photo by: Andrew Grimm

Steubenville’s Drew Stimpert moves upfield with the ball while John Marshall’s Cash McLendon trails during Thursday’s OVAC 5A semifinal match inside Haridng Stadium.

STEUBENVILLE — The Big Red boys soccer team is going back to the OVAC Championship Game.

In a much closer game than the first meeting between the teams, Big Red was able to find the back of the net twice in each half to take a 4-0 victory over upstart John Marshall Thursday night at Harding Stadium in the Class 5A semifinals.

“It’s a challenge any time you’ve played a team already,” Big Red head coach Greg Bowers said. “John Marshall has a lot going for them, they have a lot of momentum. We were worried about a letdown, but we came in focused and took care of business.

“We didn’t let up in the second half after getting up. We try to learn from the past, we had a 2-0 lead against Beaver Local we let get away so we reminded them at halftime we needed to put it away and finish. I’m proud of them for being able to do that.”

With the win, No. 2 seed Big Red will play for a conference championship on Saturday at St. Clairsville’s Red Devil Stadium. It is Big Red’s first trip to the title match since winning it in 2020.

They will take on top seed Wheeling Park in the noon game. The Patriots won the regular season meeting between the teams 5-0 at Wheeling Island Stadium earlier this month.

“Last time it was 2020, the COVID year, so it’s been a while,” Bowers said. “We’re excited. We’ve got some things to work on. We did some positive things against (the Patriots) the first time, we have some things to clean up.

“We’re going to have a good, solid practice (today) and be ready to give it our all on Saturday.”

It was once again the brothers Bowers leading the way for the Crimson and Black. Cole Bowers, the senior standout and Army football commit, tallied a hat trick and an assist, while Landon Bowers tallied the other Steubenville (7-3-1) goal. Tad Loot, Gabe Martin and Drew Stimpert each had an assist, while JJ Lamantia tallied five saves for the shutout in goal.

For the Monarchs (8-6), getting back into the tournament and into the semis was a step in the right direction, and they showed improvement from an 8-1 loss to Big Red earlier in the season.

“They’re a pretty good team, we knew we were in for a battle,” Strope said. “I’m super proud of our guys, they played hard the whole game and didn’t give up. (Big Red) had two kind of flukey goals, and in the past when we would get down two or three, we would hang our heads. They didn’t do that tonight, they kept fighting and I’m very proud of that.

“It meant a lot to get here, but we weren’t just here to be here. We wanted to show we could hang with a team like that. We have a senior-laden team, this is a different team. We felt like this was a chance for these guys to try to put a trophy in the case, but it didn’t happen. We still have the regionals to look forward to and we’ll try to get a winning season.”

Strope hopes testing themselves against a team like Big Red will pay dividends in the postseason.

“I think it helps tremendously,” he said. “That is one of the most physical teams we’re going to see, so this makes us battle-tested. Playing in this kind of environment against that type of team is going to help us.”

The Monarchs, who were the No. 3 seed in the tournament, got eight saves in goal from Tripp Bonds.

JM will resume regular season action next week, traveling to Morgantown on Tuesday.