STEUBENVILLE — Scoring early goals has been a theme for the Steubenville Catholic Central boys soccer team so far this season.

Catholic Central tallied another early one against undermanned Columbiana as the Crusaders sank the Clippers, 5-0, Monday on the Tony Recinella Soccer Field.

“That’s a theme we have been trying to drive in,” Catholic Central coach Steve Kopcha said. “We want to come out ready to play. We want to come out and get off to a good start. We want to try and play with the lead, and we want to try to continue to build up from that without giving up a goal in return.”

The Crusaders are 6-3 and the Clippers drop to 3-4.

Santo Descalzo struck for the first time in the match early on forcing the Clippers to play catch up the rest of the way.

“It’s a big deal, especially when you only have 10, and they were gracious enough to play with only 10 as well,” Columbiana coach Anthony Grenga said. “It’s tough when a team scores like that. There’s a lot of field here. When you fall behind early, it makes it tough to come from behind. Steubenville Catholic has a good looking team. They have a lot of people, a lot of people. They have a lot of talent. They have a lot of goal scorers. They have a lot of speed.”

Brendan Keubler delivered two goals and an assist to lead the way offensively for the hosts in the win, Descalzo netted a pair of goals and Xavier Lee tallied one. Sean Inverso chipped in with an assist.

Joseph Vransih made seven saves in goal for the Crusaders.

Beckett Wilson made 12 saves for the Clippers.

Descalzo netted the first two goals to give the Crusaders a 2-0 advantage. Kuebler also recorded a goal as the Crusaders took a 3-0 lead into halftime.

“For having 10, I thought we played well,” Grenga said. “We just could not find the back of the net. We made a few mistakes. We are missing our core defender. We only started with 11. We were missing him, and they were able to create some goals.”

Kuebler produced the first goal of the second half for the boys in blue, while Lee capped the scoring.

“I knew nothing about them,” Grenga said. “We only share one opponent. They played Heartland Christian, and it was 2-1. We didn’t get a lot from them. We knew they had some strong players, and they are used to playing on dirt. It was a tough match.”

The Clippers had a player go down with an injury in the second half, and he did not return. Catholic Central also pulled a player from the field.

“We knew they were pretty decent just looking at their results and how far they advanced in the tournament last year,” Kopcha said. “I was impressed with some of their guys. They had a lot of skill. They’re struggling a little bit with numbers. That’s the only difference. They don’t have a lot of guys, but they are a quality team.”

The Crusaders controlled the ball for a good bit of the match, though the boys in white did have some opportunities to find the back of the net but they were unable to do so.

“That is stuff we are trying to do,” Kopcha said about possessing the ball. “We want to try and possess the ball. We were able to possess the ball the ball and force them to chase us. With their small numbers, we were hoping to tire out their legs. We wanted to make them work.

“They did a great job of counter attacking. They were able to apply pressure to our defense, but our defense stood strong. We were able to win the ball back, and we were able to build possession.”

Catholic Central’s younger players got some time on the pitch in the second half.

The match was Catholic Central’s last one before Thursday’s cutoff to qualify for the annual OVAC Tournament. The Crusaders entered the match against the Clippers in third place in the Class 1A-3A standing behind Wheeling Central and Trinity Christian.

“This was our last game before the cutoff,” Kopcha said. “Now, we are going to wait and see the results from the rest of the games and see where we end up.”

The Maroon Knights and Warriors both have defeated the Crusaders by a score of 1-0 this season.

“We could possibly play Trinity again,” Kopcha said. “It seems like Wheeling Central, Trinity and us are common denominators in the tournament every year. We are going to have get through one another at some point.”

The Clippers are not competing in the tournament this season.

Columbiana is scheduled to play United at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the road.

“With only having 11 guys, we are having a solid season,” Grenga said. “This is a building year for us. We graduated six seniors, and we did not bring in any freshmen. We to have eight eighth-graders coming up. Our core players are all juniors. We should be strong next season.”

Catholic Central will play at Oak Glen at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“Things are going good, but I wish we were further along than we are,” Kopcha said. “We are trying to establish the way we want to play. We are trying to build that up. It is a continual process. Hopefully come the start of the state playoffs, we will be running at full speed.”