Joe Imel/Daily News Greenwood’s Whitney Young (right center) is congratulated by teammate Danielle Dewitt after Young scored on a free kick Wednesday in the finals of the Girls' Region 4 Soccer Tournament at Drakes Creek Middle School. The Lady Gators defeated the Lady Purples 5-2.

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Three first-half goals propelled Greenwood to the Girls’ Region 4 Soccer Tournament title Wednesday, when GHS beat Bowling Green 5-2 at Drakes Creek Middle School.

It’s the second straight region title for the Lady Gators (11-7-3), who will host the Ohio County-Daviess County winner out of Region 3 at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“It’s amazing,” junior forward Whitney Young said after the victory. “We lost a bunch of our good seniors last year, so this was kind of a rebuilding season. I don’t know, we just did it - I’m speechless.”

Young had two goals and an assist, Kaitlyn Thomason scored twice and Rachel Veatch added a goal for Greenwood, which jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first half. Bowling Green’s comeback attempt in the second half was too little, too late.

Trailing 4-0 after Young’s second score in the 52nd minute, the Lady Purples found a glimmer of hope in Megan Connally. In the 56th minute, Tori Dillard lifted a ball from midfield for Connally at the front of the box. Connally won possession from two GHS defenders and drawn-out goalkeeper Marina Parker to score into an empty net, making it 4-1.

In the 64th minute, Alexis Lawrence stepped up into the attacking third and found Connally at the top of the box. The sophomore forward settled, turned and fired into the left side of the goal. Suddenly it was 4-2.

But Greenwood put it away in the 68th minute, when the speedy Veatch broke free down the right wing behind the BG defense and finished from right to left, making it 5-2. The play came seconds after the Lady Purples nearly drew a goal closer when keeper Sarah Donnelly’s punt went the length of the field into the box before Parker cleared away the trouble.

The second half was a 2-2 draw, but a 3-0 first half deficit for BGHS was too much to overcome.

“I thought they stepped it up the second half,” BG coach Lisa Correa said. “We kinda beat ourselves by not playing with intensity the first 40 minutes.

“We’ve been battling that all year, just trying to come out intense. But I was very proud of their second-half effort. I thought we were pressuring them and we got a couple easy goals on some counters. We definitely had a 180-degree turnaround.”

It didn’t take long for GHS to start scoring after the opening whistle.

In the ninth minute, Sara Bolster gained possession on the left side and found Young in the middle at the front of the box. Young slipped a pass to Thomason, who made an easy finish of the play and it was quickly 1-0.

In the 13th minute, Young stole the ball from Zoe Sibalich on the right half near midfield, pushed the ball back to her left and finished past a drawn-out Donnelly to make it 2-0.

In the 33rd minute, Chelsea Johnson sent a ball to the right for Thomason, who pushed it into the right half of the box before being brought down by Amy Kovanda. Thomason was awarded the penalty kick and her strike from the spot went top left for a 3-0 lead.

“It was real big to get those three goals,” GHS coach Lindsey Passaglia said. “Like I’ve been saying to everyone - it wasn’t going to be easy. Even if we did get up on them fairly quickly they’ll fight to the end. That was apparent there in the second half. To get those goals and really rally was really important.”

The Purples regained some balance at the start of the second half after rarely getting a scoring chance in the first. At least until Young made it 4-0 with a goal to remember in the 52nd minute.

Awarded a free kick from 20 yards out near the left sideline, Young struck her shot with her right foot and curled it just inside the near post.

“With those I just try to loft them in or chip them over,” Young said. “It just went far enough - thank goodness.”

The score was the second of the match that directly resulted from an official’s decision.

“I wasn’t too happy with some of the calls tonight,” BG coach Lisa Correa said. “I thought it was one-sided, to tell you the truth. I usually never say that and I might get in trouble for saying it. But two people fall down and you get a PK down here. Two people fall down on this end and it looked like the same call to me.”

Still, the margin could have been much greater if Donnelly hadn’t made nine saves in goal for BG.

Bowling Green ended its season at 12-7, while the Gators move on to the KHSAA state tournament.

“We made it to the Final Four last year, so we just have to play as a team and keep up the good work,” Young added.

The key according to Passaglia?

“It’s going to take us playing a game like that, minus the two mistakes,” she laughed.