5 things to know about the Indian Valley-Steubenville OHSAA football regional final

The game: No. 4 seed Indian Valley (10-3) plays No. 2 Steubenville (11-2) in the Division IV, Region 15 championship game. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at St. Clairsville's Red Devil Stadium.

How to watch: Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students. All tickets must be purchased online at ohsaa.org/tickets. The game will be broadcast on WTUZ-FM (99.9) and can be viewed live on the Big Z Sports Youtube channel.

Scouting Indian Valley: The Braves are in the postseason for the 10th time with an all-time record of 9-8, all since 2011. Indian Valley has never won three games in a single postseason, surpassing the two games it won in 2013. The Braves' run has been punctuated by the play of Kolton Thomas at quarterback. Taking over after Sam Carter was lost for the season with an injury in Week 10, Thomas is averaging 18.5 yards per completion with three touchdowns and (more importantly) no interceptions. He turned in perhaps the play of the year against Bishop Ready, scrambling after fumbling the snap and finding Eric Golder behind the secondary for a 25-yard touchdown.

There is no secret to the Braves' success. They have two 1,000-yard rushers, freshman Grady Kinsey (124-1,168-12 TDs) and senior Gavin Henry (125-1,109-19). Henry has also taken over as the primary receiver with Thomas' move to QB, with 16 catches for 284 yards and three TDs. Kinsey rushed for 166 yards and a touchdown, while Henry had 116 yards on the ground and 67 receiving with three TDs.

Defensively, five players have at least 100 tackles, led by junior Quake Beatty with 166. Beatty had 20 tackles against Bishop Ready. Jaxon Burcher, a sophomore, has 121 and Remington Myers has 120 for the season. Breydan Parsons (114) and Thomas (100) are next.

Scouting Steubenville: There aren't many Ohio programs with a more impressive history than Big Red, which has won four state championships (1984, 2005, 2006, 2017) and played in nine title games and 18 state semifinals. Steubenville is 72-30 all-time in the playoffs. Only Marion Local (93), Newark Catholic (86), Coldwater (86) and Cleveland St. Ignatius (78) have more postseason victories. Reno Saccochia, in his 40th season at Big Red, became Ohio's all-time winningest coach earlier this season; he is 412-82 (.834) at Steubenville.

Big Red is averaging about 32 points per game and is fairly balanced, rushing for 225 yards per game and throwing for 160. Defensively, Steubenville is allowing 83 yards per game rushing. Like Indian Valley, Big Red has two main rushing threats — senior Gavin Bozica has 1,047 yards and junior Savier Faulks has more than 850 yards and averages better than 9.0 yards per carry. The quarterback, Phaeton Hill, has thrown for 2,022 yards and 22 touchdowns. Junior Isaac Hill leads the receivers with 50 catches for 900 yards and 14 TDs.

Here and there: Steubenville leads the all-time series 1-0, winning 17-14 in a playoff game at Crater Stadium in Dover in 2013. … If you're into transitive properties, the teams have one common opponent – Dover. The Braves lost at Crater Stadium 20-6 in Week 3, and two weeks later the Crimson Tornadoes lost to Big Red 29-13 at Harding Stadium.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Indian Valley play Steubenville in a Division IV regional championship