Island shutout

WHEELING - In its six-year regular season streak, Big Red has defeated three teams from West Virginia for 10 wins, two teams from the Washington D.C. area for three, a team from Maryland for two and two teams from New York for nine. After Saturday's Rally in the Valley, Steubenville can add a Pennsylvania team to its list of out-of-state victims and win No. 62 to its streak. Big Red's defense led its team to a 13-0 win over Woodland Hills in the five-game showcase held at Wheeling Island Stadium.

"The only thing I have to say about this game is that I'm so proud of my kids," Big Red coach Reno Saccoccia said. "I never had a team suck it up like this team sucked it up today. They played hard for 48 minutes and they fought through injuries and adversities.

"The head coach is the boss of the team, but the players are the leaders and they stepped up as leaders today."

The bigger, stronger Wolverines, who are a Class AAAA team in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League, took their toll on Steubenville, but the banged-up and bruised Red kept turning away Woodland Hills.

On the second play of the game, senior quarterback Dwight Macon was left injured near the Big Red sideline. He was helped off of the field and it was determined he had partially separated his shoulder.

"I went down, but didn't realize I was hurt at first. On the next play, I couldn't feel my left shoulder," Macon explained. "I was just happy I got to go back in the game."

Macon returned after sitting out two possessions.

Woodland Hills coach Dave Novak had mixed emotions about Macon's return.

'Of course, you never want to see a kid get hurt, but it would have been easier without him," Novak said. "He was the difference in this game. If they needed a big play, he'd come up with it. There were a few times when we had him sacked but he got out of it and ended up with 10 or more yards."

Macon, who finished 7-of-13 for 157 yards, proved to be a playmaker as he threw for both of Big Red's touchdowns, but he didn't do it alone. With just 17 seconds left in the first half, Macon found Trey Wiggins from 21 yards out on fourth-and-10. His line gave Macon the time he needed to notice Wiggins.

At 8:38 of the third, Macon connected with Jordon Meyer on a 22-yard scoring strike. Meyer leaped from the back of the end zone to pull down the reception and kept both of his feet in bounds to save the TD.

That scoring play was on third-and-10 and the drive was set up by Caleb Westlake, who return a punt to the Wolverine 32.

The big plays gave Big Red all the points it needed to beat the Wolverines, but it was the Big Red defense that made those points stick. Big Red forced a turnover on downs inside its own 35 and 20 in the first half and on its own 11 and 16 in the second half.

"Our defense just didn't quit. We didn't give up,"Big Red two-way lineman Jamey Devaul said.

"That kept us in this game. We kept coming after them and putting pressure on their quarterback.

"That's what we're coached to do, but we knew they loved to run the football. That was the main thing. We had to take the running game away from them."

The Wolverines' QB, John Yezovich was able to connect on just 4-of-23 attempts for 54 yards. He was also intercepted when Meyer picked off a deep pass in the final seconds of the first half. Woodland Hills' running game was more effective, but not much.

The keystone state power finished with 115 yards on 33 carries. Fullback Cam Thompkins led the ground attack with 75 yards. Senior tailback, Dom Timbers, who has verbally committed to play at Syracuse, was held to 50 yards.

"Big Red comes off the ball quick and they showed a lot of different defensive looks," Novak said. "They have a lot of speed and a lot of quickness on defense.

"They didn't win 62 games by accident. There's a lot of reasons they've won 62-straight games and their defense is one of them."

DeVaul, Luke and Birden all came up with tackles for losses. Isiah Willis and Caleb Westlake recorded key sacks and Anthony Pierro, Meyer and Shaq Petteway all broke up passes that, if caught, could have changed the course of the game.

Woodland Hills falls to 0-1 after opening the season with the showcase loss.

"I'm disappointed but I'm not discouraged,"Novak said.

"I believe we have a good football team and we just got beat by a good football team.

"But, you know me. I always want to open the season with th best team we possibly can. It doesn't get much better than Big Red."