ST. CLAIRSVILLE’S Caden Stout controls the ball Thursday night.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Jeff Roberts has a pair of Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Class 4A boys soccer championships on his brief resume at St. Clairsville, but he ranks Thursday night’s triumph over both of those titles.

Playing an outstanding all-around match, the Red Devils (4-1) posted a 2-0 verdict over visiting Morgantown on the artificial pitch inside sun-soaked Red Devil Stadium.

The Mohigans (3-2) entered the contest ranked No. 3 in the West Virginia Class AAA.

“This is by far my biggest victory as head coach here,” Roberts beamed. “The OVAC (championships) are great and all, but this win gives the boys a huge confidence boost. Now they know they can play with high-caliber teams.”

Morgantown suffered a huge blow when starting goalkeeper Carter Cave picked up a red card in the second minute of play, resulting in his ejection. It also meant the Mohigans had to play with 10 players for the remainder of the match against 11 for the Red Devils.

St. Clairsville took full advantage.

“We’ll take any help we can get any day,” Roberts noted. “That was unfortunate for Morgantown, but beneficial to us.”

The Red Devils scored what turned out to be the only goal they would need early in the 11th minute.

Jayson Clark sent the ball up the field and teammate Nate Thornburg ran it down behind the Morgantown back line of defense. With backup goalkeeper Benjamin Meyer charging towards the ball, Thornburg flipped it over top and then watched it bounce into the empty net for a 1-0 lead.

“That was a beautiful cross from Jayson. I heard Nate calling for it,” Roberts added. “Scoring first against a big, physical team like Morgantown is always a bonus.”

The score remained that way until Jesse Brannan found the net unassisted late in the 78th minute for the 2-0 final.

Shane Jackson notched the shutout with five saves. None were any bigger than when he corralled a free kick in the 19th minute with a Mohigan player crashing the net.

“This was truly a team win,” Roberts assessed. “I really thought Caden Stout played phenomenal. We had a little talk about how I wanted him to play, and he played the way I want him to today.”

Roberts was also impressed with the play of Karl Kain, who had the task of watching Morgantown’s Vivek Sriram.

“I thought Karl played the best game of his life. He left it all out there,” Roberts praised. “The game plan was to mark their No. 10 who is an NCAA Division I signed player, and to keep him from scoring. That’s what Karl did.”

St. Clairsville hosts Harrison Central Tuesday night at 6.