Photo by Lauren Florence St. Clairsville’s Ollie Muhly runs into the end zone in the first quarter last week against Harrison Central. He has been a vital piece of the Red Devils running game in the absence of Dino Burk.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — After rolling past Harrison Central last Friday to win the coveted Coal Bucket Trophy for the fifth consecutive year, St. Clairsville heads into Homecoming week as Belmont County rival Bellaire invades Red Devil Stadium on Friday. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

The Red Devils (6-0) are ranked No. 2 in the latest Division IV, Region 15 behind Indian Valley, while the Big Reds (4-2) are coming off a loss to Indian Creek last Saturday and are currently 16th in Division V, Region 17.

“I just told the kids the other day that the Buckeye 8 is like a mini SEC. You’ve got to be ready every week. Every game means a lot,” veteran St. Clairsville head coach Brett McLean stressed. “There’s a lot of excitement. A lot of rivalries. You just have to focus on one game at a time, but we’re talking about kids and they can easily get distracted.

“There are a lot of distractions this week, so we’ve talked about what our goal is for this week and that is to prepare for the game,” McLean added. “Let all the other students take part in all of the festivities and such. We need to practice well and stay grounded.

“We’re relying on the seniors and captains to make sure everyone is on the same page as to what this week means. For the seniors, it’s their last go-round and they don’t want to have any regrets when the season is over.”

So far, so good. St. Clairsville has outscored its first six opponents 220-77, which averages out to 36.7 to 12.8. The defense has pitched a pair of road shutouts, blanking Zanesville in week 2 and last week at Harrison Central.

“There were a lot of questions to be answered about both our defensive and offensive lines,” McLean admitted. “We only had one true starter returning on the O-line and one full-time starter on the D-line, so a lot of kids have stepped up really big.

“We’ve got a big rotation of kids going on the defensive line. We used about three different defensive ends and about 5-6 defensive tackles,” he added. “We have provided ourselves with some depth there and we’ve gotten some younger kids involved. We need to stay fresh. On the offensive line we only have Wyatt Toothman back as a true starter. We’ve got a couple of kids that played some last year. They’ve done a tremendous job and I think their communication level is a lot better than it was back in July, which is one of the keys to being a successful O-line, and that’s not only in their play but in other aspects, as well.”

While the offense has been putting up a lot of points this season, the defense chipped into the effort last week. Junior defensive end Coleton Florence pounced on a Harrison Central fumble in their own end zone and senior linebacker Gavin Schoolcraft stepped in front of a Huskies pass, taking it 97 yards the other way to the house.

“It is something that you can’t predict is going to happen, but when it does it’s great,” McLean said of the two defensive touchdowns. “Defensive touchdowns are one of the most exciting plays in football, whether it be a pick-six, a scoop-and-score or falling on a loose ball in the end zone. It’s on our Goal Board for each game to win the turnover battle and to make a big play on defense. We had two of them last week.”

McLean and his staff were able to watch Bellaire play against Indian Creek on Saturday. He said they came away with two observations.

“First, they have the best receiving corps and the most athletic back-end on defense that we’ve been up against this season,” he noted. “They have a ton of athletes with a lot of speed that they use very well. I’m not sure you can stop them. You’ve got to keep them penned in and you can’t overreact because they are so quick. If you over-pursue, you’ll get yourself in trouble. You have to pursue soundly and that’s what we are working on this week.

“Secondly, Indian Creek is built differently than we are. They are gigantic and did a good job of possessing the ball last week against Bellaire. We have to plan our own game and do what we do best.”

Bellaire and St. Clairsville first met on the gridiron in 1927, with Big Red prevailing 6-0 at old Riverview Park in Bellaire. The Red-and-Black hold a 35-23 advantage in the all-time series, which has been yearly since 1978, with the exception of 2020 (COVID). The Red Devils have won nine straight, 13 of the last 14 and 14 of the last 16 after Bellaire had dominated from 1992 to 2006 (15 straight wins). They tied 0-0 in 1979 and played twice in 2006.