Big Red seeking state final berth
By STEPHANIE ELVERD and NICK BEDWAY, sports writersArticle Photos
STEUBENVILLE - Undefeated Steubenville Big Red will travel to Massillon's Paul Brown Tiger Stadium Friday in an attempt to do what its fellow OVAC team Martins Ferry could not - beat New Lexington.
The Panthers got the best of Dave Bruney's Purple Riders last week in the Division IV, Region 15 final in Zanesville. New Lexington (12-1), who jumped out a head of Martins Ferry, 14-0, held off the Purple Riders with a 21-14 win in overtime to advance to the state semifinals.
Big Red, which earned a spot opposite the Panthers by winning the Region 13 crown, 35-17, over Perry at Canton's Fawcett Stadium.
Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia knows his team will have will have its hands full Friday night.
Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia knows his team will have will have its hands full Friday night.
"(New Lexington) is very multiple on offense, but they run all of their plays out of the shotgun," he said. "They run some wing-T and they run some spread. Their quarterback (Clint Cannon) is a very good runner. Their fullback (R.J. Starkey) is an excellent runner and No. 12 (Brett Wycinski), is their go-to guy on offense when the quarterback doesn't run it."
Containing Cannon will likely be a main focus of the aggressive Steubenville defense. New Lexington's 6-foot-1, 202-pound junior quarterback leads his team in both rushing and passing. On the ground, Cannon has racked up 929 yards and scored 16 touchdowns. His impressive passing statistics show 140 completions in 206 attempts for 1,689 yards and 16 touchdowns.
"Their quarterback is a tough kid,'' Saccoccia said. "'When you watch him run their offense and play linebacker on defense, you see a hard-nosed football player.''
Cannon's prime target throughout the season has been Wycinski, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound senior with 45 catches for 640 yards and seven touchdowns. He not only earned first-team All-Southeast District laurels as an all-purpose selection, he was named the district's offensive player of the year.
Joining Cannon and Wycinski as first-team all-district performers from New Lexington were end Matt Etherley, offensive lineman Adam Folk and defensive unit stalwarts John Robinson and R.J. Starkey.
Starkey, also a senior, is the Panthers' second-leading rusher, having gained 791 yards on 122 carries and scoring 12 touchdowns.
So what's Big Red's game plan?
"No. 1, we have to tackle. We can't allow yards after the catch," Saccoccia said. "No. 2, we have to be patient on defense, make them get back in the huddle. We can't give up any big plays and we just want to get them back in the huddle and make them snap the ball again."
New Lexington's defense will likely be facing its biggest challenge trying to slow down a Big Red offense that has piled up 504 points, an average of 38.8 points per game. Steubenville's defense has been as stingy as the offense has been productive. Only three teams have scored more than 20 points against Big Red. And most of those points were allowed after Steubenville's starters had left the game.
Junior tailback Demetrius Brandon, an Eastern District first teamer, has chewed up over 1,200 yards. Junior quarterback Dwight Macon, who was named Co-Eastern District Offensive Player of the Year, has completed 72 percent of his passes for over 2,000 yards, 26 scores and just three interceptions. Macon has also ran for an additional 893 yards.
"The quarterback is just outstanding," New Lexington coach Bill Nutt said of Macon. "The thing that I find most impressive about him is that he is always looking downfield. He is really good at using his feet and he has great speed, but he is not always going to take off running. Usually when he scrambles, he is trying to buy time to find open receiver."
Nutt has been the head coach at New Lexington for the past 10 seasons, but has never led his team to the state semifinals. Last week's win over Ferry gave the Panthers' their first regional title. They lost to Bellaire in the regional final two years ago.
Big Red, on the other hand, has grown accustomed to playing in Ohio's Final Four. So much so, that Steubenville - the 2005 and 2006 Division III state champions - makes it one of its main goals at the start of every season.
"I don't know if you ever think or say you'll be playing in the state semifinals at the beginning of the season, but we ask two things of kids every year," Saccoccia said. "We ask for a home playoff game and we want to win our region. Those two goals never change."
Big Red's football traditon runs deep. Nutt doesn't want his team to forget that, nor does he want his team to dwell on it.
"We don't want to just stand around. We are going to want to play fast and play hard. We want to play with emotion out there." he said.
"We don't want to necessarily get caught up in where we are playing and Steubenville's history, but that doesn't mean that we aren't going to play with emotion."
