OUT OF THE AIR — Weir High’s Giana Paladina attempts to corral the ball in front of Big Red’s Maleea Crownover during Tuesday’s match at Harding Stadium. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Up by two at halftime on Tuesday evening, Weir High head coach Jeremy Angelo wanted to see his Red Riders take control of what was, to that point, a closely contested match with Big Red at Harding Stadium.

He got his wish.

The Red Riders, who have been getting stronger and stronger through the course of a now nine game winning streak, added to the lead early in the second half, then put things out of reach with three more to pull away for a 7-1 victory.

“We started moving the ball and putting on more and more pressure, and shots started turning into goals,” Angelo said. “In the first half, it was 3-1 and (Big Red) was winning a lot of 50-50 balls. We talked about taking control in the second half and we did.

“It was very important to get a goal early in the second half to get some more separation.

“The first half was very competitive, in the second half, we did what we should do — move the ball and finish.”

Now 9-2-1, the Red Riders have outscored their opponents a combined 52-6 since scoring just twice in an 0-2-1 start.

“The scoring, the creating part, always takes longer to come along than the defending,” Angelo said. “We still missed some shots, we had opportunities we didn’t finish, but we’re getting better at finishing.

“Give credit to Big Red, their keeper made a bunch of saves and they came to play.”

Big Red’s goal came on a fortuitus bounce as the ball went into the net off the foot of a Red Rider for an own goal. That ended up being the lone blemish for Weir keeper Rayna Hoover, who was 8 for 8 in stopping shots from the foot of a Steubenville player.

“It snowballed a little bit in the second half, Weir is a very good team,” Big Red head coach Annie Curti, whose team is 3-6, said. “They’ve been very successful, they beat Oak Glen, so I was very proud of our girls for the way they played in the first half.

“The goal was unlucky for the Weir goalie; I was hoping it would give us some momentum to keep striking … we’re a young team and we’re still trying to find what works for us.”

Olivia Baker, Madelyn Cramer and Jaidyn Kelly each had a pair of goals for the Red Riders, while Lexie Fayak connected for a goal. Olivia Bine tallied two assists, while Kaelyn Engle tallied one.

UP NEXT

Weir High: Hosts North Marion on Saturday.

Big Red: Hosts Catholic Central in the annual city rivalry game on Thursday.