CELEBRATING — Big Red quarterback Aiden Davis celebrates his touchdown run with Ephy Kelley during Friday’s game at Wheeling Island Stadium.  - Nick Henthorn

WHEELING — Wheeling Island was abuzz Friday night, with an intersection of fans flocking to Wheeling Island Stadium for Friday’s Wheeling Park v. Steubenville matchup and party-goers for the ‘Eats and Beats’ festival outside of the Wheeling Casino. Once the two teams took to the field for their 7 p.m. kickoff, it was the visiting Big Red who were doing the partying, getting contributions up and down their roster in a 48-17 victory.

“Every win is a big win, especially when you play a valley team,” Steubenville head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “We don’t get to do it that often, but we’ve got to be at our best when we do. I thought we came out prepared, we had a great week of practice, it carried over into the game. We had a couple sloppy spots here and there, but we fixed it, and we came out with a lot of enthusiasm, and I liked that. Enthusiasm will take you a long way.”

“Steubenville’s a great team,” Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty said. “They’re coached very well and they do a lot of things that make you work defensively. In the early part of the game we didn’t tackle very well and we didn’t execute very well defensively.

“Offensively too, we had some hiccups and it kind of snowballed. I thought our kids kept playing hard though. I thought that was very important. We came out at halftime and did a good job of getting a touchdown and playing hard, and I thought our kids continued to play hard.”

Seven different Big Red players caught a pass Friday while eight tallied a carry. Jalen Minniefield led the ground attack with 98 yards and a touchdown on seven carries. Brody Saccoccia was the top target through the air, hauling in five receptions for 91 yards and a score.

Also getting into the end zone on the ground was Kyleigh Hopkins, Ca’Juan Bryant twice, Aiden Davis, and Ta’Jon Hython.

“The more people who get involved, the better we are,” Saccoccia said. “We have a lot of guys who practice hard all week, so you’ve got to pay them back on Friday nights.”

Wheeling Park struggled to match a Steubenville attack which marched upfield all game, totaling 482 total yards of offense.

The Patriots received another impressive performance from Brennan Wack, who took 15 carries for 156 yards and a touchdown. His runs of 40 and 64 yards were the two biggest plays of the day for Park.

Sophomore Patriot quarterback Jay Bordas threw for 106 yards on 12/17 passing, throwing a nine-yard touchdown fade to Kolin Wiley in the fourth quarter to end the offense’s day with a bright spot. Wiley finished with three catches for 52 yards, while Jameson Maynard caught six balls for 41 yards.

“Our kids kept battling, our quarterback kept battling and making throws,” Daugherty said. “They were blitzing him all night and he reacted very well to it. Overall, it is what it is. We’ve got to go and get ready for next week. There’s highs and lows in a season. This is a low right now; we get to mope around for a day or two then we’ve got to get after it Monday.”

Steubenville senior quarterback Aiden Davis finished his night 13-17 for 195 yards and a touchdown along with 35 rushing yards and a rushing TD. Transferring to Steubenville from Park this year, it was a bit of a homecoming for Davis.

“I’m sure that Aiden had something extra in him, and he should, but he never had to express it, we never talked about it,” Saccoccia said. “It was a valley game for us, and it was maybe a little extra special for him, and the players helped him get what he wanted to get.”

Steubenville struck first Friday on the second play of the game, Minniefield taking a carry up and through the gut for an explosive 65-yard touchdown. Wheeling Park responded with an extended drive which stalled close to the end zone, and placekicker AJ Seals nailed a 27-yard field goal to bring the score to 7-3 with 4:21 to go in the first quarter.

From there, Steubenville scored 20 unanswered points to lead 27-3 going into halftime.

Bryant scored from nine yards out in the final minute of the first quarter, Hopkins punched in a one-yard score set up by a 40-yard reception by Saccoccia a few minutes into the second quarter, and Bryant found paydirt again on a 15-yard run with three minutes ’till halftime.

Wack started the second half with a first-play 64-yard run down the sideline to the Steubenville 11, and later finished the drive with a five-yard cutback run to the endzone. The score moved the deficit to 17 points, 27-10.

Steubenville was relentless though. On a critical fourth-and-goal from the six yard line with five minutes left in the third frame, Davis took it himself on a QB power into the end zone to keep Park from getting any closer, and Davis hooked up with Saccoccia for a 17-yard touchdown catch on the first play of the fourth quarter to surpass 40 points, leading 41-10 after the score.

Wheeling Park mounted a long drive all the way inside Big Red’s 10 yard-line where Bordas floated up a fade for Wiley, who twisted around to make the touchdown grab with six and a half minutes to go. Steubenville burned clock on a long drive of their own, giving the rock to Hython seven times in their march to the end zone. He crossed the plane from nine yards out to close the book on the game.

“They had a great gameplan, they executed it,” Daugherty said of Steubenville. “We made too many mistakes to stay in the game. They force you to play clean, you can’t afford to make mistakes against a good football team because things start to snowball, and it did. We’ve got to find a way to play more consistent at times.”

Steubenville (6-0) returns home next week for a date with the Linsly Cadets (0-5). Wheeling Park (3-2) remains at Wheeling Island Stadium to welcome Morgantown (5-1) next week.

Steubenville 48, Wheeling Park 17

Whg Park 3 0 7 7 – 17

Steubenville 14 13 7 14 – 48

S-Minniefield 65 run (Bowers kick)

WP-Seals 27 field goal

S-Bryant 9 run (Bowers kick)

S-Hopkins 1 run (Bowers kick)

S-Bryant 15 run (kick missed)

WP-Wack 5 run (Seals kick)

S-Davis 6 run (Bowers kick)

S-Saccoccia 17 pass from Davis (Bowers kick)

WP-Wiley 9 pass from Bordas (Seals kick)

S-Hython 9 run (Hicks kick)

RUSHING: Wheeling Park 25-184-td (Wack 15-156-td; Hodge 8-38; Bordas 2-(-14)). Steubenville 32-287-6tds (Minniefield 8-98-td; Hython 7-57-td; Bryant 6-56-2tds; Davis 4-35-td; Hopkins 4-21-td; Scurry 1-6; Crosier 1-9; West 1-5).

PASSING: Wheeling Park 12-17-106-td (all by Bordas). Steubenville 13-17-195-td (all by Davis).

RECEIVING: Wheeling Park 12-106-td (Maynard 6-41; Wiley 3-52-td; Dobrzynski-Hines 3-13). Steubenville 13-195-td (Saccoccia 5-91-td; Scurry 2-23; Minniefield 2-14; Taylor 2-13; Lucious-Muntz 1-11; Gulan 1-15; Crosier 1-35; Hopkins 1-10).

FIRST DOWNS: Wheeling Park 13, Steubenville 23

FUMBLES: Wheeling Park 1-0, Steubenville 0-0

PENALTIES: Wheeling Park 5-37. Steubenville 2-25