1994
Division III State Semi Finalist
2nd in Division II Region 7
1st ranked AP Poll
BR |
1994 Saccoccia |
OPP |
|---|---|---|
48 |
Woodland Hills Pa. |
7 |
49 |
Cleveland John F. Kennedy |
0 |
36 |
Campbell Memorial |
0 |
35 |
Cleveland Collinwood |
21 |
14 |
Steubenville Catholic Central |
0 |
37 |
Youngstown Boardman |
14 |
23 |
Zanesville |
17 |
42 |
Mansfield |
28 |
53 |
Youngstown Rayen |
14 |
35 |
@ Akron Archbishop Hoban |
6 |
35 |
N Thornville Sheridan |
14 |
35 |
N Columbus St. Francis DeSales |
31 |
28 |
N Beliot West Branch |
31 |
470 |
12-1-0 |
183 |
Regional Semifinal, Friday November 11th, 1994, Big Red (10-0) vs. Thornville Sheridan Generals (10-0) at St. Clairsville's Red Devil Stadium.
Steubenville Big Red made a statement. Nate Johnson added the exclamation point. Johnson rushed for 142 yards and 4 touchdowns as Big Red opened the Ohio Division III high school football playoffs with a 35-14 triumph over previously undefeated Thornville Sheridan at Red Devil Stadium in St. Clairsville.
"We gave up a couple of long drives, but I was surprised we were able to contain them as well as we did," Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said. "They were averaging 38 points per game." And hadn't scored fewer than 32 on anybody. Yet Sheridan (10-1) managed just 16 offensive plays and 3 1st downs in the 1st half, all 3 1st downs coming on the General's only scoring drive of the first 2 quarters. In the meantime, Steubenville was scoring touchdowns on each of its first 5 possessions against a defense that had surrendered more than 2 touchdowns just once in 10 regular season games. "I know that on paper, we're a Division III team and they're a Division III team," Sheridan coach Paul Culver said. "But they're a couple of notches above us. That was obvious. I've been telling all of the papers all week...this is the best football team I've had to prepare for in my 22 years of coaching." The Generals took the opening kickoff and fumbled on the first play from scrimmage, Big Red's Dan Fleming recovering the ball at the Sheridan 40 yard line. Four straight Johnson carries resulted in a Johnson 18 yard scoring run less than 3 minutes into the game. Ryan Packer's 42 yard pass to Simon Mills highlighted a 73 yard drive that got Sheridan the tying score before the end of the 1st quarter. But the 2nd quarter was all Big Red. A 12 play, 67-yard drive was culminated by Jason Vein's 33-yard scoring pass to Jason Bigsby on a 4th and 12 play. A screen pass to Johnson netted 17 yards, a Johnson sweep netted 25 more, Johnson scoring on a 3-yard run with 5:58 left in the half. Already down, 21-7, things got worse for Sheridan when Shawn Rodgers shanked a punt that traveled only 8 yards. A 14-yard pass to Don Reeves highlighted a 33-yard scoring drive that was capped by Johnson's 3-yard run with 30 seconds on the clock. Three plays into the 2nd half, Sheridan crowded the line of scrimmage trying to stop a 3rd and 1 near midfield. Johnson crashed through, broke arm tackles and raced 51 yards to paydirt to all but ice the game. He would carry just once more on the night. "It shouldn't have been hard for us to lose our focus at that point, but I think we did," Saccoccia said. "Over-all, our effort was there tonight and so was our execution."
Regional Final, Friday November 18th, 1994, Big Red (11-0) vs. Columbus DeSales Stallions (11-0) at Canton's Fawcett Stadium.
Steubenville and DeSales both entered this match-up at 12-0 and many felt that these were the two best teams in D3. Big Red suffered 2 damaging fumbles early, but DeSales suffered a fatal fumble late. Trailing 35-31 with 2 minutes to play, the Stallions obtained a 1st down at the Steubenville 44 in what had been a see-saw battle all night. But Nate Johnson forced quarterback Matt D'Orazio to fumble while running the option on 1st down, Tim Marciniak recovering at the Big Red 44 to salt away a heart stopping Ohio Division III, Region 11 championship win at Fawcett Stadium in Canton. The victory marked Big Red's 8th regional title in 11 seasons.
"I don't know about all that," Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said. "All I know is, this was 420 North 4th Street versus Columbus and we won it. It came down to 12 gut checks. We had to win 7 of them and I think we did that." But it did not come easily. Big Red lost 2 fumbles on its first 2 possessions of the night, both resulting in DeSales (now 11-1) touchdowns for an early 14-0 deficit. Johnson never got hold of a Jason Vein pitch on 3rd down at the Steubenville 14, David Nesser recovering for the Stallions at the 11. 2 runs by Brady Mangini netted the game's first score. Big Red drove into DeSales territory on its next possession, but coughed up the ball at the 37. 4 plays later-sparked by Mangini's 33 yard burst up the middle-D'Orazio was in the end zone on a 5 yard run. Vein went to the air to get Steubenville back in the game. Passes of 20 yards to DeJoeve Platt and 23 yards to Marciniak set up Johnson's 19 yard scoring run with 11:38 left in the half. The drive covered 84 yards. The tying score came on a 54 yard screen pass to Johnson with 5:46 left. Mike Perlosky's 2nd of 5 PAT's knotted the game. Still, DeSales fought back. D'Orazio found Greg Roberto for 33 yards, then for 30 more and a touchdown with 1:56 left on the clock. Steubenville was stopped on downs at the Stallions' 33 with 46 seconds on the clock, only to watch DeSales march 55 yards in 6 plays to set up Adam Foust for a 30 yard field goal just 4 seconds before halftime. "This wasn't about offense or defense," Saccoccia said. "It was about spirited kids making plays on both sides. They fought hard but we fought back hard."
Needing a spark, Big Red received one from Jason Bigsby, who returned the 3rd quarter kickoff 61 yards to the DeSales 29. 4 plays later, Don Reeves caught a 9 yard touchdown pass and it was 24-21. "We should have never kicked to that kid," DeSales coach Bob Jacoby said. "It was one of those things you think about after it's too late. He's a great athlete and that's one of the mistakes we made." A holding penalty wiped out a 23 yard pass completion and forced a Stallion punt. Vein promptly hit Bigsby for 32 yards, setting up his own quarterback sneak and a 28-24 Steubenville lead with 3 minutes left in quarter 3. "We had to switch to a defense we hadn't played since the 8th game of last year, a 40 base. They are a great trapping and dive team and we had to find a way to stop that," Saccoccia said. DeSales had rolled up 257 yards offensively in the first half alone. Big Red opponents averaged only 164 yards per game in the regular season. "They have an alert coaching staff and that adjustment bogged us down for a few minutes, just enough for them to get back in the game," Jacoby said. "They have a wide open offense and in big games like this, those offenses either totally flop or they're unstoppable. We just could not stop them." DeSales did take a 31-28 lead with 9:14 remaining as Mangini's 11 yard run capped an 11 play, 76 yard march. Big Red was forced to punt, but Ken Hawkins' quarterback sack forced DeSales to do the same. Johnson's 33 yard scoring run with 3:55 left capped a 52 yard drive that put Big Red ahead to stay. Vein completed 11 of 17 passes for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns. He has 1,539 yards passing for the year, breaking the previous school record of 1,477 yards set by Anthony Reda, who ironically played his final game versus DeSales in the 1990 state semi-final at Zanesville. Johnson had 23 carries for 132 yards and has 1,485 yards rushing on the campaign.
State Semifinal, Friday November 25th, 1994, Big Red (12-0) vs. Beloit West Branch Warriors (12-0) at Canton's Fawcett Stadium.
The game-and the season-were gone in a heartbeat. But not without a fight. Steubenville Big Red fell behind for the 1st time all evening with 49 seconds to play when Jeff Morris found Bernie Berger in the endzone for a 4-yard touchdown pass on 4th and goal for a 31-28 West Branch lead. That lead would stand up in the Ohio Division III semifinal game at Fawcett Stadium in Canton.
But, oh, Big Red would make it interesting. Three incompletions and a motion penalty and Steubenville was faced with 4th and 15 from its own 32. Then West Branch (13-0) did the unthinkable, calling a timeout when it had none left. A 15 yard penalty gave Big Red 4th and inches, Nate Johnson running for a 1st down at the Warriors' 47 with 16 seconds left. Jason Vein found Johnson for 15 yards out of bounds. Vein found Tim Ingram for 22 yards, out of bounds at the 10, 3 seconds left. Mike Perlosky came on for a 27 yards field goal attempt. The boot was barely wide right and Big Red players collapsed to the turf in heartbreak. "I don't know if it went through or not." Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said. "Sometimes you want something so bad, you see what you want to see. I couldn't give you an honest opinion." West Branch fell behind early in the game, 21-0. Nate Johnson intercepted a Morris pass and returned it 21 yards to paydirt. Johnson's 44-yard run set up his own 1-yard scoring burst. Vein's 24-yard pass to Ken Hawkins set up his 28-yard touchdown pass to Jason Bigsby with 9:53 left in the half. Steubenville might have scored again, but West Branch recovered a fumble at the Warrior 16 late in the 1st quarter. The Warrior's first score as set up when Chris Tucker returned an interception 24 yards to the Big Red 23. Morris scored on a 5-yard run 2 plays later and it was 21-7 at intermission. Just before halftime, Steubenville drove inside the West Branch 20 again. But Vein was sacked with seconds remaining, Big Red out of time outs, and time expired. "We were trying to throw for the endzone and we were going to kick if we didn't get it," Saccoccia said. "That was a mistake. I should have just kicked the field goal right away period. We were up 21-7."
West Branch coach Jim Laut said, "I don't know what's going to happen the next game, but I do know what happened this game. This team finally got the respect it deserved for coming back the way it did." Morris scored on a 56-yard quarterback draw early in the 3rd quarter to cut the lead to 21-14. And when Steubenville fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the Warriors were in business at the Steubenville 29. Big Red's defense stiffened and Chris Zion booted a 32-yard field goal for a 21-17 count. But Big Red answered. Tim Marciniak's 21-yard catch set up Johnson's 17-yard touchdown run with 3:56 left in the 3rd quarter. Big Red's 4th turnover of the night-a fumble at the West Branch 45-set up the Warriors with 6:23 remaining. A 23-yard completion to Kyle Doak and a pass interference call in the endzone set up Morris for a 9-yard scoring run with 3:08 to play. Trailing 28-23, West Branch went for the onsided kick, got the high bounce, and Curtis Knoch caught the ball just across midfield. "Once again, my mistake," Saccoccia said. "I should have had our hands team in there instead of the regular kickoff unit. Our kids did their job. If I did mine, we'd still be playing." Laut said, "We executed the kick perfectly, got the bounce and definitely recovered. I'm not going to fool anybody, we were lucky to win this game. But the kids stayed with it and were rewarded for it." A 33-yard pass to Doak on 3rd and 10 moved the ball to the Big Red 5. A run and 2 passes failed, but the 4th down pass did not. Morris completed 11 of 27 passes for 140 yards, scored 3 touchdowns and threw for a 4th. Vein completed 8 of 21 passes for 167 yards for Big Red.
1994~
Marlon Hill lb
Jason Vein qb
Tink Herring wr
Anthony Gilliam wr
Terry Rea db
Jason Bigsby wr
Tim Ingram wr
Kenny Hawkins de
Mike Hill rb
Nate Johnson tb
Brian Mills te
Tim Marciniak lb
Larry Buchanan k
Don Reeves te
Jojo Saccoccia c
Rick Kopras t
Ken Kopras g
Jim Covey t
John Savage g
Tony Atkins wr
Chris Scisciani qb
Jason Zapolnick wr
Mike Wiggins qb
P. J. Tiberio rb
Dwante Spuriel lb
Frank Prolago rb
Keith West wr
Mike Perlosky k
Brian Pietro g
Matt Davis c
Adam Giandomenico g
Wilber Ching t
Dan Fleming t
Dan Filtz t
Zack Holt t
Chico Washington wr
Bruce Pearson wr
Jeff Hargrove end
DeJoeve Platt db
Cornell Birden wr
Mike Rood rb
Shawn Bird rb
Rob Liggett rb
Mike Donnelly k
Marcus Thorn rb
Shaun Arthurs qb
John Wilson t
John DiPasquale rb
Budd Hemsley c
Cliff Kimball g
Frank Kopras g
John Boomhower end
Aaron Dobson wr
Mike Jones rb
Ken Wilson t
