Staff photo / Preston Byers Warren G. Harding’s Jaron Edmonds (24) gets ready to challenge Cardinal Mooney’s Noah Hanni for the ball during the Cardinals’ 11-1 win over the Raiders in Youngstown on Tuesday.

YOUNGSTOWN — Cardinal Mooney cruised to an 11-1 home win Tuesday vs. Warren G. Harding.

Four Cardinals scored multiple goals, including three who netted hat tricks, but Mooney coach Matthew Britton came away from Monday’s rout unsatisfied.

“We played too slow. It was too slow of a game,” Britton said. “The game lacked intensity, first. There was a talent disparity. So we could have played a little bit quicker. We played a little bit down to our opponent in this game, which we can’t do. Luckily, we were able to get away with it. But there’s a lot of improvement that’s there to be made.”

Mihali Frangos got the scoring started early; three minutes into the game, the senior midfielder swiped the ball away from the Harding goalkeeper in the box for the first goal of the evening. Angel Alvarez soon joined Frangos with a goal on a free kick from the left side of the pitch to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead just over six minutes in.

Jacob Gugliotta scored after Donovan Whetstone successfully held a defender on his hip before slipping the ball over to Gugliotta in front of the net. Less than 30 seconds later, Gugliotta appeared to add another goal, but he was ruled offside.

Nonetheless, he and the Cardinals continued their onslaught for the remainder of the half; Alvarez scored his second goal near the halfway mark of the first half, Gugliotta officially got No. 2 eight minutes later and Dimitri Zoumis capitalized on a mistake by the Harding goalkeeper to go up 6-0.

With 45 seconds left in the half, Gugliotta completed the hat trick with a free kick from about 20 yards out before Frangos capped off the half with the Cardinals’ eighth goal when he stole the ball away from the Raiders and put a shot into the net.

While Mooney slowed down in the second half, the game was still largely dominated by the Cardinals, with Zoumis scoring his second and third goals within four minutes of each other, while Frangos joined Zoumis and Gugliotta in the hat trick club with 21:14 remaining.

Harding avoided a shutout thanks to Garrett Wonders, who scored the only Raiders goal with under 12 minutes to go.

“They didn’t quit,” Harding head coach Tilden Tatebe said. “If you watch, our guys did not quit, especially in the second half. I told them that we can’t let the score dictate how we play. And they didn’t hang their heads, even though they could have easily shut down. But they didn’t.”

The loss is Harding’s second to start the season, as the Raiders were shut out 7-0 by Chardon on Aug. 15.

“We’re not as skillful as the teams we’re playing, clearly,” Tatebe said. “Not only are we not as skillful, we’re not as tactically aware. And part of that has to be on me because I have to get them better prepared. Usually, what happens throughout the course of the season is we get better, and we will. It’s just we’re taking our lumps right now.

“I think we have some good leaders, and we’re trying to develop that, and that’s been our emphasis. The last couple weeks, attitude and effort have been our two key tenets that we’re holding our hats on, and we’re trying to make sure that we keep that up, especially our leaders.”

As for the Cardinals, they improved to 2-0 with Tuesday’s victory. Mooney beat Gilmour Academy 6-3 on Aug. 16 in its season opener.

And while Britton did not love his team’s performance Tuesday, he has been pleased in general so far this year.

“Through the first two games, I’m impressed with how we played,” Britton said. “We had a hard preseason. We played a lot of good games. We actually went to Cincinnati, played the state runner-up, Worthington Christian, tied them nil, nil. And then beat a very good Gilmour Academy team in the first game and then put Harding to the sword here. So I’m really liking what I see so far.”

Mooney hosts Warren JFK on Thursday at 7 p.m., while Harding plays the same day vs. Ursuline in its first home game this season.