Bellefontaine quarterback Tavien St Clair looks for a path to run in Friday’s 49-14 win over Kenton Ridge. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
For the final time, a Central Buckeye Conference team had to defend Ohio State-bound quarterback Tavien St. Clair. And like most nights in league play the past four years, St. Clair and his teammates were too much for Kenton Ridge.
Springfield, OH – From first impressions to final impressions, Tavien St. Clair’s reign in the Central Buckeye Conference may never be surpassed.
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His star burst onto the scene as a freshman, and he earned an offer from Tennessee. His rise continued as a sophomore. In Week 9 of that
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season, St. Clair led Bellefontaine to a 49-14 victory at Kenton Ridge. He completed 15 of 20 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns.
“I remember his sophomore year saying, ‘Holy smoke, that kid’s legit,’” Kenton Ridge head coach Jon Daniels said.
The next morning at the JV game, Daniels had advice for Bellefontaine head coach Jason Brown.
“I had the conversation with him about you should put your kid up for player of the year,” Daniels said. “He was on the fence about it, and I said, ‘Trust me, he’s player of the year right now.”
Chieftain Braylon Newcomb gets taken down by Cougar’s Nicholas Arnold after hauling in a 40 yard catch thrown by Tavien St Clair.
St. Clair was named the CBC player of the year and then again as a junior. No doubt he will win it for a third time. On Friday night, St. Clair was back at Kenton Ridge and he was again too much for the Cougars in the Chieftains’ 35-0 victory in his final regular season game.
“He’s different than anybody we’ve seen in this league,” Daniels said.
So different that he is committed to Ohio State and is the No. 2 player in the country, according to the 24/7 Sports composite rankings. On Friday, St. Clair led the Chieftains (8-2, 4-1 CBC) to a 28-0 halftime lead and finished 18 of 22 for 210 yards and the 103rd touchdown pass of his career.
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St. Clair’s recruitment is clearly about his throwing arm, but he showed running ability with 43 yards on five carries and touchdown runs of two and four yards, outrunning defenders to the pylon. On the second scoring drive, St. Clair was chased toward the right sideline by a blitzer. He turned the scramble into an exciting 22-yard run.
Bellefontaines’ Ayden Clary gets tripped up by a Kenton Ridge defender.
“People just think he’s a throwing quarterback,” receiver Braylon Newcomb said. “He can run. He’s a big, fast and strong guy, so he can lower the boom, he can juke you. He’s fast.”
St. Clair is fully recovered from an ankle injury, and he’s happy to run when the time is right.
“I always like being able to do that just because I think it makes it harder on our opponent,” he said. “They have to prepare for something that they didn’t think they’d have to.”
St. Clair also runs the team on the field in whatever ways Brown asks. This season he needed St. Clair to be more than just a QB leader. The Chieftains lost a lot of talent off last year’s team that won a school-record three playoff games. But the line that returned only a part-time starter and a mostly inexperienced receiving corps have matured.
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“He’s been a fantastic leader in word and in deed,” Brown said. “He understands the rhythm of leadership – there’s a time to be vocal, there’s a time to just lead by example, there’s a time where you need to be very direct, and then there’s a time where you don’t have to be as direct. He’s got the pulse of this football team on his finger.”
Bellefontaines Braylon Newcomb intercepts a pass from Kenton Ridge’s quarterback Julian Daniels, which was intended for Brennan Shaffer (40).
St. Clair will be at Ohio State on Saturday to watch the Buckeyes play Nebraska. But before he makes Columbus his home, St. Clair wants to lead his team on another playoff run. The Chieftains have won four straight and will host a Division III, Region 12 playoff game next week.
“Our motto has been to be ascending into the playoffs and be the best version of ourselves,” St. Clair said. “And I’m really looking forward to that.”
The Chieftains are confident in their improving defense and an offense that has become more diverse. Early in the season it was mostly St. Clair to Newcomb, the Centerville transfer who set the school record with 235 receiving yards in the opener.
“In this league he’s different than just about everybody,” Daniels said of Newcomb.
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Newcomb had another big night Friday with 11 catches for 138 yards and a 40-yard touchdown, following his own interception, for a 21-0 lead in the second quarter. But five others caught passes and Carter Caudill rushed 14 times for 86 yards and two touchdowns to surpass 1,000 yards.
Kenton Ridge Jackson Patton is surrounded by a tribe of Chieftains.
“We want teams to put on the film and say, ‘We’ve got to defend every blade of grass – this team is going to stress us horizontally, they’re going to stress us vertically,” Brown said. “Our guys have really stepped up and started to make plays, and it starts up front.”
St. Clair enjoyed seeing his inexperienced teammates grow into making important plays for the offense as the season progressed.
“Just building confidence within my guys,” he said. “They make plays when plays are needed to be made, and they deserve it. I’m just getting my playmakers the ball.”
The Chieftains scored the first five times they had the ball with a collective effort. St. Clair’s two-yard jog around the right end, Caudill’s one-yard blast up the middle, Newcomb’s 40-yard catch at the goal line and Caudill’s two-yard run made for a 28-point half. Everyone got involved.
Bellefontaines’ Carter Caudill gives Cougar’s Nicholas Arnold the stiff arm for some yardage.
“They understand that we have high expectations, and they want to push the standard as high as they can push it,” Brown said. “We took a tough one Week 2 (loss to Bellbrook), and since then we’ve really worked and worked and worked to have mentally and physically tough practices, and our kids have bought into that.”
Kenton Ridge (7-3, 2-3) will travel to a playoff game next week in Division IV, Region 16. They won’t be going in on the winning streak the Chieftains will, but Daniels isn’t down on his team after a night of fewer than 100 yards of offense.
“We didn’t play the way we wanted to, not even close,” he said. “But our guys have figured some things out this season. We’re playing a much tougher brand of football right now. We found a spark on what Kenton Ridge football is supposed to be, the practice habits that it takes, the toughness that it takes, all those things. Now we’ve got to turn the page from playing two really good D3 playoff juggernaut type teams and go and play playoff football.”
And leave Division III playoff teams to deal with St. Clair, who is far more than just the best player in the CBC.
“When he’s fully healthy, he’s unstoppable,” Newcomb said. “You can see from the way he plays, he’s the best in the country.”
Bellefontaines’ Braylon Newcomb snags a long pass thrown by quarterback Tavien St Clair, leading to a Chieftain touchdown.
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