DIVISION III Big Red's Hubbard grounds Eagles

Shaun Lane's 176 rushing yards weren't enough to save the Eagles' season.
By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STEUBENVILLE -- Nate Hubbard rushed for 208 yards and scored three touchdowns as the Steubenville High football team ousted Hubbard 20-7 Friday at Harding Field.
Next Saturday, Steubenville (9-2) will play against the winner of tonight's Poland-Cleveland Benedictine game.
"They have an outstanding running back and with their ability to do more things with the ball, their offense seemed more potent than ours," Hubbard (9-2) coach Jeff Bayuk said.
"But we have a pretty good back also in Shaun Lane and he did a lot for us tonight and all season long," Bayuk said. "Our kids showed great character battling all the way to keep us in the game."
Play-maker
Entering the Division III regional quarterfinal game, Hubbard had 1,512 yards and 15 touchdowns.
His last score came with 1:48 remaining in the game to cap a five-play, 39-yard drive.
In the second quarter, Big Red senior quarterback Brian Pruitt completed passes of 22 yards to Dave Fatula and 47 yards to Mike Abbott to give Steubenville a first-and-goal at the 1 to set up Hubbard's first touchdown.
Hubbard's other 1-yard touchdown came with 39 seconds left in the first half.
Steubenville's first score was set up by an Eagles fumble, the first of three Hubbard turnovers.
Led by John Dominic, Tony Frazzini and Ben Lane, the Eagles stopped Big Red drives.
Lone Lane touchdown
On the Eagles' second possession of the third quarter, Lane broke away from three would-be Steubenville tacklers and raced 74 yards up the right sideline for a Hubbard touchdown.
This scoring jaunt by Lane, who ran for 176 yards on 22 carries, inspired his teammates who twice put a stop to Big Red advances. One of those stops was on Hubbard on a fourth-and-1 at the Eagles' goal line.
"We played our hearts out and we will be back next season," Lane said.
Steubenville coach Reno Saccoccia said, "We learned a lesson in winning in that we shouldn't relax. We did tonight and that Lane kid went by us all for 74 yards."