Crusaders come up winless on road
By TONY MALUSO, Special to the Herald-StarEAST PALESTINE -The East Palestine Bulldogs were looking to build confidence after two tough losses to begin their season.
The young Bulldogs, who feature only five seniors, took a big step towards growing up Saturday night as they took a bite out of the Steubenville Catholic Central Crusaders, 42-22, on Hall of Fame Induction night at Reid Stadium.
"This is a big win for us," admitted East Palestine coach Jeff Sharkey. "When you start 0-2 and struggle like we did last week, this can be a momentum changer for the entire season."
Junior quarterback Shane Peterson threw four touchdown passes to Austin Cope and scored another to lead the Bulldogs.
Peterson was the top dog as he ran for 162 yards on 21 carries and completed 13-of-22 passes for 241 yards.
"He's a player," Sharkey said. "Shane is such a tremendous player and competitor sometimes he scares me."
East Palestine built a 21-7 halftime lead, but soon found itself facing adversity like it has all season.
The Crusaders came out scoring two quick touchdowns in the third quarter, and added a two-point conversion to take the lead 22-21.
When Matt Thomas fumbled the ball back to Catholic Central, things seemed to go from bad to worse for East Palestine, but unlike a similar instance earlier in the season, the Bulldogs fought back. First they stopped the Crusaders on a fourth-down play deep in Bulldog territory.
Then Peterson led the Bulldogs down the field and helped them reclaim the lead on an 18-yard touchdown pass to Cope. Peterson and Cope would connect two more times on touchdowns of 14 and 51 yards to close out the game.
"This shows what we're capable off," Peterson said. "The same thing happened to us the first game, this time no one quit and we fought back."
Peterson was the top dog for East Palestine. He took control on the game's first possession, marching his team 60 yards, accounting for 50 of them himself including the final four on a touchdown run that staked the Bulldogs to the early lead.
The Crusaders' attempt to answer was cut short thanks to an interception by Shane Egresie. It took Peterson just three plays strike again, this time on a 75 yard touchdown pass to Cope.
Cope caught six passes for 168 yards and all four touchdown passes. The Bulldogs amassed 576 yards of total offense.
The Bulldogs will look to take the confidence gained from Saturday's victory into conference play, as they open up their ITCL schedule at United.
