Photo by Nick Henthorn St. Clairsville’s Ollie Muhly (11) and Gage Wolfe (0) celebrate Muhly’s touchdown catch against Marion-Franklin on Friday at Red Devil Stadium.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Division IV Region 15 playoffs was only big enough for one Red Devils team Friday, with No. 1 St. Clairsville (11-0) taking down their mascot counterpart No. 16 Marion-Franklin (4-7) 40-6 at Red Devil Stadium to move onto the second round of the OHSAA postseason.

Ollie Muhly and Max Fogle each caught and ran for a touchdown while Tyson Pastor caught a touchdown and Brody Saunders recovered a fumble in the end zone on defense as tons of St. Clairsville footballers heard their names called in a spread-the-wealth rout.

“Our kids were focused,” St. Clairsville head coach Brett McLean said. “They executed. We capitalized on some opportunities right away- our offense hit on a big play right off the bat, and then defensively we did a really good job of containing their superb skill kids. They’ve got two receivers that anybody would be happy to have on their team.

“Our kids did a really good job of attacking them in space, forcing the issue, making them run east-west instead of north-south. That was a fantastic job by our kids.”

Defensively, St. Clairsville shut down Marion Franklin’s ground game, holding them to net negative yardage, allowed only two first downs in the first half and pitched a shutout until Marion-Franklin’s final drive, at which point both teams were playing their second-string.

Colten Florence had two first-half sacks for St. C., Gavin Schoolcraft nabbed an interception right before halftime and Brody Saunders recovered a fumble in the end zone on a day where the top seed’s defense was wreaking havoc.

“That’s a unit where the d-line and linebackers all work together to get each other free,” McLean said. “Colten and Brody Saunders have just been fantastic getting pressure on quarterbacks all year.

“Having a tandem like that is really beneficial, they spill people to each other and coach [Chris] Balog, our defensive end coach, he does an outstanding job with our d-ends and d-tackles, he and coach [Kevin] Sacco, they work hard with those guys and I’m real proud of the pressure that unit got tonight.”

St. Clairsville was off and running from their first play, a deep shot down the middle to Ollie Muhly for 33 yards, before Muhly took a handoff 11 yards to the end zone the next snap. The junior turned three catches and four rush attempts into 127 total yards and two total touchdowns to pace the Red Devil offense Friday.

“It felt like he was all over the place for us tonight, made a lot of big plays,” McLean said of Muhly. “I’m sure he’d credit the o-line, the quarterbacks, the guys making the fakes and everything else that got him in that position. For him to make that catch early, and the one down in the end zone, super excited for him.

“Kid works his tail off, he’s a really good athlete and he made some big plays in a playoff game, that should go a long way for his confidence moving forward- he’s a junior, so we’re excited to have Ollie.”

“I just keep the same mindset every week- go out there and perform, do what my coaches teach me,” Muhly said. “My coaches and my teammates put me in a position to do that. I just go out every week trying to do the best I can.”

Quarterback Brody Schafer was surgical with the ball, completing 10 of his 14 pass attempts for 172 yards and three touchdown tosses. Max Fogle was the recipient of one touchdown throw, Schafer executing a play-action face before flipping his hips and throwing to Fogle who held on through a hit in the end zone for a seven-yard touchdown which put St. C. ahead 15-0 after a two-point conversion with 1:28 in the first.

Fogle rumbled for a 13-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter and Muhly blew past a defender out of the slot for a 32-yard touchdown streak with three minutes left in the half.

“I just keep the same mindset every week- go out there and perform, do what my coaches teach me, my coaches and my teammates put me in a position to do that. I just go out every week trying to do the best I can.”

Schafer made a scrambling throw to Tyson Pastor in the end zone from nine yards out to put the game far out of reach with 38 seconds to play in the second quarter.

“We have a bunch of playmakers, we’re very explosive as an offense,” Muhly said. “We have a ton of places we can go with the ball, and we spread it around pretty well.”

Nine different players caught a pass and nine different players rushed the ball for St. Clairsville on Friday.

St. Clairsville did not know their opponent in the next round by the end of their game- which featured a running clock through all of the second half- but later in the evening, No. 8 Bishop Ready defeated No. 9 Jonathan Alder, pitting the Silver Knights against the Red Devils in the second round next Friday back at Red Devil Stadium.

No matter who their opponent would’ve been though, McLean wanted his team to stay locked-in and in-control.

“You’ve got to stay focused, stay grounded every single week,” McLean said. “Your kids need to keep their energy. Our community, our school, the spirit just blows them through the roof- and not just them. Our girls soccer team is playing in the regional finals tomorrow, we want to wish them the best of luck. Our golf team did fantastic- all our fall sports teams had a fantastic year.

“They have to keep an energy, a desire to keep moving and keep going. Practice is the most important thing- our guys need to be excited to practice Monday, they’ve earned another trip to play at Red Devils Stadium, I think our seniors are through the roof excited about that, but everybody in our camp’s got to feel that way and keep pushing hard.”