2001

BR	2001 Saccoccia	OPP
41	Baltimore Mount St. Joseph Md.	46
15	Brooke Wva.	0
35	@ Wheeling Park Wva.	0
37	Niles McKinley	22
0	@ Youngstown Boardman	52
35	Buffalo St. Joseph Collegiate Ny.	0
36	Zanesville	21
40	@ Buckeye Local	24
21	East Liverpool	7
27	Youngstown Rayen	6
8	Columbus St. Francis DeSales	38
295	8-3-0	216

Regional Quarter-Finals, Friday November 2nd, 2001, Big Red (8-2) vs. Columbus DeSales Stallions (5-5) at Death Valley.

The sky over Harding Stadium opened up and the rain came down Friday at the Division III Regional quarterfinals, but at the end of the soggy night, it was Columbus St. Francis DeSales, not Mother Nature, who rained on Big Red's parade.

The eighth-seeded Stallions ran over Steubenville and away with the game, literally, as DeSales carried the ball 43 times for 338 yards and six touchdowns to upset top-seeded Big Red, 38-8. DeSales quarterback Dino Razzano led the Stallion stampede, which averaged 7.8 yards per carry. The junior signal ran the option 18 times for 123 yards and two touchdowns.
Despite the wet conditions and using an offense some consider risky even in dry weather, DeSales coach Bob Jacoby said he had faith in what his team could do.
"I'm not going to say we're error free out there, but we work on (the option) real hard and we've played in all kinds of weather in the past. We don't think of it us a turnover offense," Jacoby said. "That's why we run it and why we've had so many success late in the season." Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia also knew DeSales' option run was a threat, but had to decide on what was the lesser of the two evils where the Stallions' running game was concerned.
"We had to do some things inside because they (DeSales) were so much bigger and stronger. We tried to take away their inside game. If we hadn't done that they would have ran right through us," Saccoccia said. "But our problem wasn't defense tonight. Our problem was we didn't get any first downs."

Big Red was able to come up with first-down yardage just twice in the first half, a tribute to a Stallion defense that shined early in the game.
Steubenville opened the game with a 71-yard kickoff return. Michael Abbott brought the ball to the DeSales 25-yard line and a pass from Mike DiAngelo to John Lester took Big Red inside the Stallions' 3. The completion put DiAngelo in the Steubenville history book, breaking the school record for most career completions. DiAngelo tied Steve Nodianos' record last week.
But the record-breaking pass did not result in a touchdown. The Stallions held Steubenville and took over on their own 2-yard line. "I think the defensive stand said a lot about what was going to happen," Jacoby said. "After that we regained field position and finally got in to score."
The Stallions got on the board when Andrew Addington, who tallied 121 rushing yards on the night, capped off a 35-yard scoring drive with a 9-yard run.
After the first score, the Stallions tore down the flood gates and Steubenville watched its postseason sink, as DeSales scored four second-quarter touchdowns. Luther Henderson scored two touchdowns in the quarter. The junior running back finished with 83 yards on the ground, including a 25-yard touchdown run.

Addington also picked up his second touchdown of the game in the second, and Razzano finished the second-quarter scoring steak with a quarterback keep for two yards, the touchdown and a 32-0 DeSales lead at the half. "I thought all year we were capable of playing good football, but we hadn't done it in so long," Jacoby said of his team, who made the playoffs despite a lackluster 5-5 record. "I knew we could win if we did everything right, but I wasn't expecting this kind of outcome." DeSales added one more touchdown to the Steubenville deficit in the third quarter, when Razzano exploded on an 85-yard scoring run. Big Red went on to hold DeSales in the fourth and finally got on the board itself in the quarter. Justin Banks set up the scoring drive, recovering a fumble on the Stallions' 21. It was the second time the senior defensive end recovered a Stallion fumble, his sixth of the year. Big Red capitalized on the turnover when Brian Pruitt completed a 3-yard tailback pass to DiAngelo. DiAngelo resumed quarterback duties and connected with Nate Hubbard for the conversion. DiAngelo finished 11-of-21 for 130 yards in his final game in a Big Red uniform and set the completion record at 162.

"I honestly feel that our kids gave it everything they had. They played as well as they could and they had as good of a season as they could have," Saccoccia said. "If you would've told me we would be 8-2 at the first kickoff (this season), I would've taken it. It didn't end the way we wanted it to, but we had a great season."

 

2001~
Anthony Saccoccia db/rec
Jon-Michael Rae db/rec
Mike DiAngelo db/qb
Mike Abbott db/rec
Joe Pease db/rec
Brian Pruitt db/qb
Steve Repella db/qb
John Lester db/rec
Keith Zrinyi db/rec
Jesse Turner db/tb
Nate Hubbard db/tb
Joe Healy db/rec
Justin Banks de/te
A. J. Smith db/rec
David Babel lb/rb
Eugene Hicks db/rec
James Lyons lb/fb
Kent Holmes lb/fb
Luke Hartman lb/fb
Sean Liggett lb/fb
Justin Snyder de/fb
O'Tearle Birden db/tb
Brad Brown lb/rec
Dominick Harper de/te
Steve Criss lb/te
Daton Feaster db/rec
Josh Schoonover lb/fb
Sir Dameon Harris dt/fb
Jacob Seminara db/fb/k
Gabe Hahn de/te
Justin Gerber lb/c
Mark Battistel dl/c
Russell Cain dt/t
Mike Carmine dl/g
Dave DiCicco de/g
Dan Smith de/g
Aaron Chester dt/g
James Threet dt/t
David Ross de/c
Mike Milko de/t
Robert Antinone dt/t
Joe Pasquarella dt/c
Brandon Smith dt/t
Scott Kennedy dl/g
Ryan Witkowski dl/t
Aaron Patterson de/t
Mike Van Voltenberg de/g
Dan Russell dl/t
Matt Miller de/te
Eric Clark db/rec
Thad Crosier db/rec
Justin Kenefick lb/te
Ed Littlejohn lb/te
Eric Dobson de/te
Rich Crossley db/rec