1991

Division II State Semi Finalist

1st in Division II Region 7

2nd ranked AP Poll

 

 

BR	1991 Saccoccia	OPP
35	Youngstown East	22
41	Weirton Wva.	8
55	Youngstown Rayen	6
67	Cleveland East	32
53	Cleveland West Tech	6
28	Toledo Whitmer	13
21	@ Youngstown Boardman (OT)	14
21	Steubenville Catholic Central	7
42	@ Zanesville	0
33	Elyria	7
28	N Youngstown Chaney	12
7	N Beliot West Branch	6
7	N Uniontown Lake	18
438	12-1-0	151

Regional Semifinal, Friday November 8th, 1991, Big Red (10-0) vs. Youngstown Chaney Cowboys (9-1) at East Liverpool's Patterson Field.

Playoff season is merely an extension of Steubenville Big Red's season. Big Red extended its 1991 high school football season a little bit more Friday night, scoring 3 touchdowns in the 2nd half to pull away from Youngstown Chaney, 28-12, in an Ohio Division II first-round playoff game at Patterson Field in East Liverpool. The victory marked Steubenville's 5th straight opening round playoff victory and a win next week over tonight's Buckeye Local-Beloit West Branch survivor would send Big Red to the semifinals for the 5th straight year.

But Friday's win-Big Red's 11th without a loss-was anything but easy. "This was the roughest first-round game we've had in a long time," coach Reno Saccoccia said bluntly. Big Red fumbled the ball in Chaney territory twice in the first quarter, but the defense limited the Cowboys to 3 1st downs in the first 2 quarters, helping Steubenville to a 7-6 lead at intermission. Steubenville first fumbled the ball at the Chaney 47, the Cowboys (9-2) forging into Big Red territory. On 3rd and 1 at the 44, however, Demond Taylor was stuffed by Big Red's Steve Terry for no gain up the middle, forcing a punt. Big Red's next fumble was at the Chaney 39, quarterback Rick Havrilla finding Tim Needham for a 16-yard completion on the next play. The Steubenville defense stiffened again, though, Jim Keaton sacking Havrilla on 4th and 6 at the Big Red 31. The going wasn't so easy for Big Red's attack in the 1st half, either. Mark Herron returning a Hakim Edwards punt 29-yards to the Steubenville 18 to set up the game's first score. On 3rd and 1 at the 8, Sylvester Patton scored on an 8-yard run with 8:39 to play in the half. The PAT was wide left. Big Red answered with a 7 play, 59-yard drive. Darius "D-Train" Alexander had runs of 13 and 11 yards and Michael "Buster" Tillman caught a 12-yard pass from Jeff Grill to set up Ricky Fletcher's 11-yard run with 2:54 to play. Eric Black's PAT gave Steubenville the lead, 7-6. Chaney reached the Big Red 27 in the waning moments of the half, DeWayne Thompson catching a 22-yard pass to get the ball there. But Matt Shepherd's interception at the 5-yard line preserved the lead with 55 seconds to go in the half. "I thought we were going to give them the game a while there in the first half," Saccoccia admitted. "It was their first time in the playoffs and we were making more mistakes. But we only have 4 players who played in last years playoff games, so I think that playoff experience stuff is overrated." Chaney coach Ron Berdis said, "We didn't score when we had our chances in the first half. That was the difference."

Big Red took the 2nd half kickoff and marched 58 yards on 9 plays, Tillman scoring the touchdown on a 13-yard reverse on 3rd and 3. Black converted his 2nd of 4 PATs. Tillman's interception quelled Chaney's first drive of the 3rd quarter at the Steubenville 36, but Harvilla connected with Herron for a 23-yard pass later in the quarter, setting up his 9-yard scoring pass to Mike Billy. The conversion pass failed and Big Red held on to a 14-12 lead with 3:12 left in the quarter. The Cowboys would not threaten again, though, and Big Red would put the game out of reach, Grill's 12-yard scramble on 4th and 1 at the Chaney 23 set up Tyrone Roseberry's 11-yard touchdown run with 21 seconds left in the quarter. Shepherd's second interception of the game and 20-yard return gave Steubenville a 1st down at the Chaney 37 with 6:16 left on the clock. Alexander appeared to be headed in for a 7-yard touchdown run 6 plays later, but fumbled into the endzone, lineman Corey Tomasso recovering for the game's final score. "The key to winning playoff games is how you regroup after turnovers," Saccoccia said. "We had turnovers, but we kept regrouping. When you get to the playoffs, you have to make playoff plays. We did that tonight." Berdis said of his Cowboys, "We had a great season...we just ran into a great football team. It was their night. Hopefully, we'll learn from this." Grill threw for 117 yards in the game, unofficially giving him the school record for yards passing in a season. Steve Nodianos had 1,230, Grill has 1,245. Alexander had 7 carries for 58 yards, Fletcher had 17 for 55. Chaney's Sylvester Patton, a 1,000 yard rusher during the year, was held to 13 carries for 31 yards. Chaney managed just 67 yards rushing on 31 carries.

 

Regional Final, Friday November 15th, 1991, Big Red (11-0) vs. Beloit West Branch Warriors (10-1) at Canton's Fawcett Stadium.

If at first you don't succeed....try something else. Steubenville Big Red did, and won its 5th straight regional championship as a result. Big Red had possessed the ball for 2 long drives-16 plays for 72 yards and 7:09 in the 2nd quarter, 20 plays for 70 yards and 8:59 in the 3rd-only to be stopped on downs inside the opposition's 10-yard line both times. Then the quick-striking air game-with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Michael "Buster" Tillman with 7:39 to play-produced a 7-6 region 5 title victory over Beloit West Branch (10-2) Friday night in Fawcett Stadium in Canton. The win will presumable send Big Red against Uniontown Lake next weekend in the state semifinals, though the opponent, date and site will officially be announced on Sunday.

Big Red trailed 6-0 at halftime, throwing just 1 pass in the first 2 quarters. Staying with the conservative attack, Steubenville took the 3rd quarter kickoff and drove 70 yards on 20 plays, only 1 of the plays gaining more than 8 yards. A fake punt near midfield resulted in Darius "D-Train" Alexander running 8 yards for a 1st down to extend the drive. Just like a march at the end of the 1st half, however, Big Red stalled inside the West Branch 10. On 4th down at the 6, a screen pass to Tyrone Roseberry netted just 1 yard with 3:01 left in the quarter. "We're not a pounding team, but we got caught up in that," Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia admitted. "When you pound the football like that, you need positive yardage on every play. If you're held to a yard, or no gain, then you stall. That's what happened." Rainey weather may have limited what the teams could do all night, though Saccoccia said it had no effect on the play calling. "It was slippery out there and we were turning the ball over," receiver Tillman said. "I couldn't blame the coaches for driving the ball at them like that. We're capable of doing that." When West Branch finally did get possession, the Warriors banged out a pair of first downs, following them up with a 46-yard punt by Scott Loudon that pinned Steubenville back to its own 13 with 10:36 remaining. That's when the air game took wing. Quarterback Jeff Grill dropped back and found Matt Shepherd on a flare pattern just across the line of scrimmage. Shepherd raced down the sideline for a 42-yard gain to the West Branch 45. "We were playing 2-deep run support," West Branch coach Jim Laut noted. "They caught us with a big play. It hurt because we had just stopped them near the goal line, then got the ball out of trouble. That took a great effort by a lot of kids to stop them, but Steubenville is so explosive...you never know if you have control of a game against them." Four running plays and a 9-yard completion to Ricky Fletcher moved the ball to the Warrior 14. On 2nd and 8 from there, Grill dropped back and lofted a pass for the deep left hand corner of the endzone. Tillman pulled it in, stayed in bounds, and Eric Black's PAT gave Big Red a 7-6 lead with 7:39 left to play.

West Branch was frustrated from that point. Freshman Nate Johnson's hit on Connon Thompson forced him to fumble the kickoff return, Jim Keaton recovering at the West Branch 28. Big Red failed to move the ball, but Shepherd intercepted quarterback Shawn Snyder 2 plays later. Steubenville took the ball to the Warrior 4, turning it over on downs with 1:17 left. Tillman's interception sealed the victory. "I love this stadium, but it's going to give me a heart attack," Saccoccia said in reference to the number of tight playoff victories his team has had here through the years. "Our offensive line did a great job," Grill said. "That's the most underrated part of our team." Big Red rushed for 205 yards on 53 carries in the game, Roseberry getting 89 yards on 19 carries, Fletcher 60 yards on 14 carries. Thompson had 14 carries for 52 yards, 3 receptions for 32 yards for West Branch. "Thompson's the best player we've seen this year, to this point," Saccoccia declared. "It's tough to win a game like this with turnovers, but our defense responded all night. It's been responding." Coach Laut said, "I figured the game had to be low scoring for us to be in it. Our kids had a great effort, a great season. We never thought that they could control the ball on us like they did. That was surprising." The 7-6 final marked a low-scoring mark of the year for both teams. Big Red has won 12 of its last 13 playoff games on natural grass, is 7-0 in the second round of the playoffs, and 17-9 in playoff games overall. Big Red trailed only 6-0 at the intermission despite committing numerous mistakes. After Steubenville contained West Branch on the game's first possession, Tillman fumbled Loudon's punt after being hit immediately upon receiving the ball. Josh Purdy covered the ball for the Warriors at the Big Red 21. Nate Burress' sack of Snyder on 3rd down forced a Loudon field goal attempt of 41 yards, which fell short. Burress had a strong 1st half, but was injured on an intentional illegal chop-block that limited his play the rest of the way. "The guys who replaced him did a heckuva job," Saccoccia said. When West Branch got the ball back, however, it threatened again. Thompson out-leaping Big Red's Shepherd for an 18-yard pass completion on 3rd and 10 at midfield, pushing the ball to the Steubenville 32. Trey Hargrove pulled down Todd Muckleroy before he could attempt a flanker pass on 3rd down, but was flagged for face-masking, the ball moved to the 17. Hargrove and Burress combined for a sack of Snyder, and Mark Palmer nailing him for a 4-yard loss on 4th down the quell the threat. On the next play, Roseberry burst through the middle for a 14-yard gain and would-be first down, but the ball squirted loose in the wet conditions, Snyder recovering at the Steubenville 45. Snyder's bootleg carried him 31 yards to the 14. Thompson scored the only points of the half after his 9-yard run set up his 1-yard plunge with 7:55 left. Loudon's PAT was wide left. Big Red followed with its only drive of the half, ripping off 15 consectutive running plays, moving 72 yards and chewing 7:09 off the clock. On 3rd and goal from the Warrior 6, however, Roseberry was halted for no gain on the option by Thompson and Scott Greenwalt. Big Red was able to draw West Branch offsides on 3rd down, taking the ball to the 3, but Fletcher was nailed for a 3-yard loss by Muckleroy after catching a screen pass. West Branch had the ball for 26 of the game's first 32 offensive plays before scoring its touchdown. Attendance was 7,649.

 

State Semifinal, Friday November 23rd, 1991, Big Red (12-0) vs. Uniontown Lake Blue Streaks (12-0) at Canton's Fawcett Stadium.

The night clearly did not belong to Steubenville Big Red. But they tried to take it anyway. Big Red trailed by 15 points at halftime and Jeff Grill suffered 5 interceptions after throwing only 3 all year, but Steubenville was alive in the 4th quarter before dropping an 18-7 decision to Uniontown Lake (13-0) in an Ohio Division II semifinal high school football game Friday night at Fawcett Stadium in Canton.

"As always, our kids played hard," Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said. "I'm not happy right now, but I'm proud. I'm real proud. We've been in the semifinals every year since 1987. We lost to 2 good Buchtel teams (in the 1987 & 1988 finals), to St. Joseph (1989 semifinals) and DeSales (1990 semifinals). None of these teams are anywhere to be found, but we're still here." Lake coach Jeff Durbin pondered, "When have you known a Steubenville team to lay down and die? Never. And they didn't tonight. We knew they'd hang in all the way and they did." Big Red took the 2nd half kickoff and marched 56 yards in 12 plays to get on the scoreboard. The key play was Grill finding Matt Shepherd for 43 yards on 3rd and 27 at the Steubenville 39. Six running plays later, Ricky Fletcher scored on a 1-yard run, Eric Black added the PAT and Big Red trailed only 15-7. That lead was threatened more when Mike Jewett fumbled the kickoff and Mark Palmer recovered the ball at the Lake 23-yard line. Big Red ground out a 1st down, t on 1st and 15 from the Blue Streak 17, Grill was intercepted in the endzone by Aaron Vanderkaay with 5:41 left in the 3rd quarter. "Those kinds of things have happened to us all year," Durbin pointed out. "It happened against North Canton Hoover, against Alliance...our kids rise up and play. They don't let themselves get down." Lake took the football at its own 20 and embarked on a 15 play drive, aided by a roughing-the-punter penalty. The drive ended abruptly, however, when Steve Terry nailed Matt Christopher short of the sticks on 4th and 1 at the Steubenville 15 with 10:28 to play in the game. Again, Big Red moved forward. But upon getting to midfield, Grill was hit attempting to pass on 1st down, Christopher pulling down the lame football. Big Red got the ball back again with less than 4 minutes to play, but Shane Nalepa-in the game for his strong throwing arm-was sacked on 3rd and 16. On 4th and 26 from the Steubenville 8, Big Red faked a punt from its own endzone, Nalepa's deep sideline pass sailing just over the fingertips of Fletcher with 3:27 to play. Lake was held on downs, but Vanderkaay's 29-yard field goal sealed the outcome for the Blue Streaks. "What's the difference if you lose 15-7 or 22-7?," Saccoccia said in explaining the fake punt. "We needed a big play. That was a close one. There were a lot of close plays. That's what decides games like this. We didn't make the close plays and they did." Big Red was held to 31 yards net rushing on 29 carries, Fletcher gaining 32 yards on 10 carries. Grill threw for 136 yards, ending his season with 1,441 yards passing, 35 yards shy of Anthony Reda's single-season school record. Shepherd had 4 catches for 88 yards while Tillman had 2 for 28, ending his season with 40 receptions for 712 yards and 10 TD's, all school records. He finished 2 catches and 104 yards shy of Chuck Hython's career records.

"This team added to the Big Red tradition," Saccoccia said. "This isn't a sad time. It's just time to get ready for 1992. Our seniors had big years, all of them." Durbin said, "We wanted to shut down their run, number one. Then we felt if we could contain Grill, keep him in the pocket and make him put it up, we could pick him off. We broke well on the ball tonight." Lake took advantage of some big plays to take a 15-0 lead in the 1st half and nearly led by more than that by intermission. The Blue Streaks scored on their second possession of the night, an exchange of punts handing them a 1st down at the Steubenville 43. Christopher's 23-yard run on 1st down set up Chris Meffert's 5-yard scoring pass to Craig Dues with 7:13 left in the opening quarter. Vanderkaay-whose 47-yard punt helped establish field position-added the PAT. Big Red forged into Lake territory late in the 1st quarter, Shepherd hauling in a pair of Grill passes for 26 and 11 yards, respectively. On 3rd and 8 from the Lake 43, Grill looked for Shepherd over the middle. He found him, but the Blue Streaks' Christopher found him too....and his hit on Shepherd jarred the ball loose and into the hands of Steve Lippe for an interception. Hakim Edwards connectedon a 32-yard punt to send Lake inside its own 20 midway through the 2nd quarter, but only after the Blue Streaks' Doug Brunker nailed Tyrone Roseberry for a 9-yard loss on an option play near midfield to necessitate a kick. What followed was a 13 play, 83-yard drive to paydirt. Christopher gained 2 yards on 4th and inches at his own 40. Then, on 3rd and 12 at the same spot, Big Red came with a blitz. Meffert answered by dumping the screen pass to Christopher in the right flat. The burly running back wa all alone and rambled 49 yards to the Steubenville 11 before being caught. "I thought that was the key play of the game," Saccoccia observed. "It seemed to turn everything their way." Durbin said, "We were hoping they'd blitz, but we were going with that play even if they didn't. Matt had 1 reception on that play all year before that play. Obviously, that was a big one." Jason Rebholz caught a 10-yard pass for a 1st down at the 1-yard line, Christopher eventually scoring from 2 yards out with 1:36 left in the half. The Blue Streaks faked the kick on the PAT, holder Meffert finding Dues in the endzone for 2 points and a 15-0 lead. Big Red looked for a big play of its own on the next series, but Grill's deep toss over the middle was picked off by Dues, who returned the ball 17 yards to the Steubenville 15. The defense stiffened, however, and Vanderkaay's 34-yard field goal attempt was short. Big Red lineman Nate Burress, bothered by a sore ankle, played only sparingly in the contest. Christopher had 23 carries for 78 yards for Lake. He had over 1,200 yards during the regular season. The loss marked the 3rd straight year Big Red has bowed out of postseason play in the semifinal round.

 

 

1991~
Mike "Buster" Tillman wr
Jon "Juice" Collier db
Brad Reid de
Matt Shepherd wr
Darius "D-Train" Alexander tb
Jeff Grill qb
Ricky Fletcher fb
Brian Longo de
Mark Palmer te
Jim Keaton dt
Dorion Livingston c
Aaron Pease g
Todd Anderson c
Ken Talamine t
Nate Burress g
Corey Tomasso g
Jason Yoder t
Sanford Fletcher t
William Poplowski wr
Tyrone Roseberry tb
Shane Nalepa qb
Hikam Edwards wr
Chris Snyder fb
Anthony Mahfood lb
Steve Terry lb
Jamie Styles wr
Jeff Bernard lb
Trey Hargrove de
Wayne Boley db
Lavell Hicks wr
Jeryl Smallwood te
Hugh Bolen lb
Jamie Smith g
Roger Stanley g
Chris Elliott g
Chad Milosevich c
David Lamatrice t
John Thompson t
Chris McClain t
Mario Constantini wr
Roland Muntz rb
Eric Black k
David Thorn fb
Jason Bias lb
Riccardo Parrish db
Chuck Smith c
Bobby Lamantia g
Shawn Atkins g
Brad Holloway de
David Crawford t
Chris Cybulski t
Rob Moore t
Scott Smith te
Scott Garrison wr
Joe McGrew wr
Andy Mazur wr
Jamie Dobson te