Nearly halfway through the season, South Warren is learning that good things happen when the ball reaches Eldin Velic.

The freshman has added a new dynamic to the Spartans this season at the forward spot, and he’s the reason South Warren topped Greenwood 2-0 Thursday night at Drakes Creek Middle School.

Velic had the first goal for the Spartans in the first half and had an assist on Orlando Gil’s goal in the 55th minute.

“Whenever we’re struggling, just play the ball to Eldin,” said senior Sadmir Bahic, who assisted Velic’s first goal. “He’s a special player.”

South Warren (5-2-1 overall, 4-1 District 14) has enjoyed Velic as a big addition in a Region 4 title defense season. Velic has a team-high five goals this year and also has three assists.

“He’s been really good for us,” South Warren coach Tom Alexander said. “He’s been scoring a lot of goals and getting a lot of assists, but what people don’t realize is that he works so hard. His work grade is so high. He makes every run. He’s really a talented and special player.”

Bahic crossed the ball from the left side to assist Velic’s first goal in the 12th minute to put South Warren up 1-0.

In the second half, Velic nearly put in his second goal, but the shot from the right deflected off Greenwood goalkeeper Drew Loiars and bounced right to Orlando Gil, who tapped it in the net for the 2-0 lead.

“I think we’re doing a great job creating opportunities, but they’re not so much translating to that final shot on goal right now, which makes the stats not look as the game actually was,” Alexander said. “We’re creating a lot of opportunities, we just need to clean up that final ball.”

The win keeps South Warren in second place in the District 14 standings behind unbeaten Warren Central. Greenwood (3-4, 2-3) entered Thursday night after routing Warren East 11-3, the most goals the Gators have scored in a game since 2011.

Greenwood didn’t quite carry that momentum into the first half against the Spartans on Thursday. The Gators had an 8-5 shots-on-goal advantage, but got half of those in the last 20 minutes.

Greenwood appeared to finally get on the board with five minutes left in regulation on Luke Overmohle’s goal, but it was called offsides.

“That could’ve been a shift in momentum,” GHS coach Luis Llontop said. “I think the fact that we played a passing game throughout and although it wasn’t great, I think we had the other team running a lot. In the last 10 minutes of the game, their midfield gave up. We were pressuring and pushing. We had a couple of chances.”

Llontop believes for Greenwood to earn district wins over South Warren, Bowling Green and Warren Central, the Gators are going to have to start applying that pressure much earlier. Greenwood’s earlier district losses to Bowling Green and Warren Central both came in penalty kicks.

“We need to score earlier,” Llontop said. “If you score early, then the game changes and the other team has to attack and that’s when things start opening up. I think our team is where we want to be progressing.”

South Warren plays at Henderson County at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Greenwood hosts Barren County on Tuesday.{&end}