STEUBENVILLE CENTRAL’s Becca Bolster works the ball up the field during Tuesday’s Division III District Semifinal at Red Devil Stadium. The Crusaders were blanked, 3-0, by Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — During his three seasons guiding the Steubenville Catholic Central girls soccer program, head coach Jonathan Hoover has been happy with the growth and progress he’s seen.

However, he realizes that more work is to be done if his team is going to get to the level to which he and his players aspire.

At that level is the Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans squad, which eliminated the Crusaders on Tuesday at chilly and gusty Red Devil Stadium by a 3-0 score in a Division III Eastern District semifinal.

While Rosecrans prepares to take on Hiland on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Coshocton for a berth in the ‘Sweet 16,’ the Crusaders bow out with a 12-5-1.

“I think it was a fantastic season,” Hoover said. “Considering where this team was when I took over, this group of seniors had just one win in two seasons, so from where we were, to where we are now, we’ve definitely come a long way, but we need to start competing better with premier programs, like Rosecrans, if we’re going to get to that level.”

Avoiding that “couple of minute breakdown” has been crucial in the Crusaders’ success. They were unable to do it, though, against the Bishops.

Rosecrans took control in just shy of a three-minute stretch when it scored two goals.

Junior Chloe Zemba found the back of the net first just short of 30 minutes into the game when she took a beautiful crossing pass from junior Ella Lambert for the goal.

Lambert was back at with the passing at the 7:47 mark when she found freshman Sydnee Maxwell, who planted a shot in the back of the net.

“That stretch just before the half we had a couple of breakdowns and they were able to capitalize like you’d expect from a good team,” Hoover said. “Those two mistakes really seemed to take the wind out of our sails a little bit. I thought we played them well despite the fact the majority of the game was played in our (defensive) half of the field.”

The Crusaders, who had just two shots on goal all game, saw the game get put out of reach with 19:07 to play when Maxwell struck again. This time it came off a pass from Zemba.

“Getting that third (goal) obviously sealed it, but I still think we played well,” Hoover said. “We’ve played them in the past and they’ve controlled the game a lot more.”

Steubenville Catholic will bid farewell to eight seniors, including Miryam Newton, Miryam Gonzalez, Bella Zinno, Beth Beigel, Becca Bolster, Lindsey Decker, Hannah Hough and Anna Schlich.