Bowling Green's Ivan Markovic (00) blocks a shot Tuesday, September 5, 2017, during Warren Central's 1-0 win at Warren Central High School. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

There’s not much getting by Warren Central these days.

Actually, nothing is getting by the Dragons.

“They’ve clearly thrown down the gauntlet that this is the team to beat if you want to come out of this district and this region,” Bowling Green coach Scott Gural said.

Bowling Green sure tried, but it was all for nil. Warren Central didn’t allow a single shot on goal and only needed Bawi Thang’s first-half goal to defeat the Purples 1-0 Tuesday night at Warren Central High School.

Warren Central (6-0 overall, 3-0 District 14) is off to its best start since at least 1998, which is as far back as KHSAA online records are archived.

“We’ve never been at the top and it just feels good after all these years being at the bottom,” Dragons senior goalkeeper Kemal Esmic said. “We just have to keep building from here.”

Esmic’s job was easy Tuesday night, just as it’s been all season. The Dragons earned their fifth shutout of the season and have allowed just one goal in six games thanks to a back line coach Aaron Ray calls the best in the state.

Brothers Elocho and Wilondja Ramazani and Kiza Anzuruni have made Esmic’s job easy all season.

“There’s good chemistry,” Esmic said. “They make it so much easier. It’s like zero shots a game. It’s amazing.”

Because of the backline’s strength, Bowling Green (2-5, 1-2) never truly threatened despite controlling possession the entire second half. In the end, the Purples went scoreless for the third straight match.

“I read (Warren Central coach Aaron Ray’s) comments that they’re trying to give up three shots a game,” Gural said. “I think we would’ve taken three shots and we would’ve been happy to get them. They’re just extremely athletic in the back. It’s hard to replicate that at practice because you’re just not going to see guys that athletic and that soccer knowledgeable.”

Warren Central got on the board with Thang’s goal in the 21st minute. The senior forward shuffled just outside the penalty box and hooked a left-footed shot right out of the reach of Purples goalkeeper Ivan Markovic.

The goal was Thang’s second this season.

“(Ray) told me to practice and just take a shot when I had the chance,” Thang said. “I just listened and took a shot.”

Thang added one more shot on net midway through the second half. His offensive attack is one Ray said has really developed in the last two games. Thang had two assists in the Dragons’ 10-0 win over Grayson County last Thursday.

Ray said the team had two practices dedicated to getting Thang more involved with the offense that has been dominated by sophomore Fahrudin Alic, who leads the team with seven goals.

“We’ve been trying to get Bawi to buy into what we’re doing,” Ray said. “He’s always played kind of selfishly. The last game he played at Grayson, he did a bunch of great things there that led up to this game here where he’s performed well. That’s what you saw out of him tonight.”

Warren Central travels on Thursday to Glasgow (4-1), which has outscored teams 24-5 this season.

Bowling Green plays at Warren East on Thursday.