ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Brett McLean buys into the cliche that teams make their biggest improvement from week one to week two.

He's hoping that's the case despite his Red Devils came out of Friday's opener with a decisive 30-8 victory over Edison in front of a large, primarily dressed in white crowd at the Belmont County Fairgrounds.

"I was really excited about how we played in the first half, but we lost our edge," McLean said. "I am excited to get the kids back in here (for practice) Monday so we can get back to work because weve got a lot of things we can work on to improve."

The Red Devils came out in the first half and took the game right to the Wildcats, who've battled through several issues in the preseason.

"Part of our story was written back in two-a-days," said Edison head coach Mike McKenzie. "We had a couple of weeks of less than what we would consider productive two-a-days where we were really stagnet and it came back to haunt us especially in the first half."

St. Clairsville wasted little time in jumping on the Wildcats taking its first possession of the season and marching the necessary 38 yards in five plays.

Junior tailback Tavin Stevenson capped the drive when he scampered in, basically untouched, from 28 yards out with 7:27 to go in the first quarter.

The early success was important for the Red Devils who struggled mightily in their scrimmage last weekend against Wheeling Central.

"We got our heads on straight," McLean said. "Every once in a while you need to get hit in the mouth, and you find out if you're going to get back up or stay down. We challenged the kids all week because that was something we weren't used to and something that none of us were pleased about."

Edison started to shake off the jitters somewhat and put together a solid drive, but Red Devils senior Seth Callarik pilfered a Johnny Byers pass in the end zone for a touchback.

The back-breaking play of the game for the Wildcats occured on the ensuing snap.

Red Devils quarterback Zak Kinnick turned and handed to Stevenson who found a seam off the left side and was gone for an 80-yard touchdown. Stevenson carried just once more in the game for 19 yards, but he came up gingerly and McLean held him out the remainder of the contest as a precaution.

He finished with seven carries for 140 yards and the two scores.

"We did some good things and some kids really showed some potential tonight," McLean said. "Were still trying to build some depth, and we got a lot of kids involved, but I really thought our backs ran well tonight."

A couple of possessions later, the Red Devils were back at it. After Brandon Mistak and Logan Paxton teamed to blow up an attempted punt, the Red Devils had the ball deep in Edison territory.

Kinnick capped the short drive when he plunged into the end zone. He then promptly added the two-point run, making it 24-0 at the intermission.

The Saints put any thoughts of a comeback attempt by the Wildcats to rest on the play from scrimmage in the second half when McLean dug into his bag of tricks.

Kinnick pitched to frosh phenom Dan Monteroso who connected with sophomore Michael Young on a 58-yard scoring play, making it 30-0.

"They hit us with a couple of trick plays and a couple of our (trick) plays didn't go the way we wanted them to," McKenzie said. "We knew coming down here (St. Clairsville) had speed and athletes, but I thought their defensive line took control of the game and took away a lot of our offense. We had some success, but we've got to be able to run the ball."

Edison got on the board with 9:31 to go in the third quarter when senior Joe Spreainde caught a pass from Byers, broke free of several attempted tackles and went into the end zone from 21 yards out. Byers ran for the two-point conversion.

"For the most part, Edison is a team that puts you in a lot of stressful positions (defensively)," McLean said. "They can run, throw, spread you out and you've got to prepare for a lot of things. Our kids did well with it. We weren't perfect by any means, but the kids were aggressive tonight, so that's encouraging."

St. Clairsville goes on the road next week to Rayland to meet Buckeye Local, while Edison makes it home debut against Martins Ferry.