Staff photo / Preston Byers Howland’s A.J. Sanders tries to dribble around Ursuline’s Max Martinucci during Tuesday’s match at Howland.

HOWLAND — After falling 3-2 to Pepper Pike Orange on Saturday, Howland boys soccer coach Nick Sheely, for the first time this season, had to guide his squad following a loss.

It turns out that tasting defeat may have actually been best for Howland, as the hungry Tigers struck early and often in a 5-0 home victory against Ursuline on Tuesday that could have been far, far more lopsided.

“You never want to lose, obviously, but it’s definitely a lesson learner, and that’s what the message was tonight,” Sheely said. “It was about us getting back to what we do, reminding ourselves that we’re fine. And I think the boys responded well tonight.”

Howland wasted no time in launching its attack. Less than two minutes after kickoff, Connor Gebhardt finished off a run and gave the Tigers a 1-0 advantage.

Ten minutes later, Luke Barringer attempted a through pass to play it ahead to a teammate. But the pass led to a collision between his teammate and Ursuline starting goalkeeper John Rock, allowing Barringer’s pass to become a long-range shot and goal as the ball rolled into the back of the net.

With just under 23 minutes remaining in the first half, Demetri Gentis put Howland ahead 3-0 off a 25-yard free kick assist from Dom Santee. Shortly after the third goal, Ursuline coach Joel Monaco decided to insert freshman Carson Martinucci at goalkeeper.

While Martinucci escaped the first half without surrendering a goal, the ferocious, possession-dominant Howland offense scored two in the second half.

Nearly 60 minutes into the match, Santee created another scoring opportunity on a free kick, but this time, Santee earned the goal when, from 20 yards out, he kept a hard-hit shot on the turf and right into the corner past Martinucci.

A few minutes later, Gentis capitalized on a corner kick to give himself a second goal of the night and the Tigers their fifth and final score.

While Howland did not need them Tuesday night, Sheely knows the Tigers left several goals on the field, which he would like to address before the playoffs.

“That’s one thing we’ve struggled with all year,” Sheely said of missing opportunities. “We’ve had a couple games where we were able to light up the scoreboard more, but to be honest, we don’t actually have a true goal scorer coming back from last year.

“Demetri Gentis has stepped up tremendously for us as of late. Connor Gebhardt has been putting the ball in the back of the net. And that’s kind of what the emphasis is; we don’t need a superstar or a hero. We just need whoever’s willing to get the job done.”

For Ursuline, its coach approached Tuesday’s match as an experiment of sorts without some of its players due to injury.

“We knew how competitive they are and how quality they are. So we were just trying some new things against a really quality team,” Monaco said. “Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

While the experiment did not yield favorable results, Monaco said he hopes its lessons and the sometimes painful “growing pains” can aid the Irish in the postseason.

Sheely wishes much of the same for his team, which he said probably needed to be knocked down by Orange over the weekend to move forward successfully.

“It’s one thing to get up there and compete, but to stay up there, I think we kind of lost sight of it a little bit. So it kind of brought us back down to earth,” Sheely said.

Ursuline (8-6) will have a day to absorb the loss before turning its attention to Badger, which the Irish play on the road Thursday.

Howland (9-1-2) returns its focus to conference play now. The Tigers finish its regular season with four conference matches, the first of which being at Austintown Fitch on Thursday.