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12/3/05
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Big Red, big victory
Saturday, December 3, 2005 By Scott Brown Repository sports writer
MASSILLON - The first half was football at its most raw, with hard-hitting defenses forcing fumbles nearly as plentiful as the snowflakes on a bitter Friday at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium. Columbus DeSales even punted on third down as it battled Steubenville to a scoreless halftime tie.
Then it became a Big Red party.
Steubenville High School broke through for a touchdown on its first second-half possession, then returned a blocked punt for another TD on the way to a 28-7 Division III state championship victory before 9,250 fans.
Steubenville (15-0) won the second state title in its storied history.
“I can’t say we’re better than DeSales,” said Steubenville’s Reno Saccoccia, who won his second title in 23 years as coach. “I can say today we were better.”
Big Red quarterback Zach Collaros rushed for 159 yards and two touchdowns, including a 24-yard scamper with 9:13 left in the third quarter for the game’s first score. He threw for another TD.
Tamawi McGhee added 79 rushing yards for Steubenville, including 20 on the opening drive of the second half. The Big Red took over at their 43 after a 33-yard return by Matt Belardine, then marched 57 yards in seven plays.
McGhee had runs of 7 and 11 yards on the drive. After the 11-yarder got the ball to DeSales’ 24, the defense bit on Collaros’ fake handoff to McGhee. Collaros then ran around right end untouched to the end zone.
“We were worried about (Collaros) throwing the ball, but he beat us with his feet,” DeSales coach Bob Jacoby said.
Steubenville’s defense then stopped the Stallions, and Darrell Longmire swooped around left end untouched to block Drew McNally’s punt. Longmire picked up the ball and returned it 30 yards for another score.
“We knew we could get a couple of blocked punts,” said senior Sam Busic, the holder who threw a 2-point conversion pass to Dan Vogel on a fake kick after the blocked punt return. “We were fortunate enough to get one.”
The two-touchdown flurry, which gave Steubenville a 15-0 lead, was in stark contrast to the first half, which was dominated by flurries and hard-nosed defense. Steubenville lost two fumbles, and DeSales lost one and fell on another.
Bellardine blocked a DeSales’ field-goal attempt, and the Stallions’ Justin Herbert recovered a Collaros fumble at the 11 to nix the only real first-half scoring threat for either team.
“We should have scored a couple of times in that first half, but we turned the ball over,” said senior Anthony Gossett, who caught a 5-yard TD pass from Collaros in the fourth quarter. “We knew we could move the ball and score.”
Gossett’s score, with 7:53 left, sealed the outcome by giving the Big Red a 21-7 lead. Collaros added the final TD, on a 28-yard run, with 4:07 left.
Gossett’s touchdown capped a 15-play, 80-yard Steubenville drive that ate up 8:31 after DeSales had closed within 15-7 on quarterback Matt Mangini’s 5-yard run with 4:30 left in the third quarter. Mangini led DeSales (11-4) with 88 rushing yards. He completed only four passes, one for 65 yards to Chris Thomas to set up the Stallions’ lone TD. Reach Repository sports writer Scott Brown at (330) 580-8343 or e-mail
scott.brown@cantonrep.com
