GUARDING THE BALL — Catholic Central’s Isaac Stoutz protects the ball from a Monroe Central defender during Tuesday’s tournament game. - Aaron Petchal

STEUBENVILLE — Throughout the season, the Catholic Central boys’ soccer team has been focused on creating opportunities and scoring goals.

The message from head coach Steve Kopcha to his team was more of the same as second-seeded Catholic Central got set to do battle against No. 7 seed Monroe Central. The Crusaders hoped to get off to a good start against the Seminoles, and the Blue and Gold was able to do just that as Catholic Central tallied three goals in each half en route to a 6-0 victory via mercy rule in an Ohio Division V Eastern District Sectional Co-Final Tuesday evening at the Tony Recinella Soccer Field.

“The very last thing I said to them before we took the field was we need to score first,” Kopcha said. “We wanted to continue to play good strong defense to give our offense a chance to score. We needed to score first.”

The Crusaders (8-8) create opportunities throughout the match as the boys from Jefferson County took 20 shots on goal en route to the win. On the other side, the visitors from Monroe County only took one shot – a penalty kick that bounced off the crossbar in the first half – on the day.

“The only way to score is to keep shooting and to keep creating opportunities,” Kopcha said. “We tell them to shoot and to look for a rebound or possibly another chance. We emphasize that we need to shoot to score, and we were able to do that today.”

Santi Descazlo tallied two goals to jumpstart the Catholic Central offense, Brendan Kuebler collected a goal and an assist and Nico Gonzalez, Aiden Hough and Jonah Lesnefsky all finished with a goal for the victors. Also, Eli Krivoniak contributed an assist in the win.

Goalie Joseph Vranish did not make a save for the boys in blue.

Monroe Central goalie Dylan Brake was bust from start to finish as the freshman finished the match with 14 saves — 10 of which came in the first half.

“We have played them a couple of times through the years,” Kopcha said about the Seminoles. “They’re coed. The girls play just as hard as the boys. We are kind of familiar with them. We expected it to be a good clean well played hard fought game, and it was.”

With the win, Catholic Central will now play No. 3 seed Tuscarawas Valley in a district semifinal Tuesday at home. Tusky Valley advanced to the district semifinals by defeating No. 6 seed Fairless, 3-2, in another sectional co-final Tuesday night at home.

“We faced them last year in the tournament,” Kopcha said. “They took it to us, and they ended our season. I know they graduated some players, but they are well coached. We are going to have to play our best game to advance.”

The Crusaders and the Seminoles was scoreless as the midway point of the first half approached, however, Descalzo delivered his first goal to break the deadlock and give Catholic Central a 1-0 lead 17 minutes into the match.

Descalzo tallied his second goal of the day off a feed from Kuebler to give the hosts a 2-0 advantage with about 10 minutes left to play before halftime.

Kuebler capped the scoring in the first half a couple of minutes later when he scored to extend Catholic Central’s advantage out to 3-0.

Kuebler’s goal came shortly after Monroe Central had its lone scoring chance of the match. The Crusaders were called for a foul in the penalty box, and the Seminoles were awarded a penalty kick. Luke Barnhardt took the kick, however, the junior’s kick bounced harmlessly off the crossbar keeping the visitors off the scoreboard.

The victors struck again about eight minutes into the second half when Gonzalez found the back of the net to increase his team’s advantage to 4-0. Then, Hough tickled the twine about nine minutes to make the score 5-0 before Lesnefsky found the back of the net to make the score, 6-0, with about 13 minutes remaining to be played bringing the running clock into play.

“Survive and advance,” Kopcha said. “You want to move on. You want to stay healthy and live to play another day.”