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Rachel Dissell, The Plain Dealer By Rachel Dissell, The Plain Dealer
on September 02, 2012 at 6:01 AM, updated September 02, 2012 at 4:55 PM

Big Red Rape Report Divides TownView full sizeJoshua Gunter, The Plain DealerThe Steubenville High football warms up on the field under their mascot Big Red before a game against Benedictine Friday, August 31, 2012 in Steubenville, Ohio.

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — It’s Monday, and ominous-looking clouds are pushing over Harding Stadium as dozens of football players in practice jerseys prepare to take on Cleveland’s Benedictine Bengals.

But this day two key players are missing from the field.

Police had arrested two sophomore starters just days before and charged them with kidnapping and raping a 16-year-old girl from a town just across the river in West Virginia. One of them is also accused of taking a nude photo or video of the girl.

Several players still on the practice field are also believed to be linked to the incident. Steubenville police are trying to determine whether they were there at the time of the attack or sent digital images of it all over cyberspace.

Officials continue to investigate details of the reports — that the girl was drugged into unconsciousness, ferried from party to party, raped and urinated on before ending up at home where her parents, discovering she was disoriented, took her to a local hospital.

On the practice field, longtime coach Reno Saccoccia is planted inside a huddle of boys. He occasionally grabs a player by the shoulders and peers into his helmet.

Saccoccia is talking X’s and O’s.

The rest of the town is talking rape. ............”