CELEBRATION — Catholic Central’s Santi Descalzo (11) is swarmed by teammates after his goal in the fifth round of the shootout clinched a Crusaders win in Thursday’s OVAC semifinal. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — For the second-straight day, an OVAC soccer semifinal at the Tony Rencinella Soccer Field had a flair for the dramatic.

One day after the Catholic Central girls won a shootout to reach the Class 1A-3A championship game on the same pitch, Thursday evening the Crusaders boys team did the same to join them in playing for a championship on Saturday.

Central overcame a first-half deficit to No. 3 seed Trinity Christian, tying the game late in the second half. With the game still knotted after two overtimes, Central won a penalty kick shootout 5-3 to take the match 2-1 and earn a trip to Wheeling Island Stadium.

“We knew coming in it was going to be a tight game,” Central head coach Steve Kopcha said. “We played them earlier in the season and they got the better of us that day. They’re an excellent team, they’re very good defensively and they’ve been on a roll the past three of four years in the OVAC tournament.

“I always believe in our guys and what they’re capable of doing. This game is a good example of them working hard and staying with it and never giving up.”

Trailing the Warriors (7-3-2) 1-0 at halftime, the second-seeded Crusaders stuck with it in the second half. After a few good chances did not connect, Gus Zaleski knotted the score on a nice set up, finally getting one past Trinity keeper Parker Hopkins, who had a brilliant performance in the loss.

After neither team scored in either five-minute overtime, both teams converted on the first three rounds of PKs. The Warriors fourth shooter, however, missed, and Central’s Santi Desaclzo connected to start the fifth round to seal the victory.

“We knew the way we were playing we were going to get opportunities, we were controlling the majority of the play, we just needed to find a way to solve their goalie,” Kopcha said. “Luckily we were able to get the goal that we needed to tie it up.

“The PKs are definitely exciting. It’s something we work on in practice, but you never know how it’s going to go until you’re in that situation. I’m just glad that the practice paid off and the boys came through.”

The win was a little revenge for the Crusaders (7-3-1) after dropping an earlier meeting with Trinity 3-0 back in August.

Central will take on another familiar foe in Saturday’s final, as top-seeded Wheeling Central also won in PKs over Linsly in the other semifinal.

The Crusaders will look for some more revenge as the Maroon Knights won a recent meeting, 5-1.

“It means a lot to us to get back in the final,” Kopcha said. “It’s something we’ve talked about a lot. In the early days of this tournament we were fortunate enough to be there pretty often but we haven’t been there in a few years so being back to playing on Saturday is definitely something we wanted to achieve.”