Photo by Andrew Grimm Steubenville’s Luke Dinovo, left, and Weir High’s Cole Caranda jostle for the ball along the sideline Monday.

STEUBENVILLE — Big Red’s boys soccer team learned the hard way on Saturday what the consequences of taking the proverbial foot off the gas too early can be.

Lesson learned.

Using what they learned, Steubenville (5-1-1) kept the intensity up from start to finish Monday night to pull away from visiting Weir High (4-1-3) for a 5-0 victory at Harding Stadium.

“We came out focused on the task at hand,” Big Red head coach Greg Bowers said. “Saturday (a 4-2 loss to Dover) we got out to a 2-0 lead and let Dover get back into it. We got the 2-0 lead (Monday) and were able to put this one away.

“It was good to see them learn from that. We discussed at halftime that we have to learn from Saturday and we came out and did in the second half.”

Matt Loot had three goals and an assist to lead the way for the hosts.

“(Loot scoring three) is not surprising at all, he can finish at a high rate,” Bowers said. “We have three or four guys capable of doing that, tonight was just his night and he did a good job finishing.”

The win ends a stretch of four games in seven days after a lengthy stretch between matches for Bowers’ club.

“We were playing for the fourth time in seven days and knew we had a couple days off coming, so we knew we could empty the tank,” he said. “It was nice to be able to get some games in.

“Weir is a good team, they have some quality wins so we knew we were going to be in for a challenge.”

Loot’s first goal made it a 2-0 Steubenville lead at halftime after Anthony Vendetti, who also had an assist, opened the scoring.

Nick Nurczyk made it a 3-0 advantage, connecting on a header from in close less than two minutes into the second half, then Loot added his second and third of the night for a hat trick.

“Big Red is a good team,” Weir High head coach Chris LeFever said. “We scrimmaged them early on and we tied, but (Big Red) had some guys missing. We’re in a rebuilding year replacing eight starters from last year. We’ve started off pretty good, this was our first loss.

“We’re getting into a tough part of the schedule. Big Red was very-high pressure and they pretty much owned the midfield in the first half. They were definitely the better team (Monday).”

Cole Bowers, Aiden Morales and Eskil Hernes also added assists.

“I’m proud of my boys, they played hard,” LeFever said. “It’s good for us to see a team like Big Red at this point in the season … this was a nice reality check, we can learn from this.”

J.P. Walsh was credited with four saves in net, while John Wasnak was much busier in the Red Riders net with 12 saves.

Weir High takes on another rival tonight with a trip to Brooke.

Steubenville travels to John Marshall on Saturday.