CLAYTON — Tuesday night’s soccer match between Northmont and Wayne was a hard-fought physical battle with players from both teams pushing off each other and colliding together while trying to control the ball in a battle between two determined conference opponents.

In the end the Thunderbolts walked away with a 4-0 shutout victory.

Christian Moncrief netted two goals to lead Northmont, one goal on a penalty kick with 8:48 left in the second half.

Forward Nevin Smith, a junior, scored the first goal at 34:52 in the first half. Moncrief made it 2-0 scoring on a header off a corner kick at 18:33.

With 4:04 remaining in the first half senior forward Nasir Eloi sliced through the Wayne defense to make it 3-0.

Eloi had two assists, Smith one and Elliott Moyer one. Goalkeeper Alex Hardy made three saves.

Northmont dominated control of the ball throughout the match to minimize the Warriors shots on goal opportunities.

“It was really a true team effort for us. I mean, I can’t look at one guy and say he’s the guy,” said Northmont coach Bob Brown. “I honestly have six or seven guys that can score goals. It’s really nice and it’s tough for opponents to defend.”

With the victory the Thunderbolts improved to 5-1-0 and 2-0-0 in Greater Western Ohio Conference play while Wayne fell to 3-2-1 and 0-2-0.

“I don’t think we played really well tonight. We played OK, but we took advantage of the chances that were presented for the most part,” Brown added. “Wayne definitely has a couple of guys that are super dangerous. We identified them beforehand, and we did a really good job for the most part of slowing them down.”

Reach Ron Nunnari by email: [email protected].