IN THE CORNER — Big Red’s Tad Loot tries to keep the ball in play in front of Weir High’s Aiden Mills during Tuesday’s game at Jimmy Carey Stadium. - Andrew Grimm

Coming off a disappointing loss Saturday in the OVAC championship game, Big Red took a trip to Weir High and found itself in a battle with the Red Riders.

Big Red led by just a goal at halftime thanks to a late first half tally breaking a tie, and the Red Riders stayed within one for much of the second half before Steubenville was able to pull away for a 7-4 victory at Jimmy Carey Stadium.

“Give Weir credit, they made us work,” Big Red head coach Greg Bowers said. “I think we had a bit of a let down coming off a big game, but give them a lot of credit, they played well and made us work for it. We have to learn from it, because if we have a lack of focus again in the tournament, that will be the end of the season. We have to take every game serious and get better every game.

“We had to fight, there are some positives to that.”

Weir High’s Caiden Lamp possesses the ball in front of Big Red’s Chase Beall. - Andrew Grimm

Big Red, which improved to 8-4-1, did have its offense going — Cole Bowers scoring five goals and adding an assist, while Landon Bowers tallied two goals and four assists — but it was the defensive end where the lack of focus stood out to coach Bowers at times.

“We just have to be focused,” coach Bowers said. “We’re a good soccer team, but not a good enough team that we can afford to just turn it on and off, we have to be focused both offensively and defensively, and defensively we were not very focused tonight.”

For the Red Riders (7-8), coach Adam Welsh was happy with his team’s effort and resilience against a very strong opponent.

“I’m just really proud of the boys, they competed hard,” Welsh said. “Big Red is a very good team, a challenging team. Sometimes we don’t step up to that kind of challenge, but boy did we tonight. I’m so proud of the effort. We competed the entire game.”

Cole Bowers, the Army football recruit, scored one of his five goals with just under seven minutes left in the first half to break a 2-2 tie.

Big Red’s Landon Bowers looks to make a move. - Andrew Grimm

His goal less than three minutes in to the second half gave Big Red its first multi-goal lead of the match.

The Red Riders, though, answered under two minutes later with the first of two goals from Kalen Kuhns, making it a 4-3 game. It remained that way until the midpoint of the half, when Cole Bowers struck again.

Cole Bowers made it 6-3 with just over 10 minutes to play, then Landon Bowers tallied his second goal with 1:02 to go.

Kuhns added the final tally for Weir High with four seconds left to provide the final score.

Weir’s first half goals came from Caiden Lamp and Jake Bishof.

Big Red’s Cole Bowers works with the ball in the box. - Andrew Grimm

UP NEXT

Big Red: Hosts Catholic Central Saturday afternoon in the final match of the annual “Together We Care” event at Harding Stadium.

Weir High: Is back at home on Thursday hosting St. Clairsville.