Local

Ursuline hangs on to defeat Steubenville, 36-28

By Mike Brown

August 18, 2023 6:29 AM

Youngstown Ursuline quarterback Jack Ericson (far right) prepares to take a shotgun snap as teammate D.C. Ferrell (0) goes in motion during Thursday night’s season-opening football game against Steubenville at Youngstown State’s Stambaugh Stadium. Ursuline won the game, 36-28. Mike Brown/Mahoning Matters

Two perennial powers in Ohio high school football kicked off the 2023 season at Youngstown State’s Stambaugh Stadium Thursday night when Youngstown Ursuline hosted Steubenville before a large opening-night crowd.

In a game with a little bit of everything, including a 1-1/2-hour weather delay from torrential rain and lightning, Ursuline eventually emerged with a 36-28 win over Big Red in a classic battle.

“I think it was two really good football teams (playing),” praised Ursuline head coach Dan Reardon. “Coming into the season, we feel like we have a chance to be a really good football team and one of our big question marks was our new offensive linemen, guys stepping into new roles there. At times it wasn’t pretty tonight, but they survived and it was a great test that they passed. They didn’t get an A, but they passed, and it’s something to build off of.”

“Sometimes if you lose, you learn a lesson, it’s not bad — hopefully we learned a lesson,” commented Steubenville head coach Reno Saccoccia, who has the most coaching triumphs in Ohio high school football history.

Ursuline takes early lead

In a game that pitted two schools that have won a combined eight state football championships — four by each school — it was Ursuline who got the early upper hand.

Turnovers played a big part in the outcome as the Irish forced four Steubenville turnovers (two fumbles and two interceptions — and capitalized on three.

“When you’re able to create a bunch of takeaways that we did, I think we ended up with four on the night, it can be deflating if you’re on the other side of that, and yet we never felt like, OK, we’re in a comfortable position,” said Reardon. “They (Big Red) are too good of a football team to feel that way. But we got a bunch of really good field position as a result of some of those things and we were able to capitalize and force them to play catch-up.”

Steubenville makes comeback in the second half

The Irish took as much as a 29-12 lead into halftime but watched Big Red storm back in the second half to pull within 36-28 with 1:58 left after the long weather delay.

Down eight, Steubenville had the ball in the final two minutes on a final offensive possession. But Ursuline’s defense wrapped up the win, holding Big Red on downs, as a final fourth-down pass from their 49-yard line fell incomplete, securing a key opening win for the Irish.

“I thought our kids did a really good job,” observed Reardon. “We had a couple of interceptions when they were driving, and we had a fumble recovery on a kickoff and a fumble recovery early in the first quarter as well, which seems like it was about 12 hours ago,” added the Ursuline mentor, following the long weather delay.”

“We’ve just got to come ready to work tomorrow,” stated Steubenville’s Saccoccia, “and if we learned our lesson tonight, if we learned something from it, if it’s not a wasted loss, then we’ll be OK.”

Ursuline wasted little time setting the tempo in the game, engineering a long drive on its first possession to score on a 10-yard run by running back Christian Lynch, who also added a two-point conversion run on a swinging gate formation, as the Irish went up 8-0 at the 9:08 mark of the first quarter.

But Steubenville answered and cut the Irish advantage to 8-6 when Big Red running back Julius Mullins bolted two yards up the middle with 4:01 on the first-quarter clock. But Steubenville’s conversion run failed.

Ursuline went up 21-6 following a four-yard scoring pass from quarterback Jack Ericson to Tairan Davis Jr. Later, the two teamed up on an 80-yard passing play, making it 22-6 with 4:23 showing on the second-quarter clock.

“They (Big Red) are really good when it’s a tie game or they have the lead, because of what they do offensively and we were able to make them a little bit uncomfortable and get out of their comfort zone a little bit, so that was big,” said Reardon.

The two teams traded touchdowns in the second quarter, with wideout Devonte Taylor going high in the air to pull down a 20-yard scoring pass from Ericson. At the same time, Steubenville countered with a seven-yard scoring run by running back Je-Mier Faulks, making it 29-12 at intermission.

The Irish increased their advantage to as much as 36-12 with 10:40 left in the third quarter when Ericson fired a nine-yard scoring aerial to Taylor.

But Steubenville got a spark when Mullins intercepted a tipped Ursuline pass and weaved his way on a 60-yard interception return for a touchdown and a two-point conversion run by Kyleigh Hopkins to cut the lead to 36-20 with 7:09 showing in the quarter.

The score remained that way until 5:01 remained in the game as heavy thunderstorms forced a delay, sending fans to safe areas underneath the cement stands at Stambaugh Stadium for 1-1/2 hours.

When the two teams took the field after the long delay, Steubenville closed the deficit to eight points on a one-yard scoring bolt by Mullins, as Big Red trailed 36-28, following a successful two-point conversion run with 1:58 left on the clock.

After Ursuline punted, Steubenville had one last chance. However, Ursuline’s defense held firm and held Big Red on downs at its own 49 in the final seconds.

Jack Ericson leads Ursuline with four touchdowns

Ericson had a big night for Ursuline, throwing for over 200 yards with four touchdown passes while running back Christian Lynch had 142 yards rushing with a touchdown.

Faulk led all Steubenville rushers with 118 yards on the turf.

Both teams return to action next Friday night. Ursuline will travel to Parma Padua to play the Bruins, while Steubenville hosts the New Philadelphia Quakers the same evening.