Dorsey t
Shawn McCullough t
Tim Crossley g
Sean Nation g
Jason Rinaldo c
Mike Zimmerman g
Louis Schaippa lb
Costa Mastros g
Todd Christian g
Del Vinson lb
Mark Wilson wr
Anthony McGhee te
Sam Pagley wr
Craig Kerr te
Chris Terry rb
Niles Herring wr
Jim Gardner t
Greg Bell qb
Leon Sawyer db
David "Pokie" Lalich db
Larry Rose tb
Richard Lytle wr
Jason Drazic fb
Robert Mitchell tb
Nate Freeman wr
Darren Monroe wr
Mike Loggie c
Robert Bowman t
Al Coffman c
Craig Solomon g
Bill Coleman t
Chris Stanko t
Eric Suder t
Duke Malbasa te
Tom Kenefick c
Paris Settles te
Kerry Fletcher wr
Jon Sherrell t
Richard Bowers wr
Eulis Allen wr
Charles Entinger g
Brian Ritchie g