St. Clairsville’s Guy Vuserka is accompanied on the field by East Liverpool’s Locke Williams (18), Tyler Kirby (32) and Julius Jones (24) during Friday’s game at Patterson Field. (Special to The Review/Jimmy Joe Savage)
Mike Brown
Sports reporter
EAST LIVERPOOL — Traditional St. Clairsville had a strong running game that offset a determined effort from East Liverpool, and the Red Devils remained unbeaten with a 35-14 win over the Potters on Friday night at Patterson Field.
With the win, the Red Devils improve to 5-0 on the season and have outscored their first five opponents 179 to 77. St. Clairsville has defeated the Potters 5-2 and has won the past five games in the series.
The loss drops East Liverpool to 1-4, but the Potters, who were trailing the Red Devils 7-7 late in the first half, can take some positives from the game in that they played well against the strongest team on their schedule.
“It’s unfortunate that we lost, but (there were a lot of good things).” “We’re a great team,” East Liverpool head coach Paul Kasich said. “They (the Red Devils) are a very good, solid football team and our players played their hearts out this time around, but hats off to them. Sometimes you get beaten by better teams and that’s exactly what happened tonight.”
St. Clairsville held a 2-1 advantage in time of possession and also produced some impressive performances on the ground. The Red Devils finished with 314 rushing yards, led by speedy senior running back Gavin Schoolcraft’s 180 yards and three touchdowns. Not to be outdone, junior running back Ollie Muley added 120 rushing yards and six points.
“They’re a good, physical team and we knew it was going to be like this tonight.” Kasich said. “That’s exactly what they’re doing, and they’re doing it well. I think when I was at Crestview, coach Brett McLean was there (at St. Clairsville) and he was doing the same thing. They’re doing it well, but I think we’re getting there.”
“I thought we managed our time of possession well, slowed down a little bit, braked and played patiently.” “We’re a big part of it,” St. Clairsville head coach Brett McLean said. “Our backs made a lot of good plays blocking and reading the play well. I give a lot of credit to them and our line.”
It was Schoolcraft’s second straight 180-yard rushing performance.
“The craziest thing is, I ran for 180 yards and two touchdowns last week and that was my first breakout game.” I think it’s a good game,” said Schoolcraft, who topped that performance with 180 yards and three touchdowns in a win over East Liverpool.
East Liverpool and St. Clairsville were tied at 7-7 in the first quarter.
On the opening drive of the game, the Potters went 80 yards in five plays, with quarterback Gavin Wright scoring on a 39-yard air pass along the right sideline to receiver Quintin Conrad to score. Kamdyn Miller also kicked the PAT, and the Potters quickly took a 7-0 lead at the 10:19 mark of the first period.
But the Red Devils responded with their first possession, covering 64 yards and scoring on a 52-yard run by Muhly up the middle. Kicker Tyler Harris cracked the goalpost with the PAT to tie the game at 7-7 with 10 minutes, 19 seconds left in the game.
The score stayed that way until the final four minutes of the second quarter, when the Red Devils scored two straight points. The first of the six came on a 29-yard throwback pass from Schaefer to tight end Mickey Vargo. Harris added the PAT and St. Clairsville took its first lead of the night, 14-7.
After shutting down East Liverpool’s offense, St. Clairsville took control with under a minute left in the half when Schoolcraft, who rushed for 112 yards in the first half, raced 59 yards to the end zone with 38.5 seconds left in the half to take a 21-7 lead. Harris made three consecutive PAT kicks and the Red Devils went into the locker room with momentum on their side, leading 21-7.
“We knew we had the ball in the second half but the goal just before half-time was huge.” MacLean observed.
St. Clairsville led in total offense, 223-141, by halftime, and East Liverpool running back Jaymin Haney ran for 85 yards before halftime.
“We’re growing as a team.” Kasich said. “It’s hard to watch, but you can watch the film and you can see the guys are struggling. We’re starting to do really good things and I’m really looking forward to the second half of the season. We’ll stay positive and continue to coach the guys. We’ll continue to get better. The guys have to keep believing. I know it’s tough for them right now but as a coach I have confidence they’ll get through it.”
“I have a lot of respect for Coach Kasich. We played against each other in some really close football games when he was at Crestview.” McLean said. “We played them at home and had some battles. It’s a chess match and playing against him makes you better as a coach because you know he has a plan and you have to adapt to it.”
The Potters cut the lead to 21-14 early in the second half when Wright threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to receiver Blake Adkins at 6:14 of the third period. Kamdyn Miller added another point on the PAT kick. The score came on a 25-yard interception return by Potters defender Michael Harty.
But the Red Devils responded with another 64-yard drive, capped off by Schoolcraft’s 1-yard scoring shot over the left guard. Harris converted the PAT kick and St. Clairsville was back within 14 points at 28-14 with 2:27 to play in the third quarter.
“They came out with a big interception and put some pressure on us to fight back, but our guys answered and brought the score back to 28-14.” McLean said.
The Red Devils went on to win by 21 points when Schoolcraft scored on a 16-yard dash with 7:09 left in the fourth quarter. Harris converted the PAT kick to seal the win, 35-14.
“We’re feeling pretty good. We’re 5-0 right now and looking to get to 6-0. We’ll just take it one win at a time.” Schoolcraft said.
“I’m really proud of our team.” McLean said. “Five weeks have passed and I told them it’s amazing how quickly football season has gone by.”Take a breath, and talking like that might make you a little dreamy, but it’s reality. Time can fly by and you can forget to enjoy what you’re doing.”
Game Notes
• St. Clairsville, ranked second in D4 Region 15, has recorded running-clock wins in three of its five games this season. This will be the first time the Red Devils and Potters meet since the 2020 season.
• East Liverpool will travel to Cambridge (0-5) next Friday night to take on the Bobcats at 7 p.m.
•¯ St. Clairsville will travel to Cadiz for the second straight week next Friday to take on the Harrison Central Huskies (1-4) at 7 p.m.
STC: 7-14-7-0 –35
EL: 7- 0-7-0 –14
Scoring
EL – Quintin Conrad, pass from Gavin Wright 39, 10:19 1st (Kamdyn Miller kick).
SC – Ollie Muhly, 52 run, 8:18 1st (Tyler Harris kick)
SC – Mickey Vargo, 29 pass from Brady Shafer, 3:55 2nd (Tyler Harris kick)
SC – Gavin Schoolcraft, 59 runs, 38.5 2nd (Tyler Harris kick)
EL – Blake Adkins, 25 pass from Gavin Wright, 6:14 3rd (Kamdyn Miller kick)
SC – Gavin Schoolcraft, 1 run, 2:27 1st (Tyler Harris kick)
SC – Gavin Schoolcraft, 16 runs, 7:09 in the 4th (Tyler Harris kick).
SCEL
First Down 23 14
Total yards 409 246
Rush yards 42-314 24-115
Pass 95 131
Comp-Attack-Intelligence 7-10-1 8-18-1
Punt 3-39 5-40
Penalty Yards 4-35 4-20
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Individual Leaders
Rush — St. Clairsville, Gavin Schoolcraft, 22-180, Ollie Muley, 12-120, Brady Shafer 3-6; East Liverpool, Gavin Wright, 8-20, Jaymin Haney, 14-85, Amir Baker.
Passes — St. Clairsville, Brady Shafer, 7-10-90-1-1, East Liverpool, Gavin Wright, 8-17-125-2-1, Ben Myers, 2-3-3.
RECEIVING — St. Clairsville, Ollie Muley, 2-13, Brody Sanders, 1-10, Mickey Vargo, 1-29, Gage Wolf, 1-10, Tyson Pastor, 2-28; East Liverpool, Quintin Conrad, 3-56, Blake Adkins, 4-68, Julius Jones, 3-7.
