Photo by Andrew Grimm Linsly’s Cameron Neighoff, left, and Big Red’s Matt Loot battle for control of the ball Tuesday.

STEUBENVILLE — Big Red and Linsly entered Tuesday’s meeting at Harding Stadium undefeated, and they also left Reno Field without a notch in the loss column.

The perennial OVAC contenders battled for 80 hard minutes, but could not determine a winner as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

“That was a battle,” Big Red head coach Greg Bowers said. “We knew they were good coming in. They’ve had some good results this year. To come out here and compete with them was good.

“The last couple years you didn’t know what you were going to get from Linsly but their roster is a lot different (this year).

“This shows us where we’re at competitiveness-wise, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t compete the rest of the week, too.”

For Big Red, now 3-0-1, it was a good test to face the now 5-0-1 Cadets after a spread-out early schedule has given them layoffs between games.

With Tuesday’s game, another home match on Thursday and a road game Saturday, a busy week is a welcome change of pace.

“We had some teams that had to cancel on us and that kind of took the schedule out of our hands,” Bowers said. “It was a long grind through some of those practices without playing, but the boys did good and we’re glad to be back to playing soccer more routinely.”

Austin Fonseca scored for Linsly, while Steubenville’s Nick Nurczyk continued his strong start to the season with a goal to answer for the hosts.

Big Red had several quality chances to take the lead, including a penalty kick try by Anthony Vendetti with just over five minutes to play after the Cadets were whistled for a handball in the box, but the shot went high.

“Our defense plays strong, and we were able to create opportunities,” Bowers said. “In years past, we wouldn’t have been able to get that many opportunities against Linsly. We have some guys who can create.

“We had opportunities to win the game, just as they did, but it was a good soccer game.”

In the nets, Big Red’s J.P. Walsh made six saves, while Linsly’s Andrew Skadra stopped five shots to keep the deadlock.

Steubenville is back in action to host St. Clairsville on Thursday.