It is a season of change.

¯ It marked the first regular-season meeting between the teams after nine meetings in the playoffs;

¯ It was the first road opener for the Big Red since 1980;

¯ It was the first game as Cardinals coach for Carl Pelini, a Mooney graduate.

Correspondent photo / Erik Vargo A.J. Pecchia of Cardinal Mooney gets loose Friday night against Steubenville at Stambaugh Stadium.

The Big Red beat the Cardinals for only the third time in 10 meetings. The final score was 40-13.

After a rough start, the Cardinals played much better in the second half and got back into the game after trailing 28-6 at intermission.

“We knew there would be growing pains and we expected that, but we really shot ourselves in the foot early with the fumble and poor punting game mistakes,” Pelini said. “But with it raining like it is, and with the new rule saying officials can’t touch or dry the ball, it was up to us to get dry balls in there before we had the long snaps. That’s not something we were prepared for and it cost us.

“We gave them two or three scores with bad snaps. Then, in the second half, we also stopped two drives and should’ve been off the field and ready to make it a game, but we had two roughing the passer penalties that extended drives and they scored both times. But we played much better and crisper in the second half and nobody gave up.”

Pelini did not have much preparation time, taking over the coaching position four days before summer practices began in late July.

He replaced long-time Mooney coach P.J. Fecko, who posted a 159-80 mark with the Cardinals, won state championships in 2004, ’06, ’09 and ’11 and was a state runner-up in 2005, ’07 and ’13.

Pelini, a former assistant coach at YSU, is in his second stint as a head coach in high school, having posted a 12-18 record in three seasons at Austintown Fitch. In the collegiate ranks, he was an assistant at Nebraska, a head coach at Florida Atlantic and an interim head coach at Bowling Green.

The Big Red won the previous meeting, 19-14 in the 2017, a season which wound up with Steubenville winning the Division IV state championship.

On Friday night, the Cardinals fumbled on the first play of their second possession and Steubenville recovered on Mooney’s 16. Five plays later, Rodney James scored on a 1-yard run en route to finishing with 118 yards rushing on 23 carries.

Mooney’s third possession with a bad punt snap and punter Jack Phillips was tackled on his own 26-yard line. James scored on a 6-yard run six plays later to make it 14-0 with 4:05 left in the first quarter.

Z’yere Rogers scored Mooney’s first points on a 5-yard run to cap a seven-play, 60-yard drive, but the extra-point kick failed with 9:09 left before halftime.

Steubenville responded quickly, as fullback dive play on third-and-4 went for a 61-yard touchdown by Spencer Ostovich. Another poor punt snap then set the Big Red up at Mooney’s 20 and three plays later quarterback Cade Kernahan tossed a 17-yard scoring toss to Brandon Kinney with 4:19 left before halftime.

“We just struggled with the rain and some things in the first half, but I think we got it cleaned up after halftime,” Pelini said. “Without scrimmages and playing in the rain, it was hard to prepare for things like keeping the ball dry and snapping with a wet ball. But we’ll get it figured out.”

Mooney pulled within 28-13 when Davontae Miller scored on a 5-yard run in the middle of the third quarter after Rogers broke free from his own end zone and raced for 90 of his 125 yards rushing on 14 carries.

The Cardinals drove to the Steubenville 41 before quarterback Pat Guerrieri was intercepted in the end zone. Still, Mooney stopped the Big Red on a third-and-4 late in the period before a roughing the passer penalty gave Steubenville a first down.

The Big Red made it 34-13 on Kernahan’s 22-yard scoring pass to Aaron Ferguson with 8:14 left and tacked on a 1-yard scoring run from Joshua Boffman with 3:06 left.

Guerrieri was 7-for-16 passing for 59 yards. Rogers caught two passes for 24 yards and Jeffrey Brenner had a reception for 20 yards.

Kernahan was 8-for-17 for 80 yards and completed passes to seven receivers.