Bowling Green's Gilio Aviles (12) heads the ball towards the goal. Bowling Green's postseason run ended Wednesday night with a 3-0 loss to No. 2 Louisville Trinity in the semifinals of the Boys' Soccer State Tournament at a soggy Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington. (Photo by Joe Imel/Daily News)

LEXINGTON — Bowling Green’s Gilio Aviles took a perfect pass in the 56th minute, found his aim and fired a shot at the goal.

The ball ricocheted off the crossbar, bounced straight down and popped out of the net. It was that kind of night for the Purples.

No. 6 Bowling Green’s postseason run ended Wednesday night in a 3-0 loss to No. 2 Louisville Trinity in the semifinals of the Boys’ Soccer State Tournament at a soggy Paul Laurence Dunbar High School.

“We played our best,” BG senior Nicholas Otis said. “Nothing we can complain about. We missed some opportunities, but we did our best. That’s all that matters.”

The Purples fell behind 2-0 in the first half, and Trinity – which beat Bowling Green 7-0 on Sept. 26 – padded its cushion with a final goal in the 75th minute.

The Shamrocks advance to face host Paul Laurence Dunbar at 4 p.m. CST Saturday in the state final. Bowling Green was trying to make its first appearance in the title game since winning the championship in 2006.

“After we played them the first time, and we went up there and laid an egg, we didn’t want to lose this game,” Bowling Green coach Craig Widener said. “We weren’t playing for a close score. We created a lot of opportunities. We created more than we did the first time. The keeper made a couple good saves, we hit the post. It’s the game, and they finished their opportunities.”

Playing through a steady rain and strong winds, Trinity built a 2-0 lead in the first half with two goals off corner kicks by Ryan Payne. Sam Stockton netted the game’s first score in the eighth minute with a header off a deflected corner.

The second goal came in the 24th minute, when Bowling Green recorded an own goal off Payne’s corner. Trinity outshot the Purples 8-6 in the first half.

“It would have been close,” Otis said. “It could have been a 0-0 game at halftime. Unlucky breaks, nothing we can do about it.”

Bowling Green had its chances with six shots on goal, including sophomore Aviles’ near miss with 24 minutes to play.

But the Purples never converted, and Stockton capped the scoring with his second goal with 4:40 to play in the second half on an assist by Kobie Qualah.

“He’s everywhere,” Widener said of Stockton. “He was on the ball all night long.”

Trinity outshot the Purples 18-9 with 12 shots on goal. Bowling Green sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Hughes made nine saves.

Although the Shamrocks trounced Bowling Green in their regular-season meeting, Trinity coach Dale Helfrich and his players weren’t expecting another romp in the rematch.

“Hat’s off to Bowling Green,” Helfrich said. “They’re well-coached and very organized. We knew it was going to be a lot closer, lot tougher battle than it was last time around, especially in these conditions and a game of this magnitude.”

Bowling Green graduated 11 starters from its 2012 squad that reached the state quarterfinals.

The team has eight seniors this year, but just three starters, so the Purples already have plans of a return trip next season.

“There’s no shame in this,” Widener said. “We came out and competed. We just came out on the wrong end of the scoreboard against a very good team. We start three seniors, so we hope we can come back and do it next year.

“I think they’ve grown up, and they understand what it’s going to take to get back here and how fortunate we were. Now, it goes to trying to make it back here again.”

— Zach Greenwell covers prep sports. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/zach_greenwell or visit bgdailynews.com.