Warren Central freshman forward Jimmy Estrada (9) battles for the ball against South Warren freshman midfielder Luie Kogetsu (5) during the game on Tuesday at Warren Central high school. Warren Central defeats South Warren, 2-1, on penalty kicks. Sep.12, 2017 (Matt Lunsford/photo@bgdailynews.com)

As good as Warren Central’s backline has been all season, goalkeeper Kemal Esmic hasn’t gotten a whole lot of practice defending shots.

But when the pressure was all on the senior to secure a couple of season benchmarks for his team, the moment wasn’t too big.

“It was just my opportunity and I took it,” Esmic said.

Esmic blocked all three penalty kick attempts by South Warren in a shootout and Warren Central remained unbeaten with a 2-1 win over the Spartans on a rainy Tuesday night at Warren Central High School.

Warren Central (11-0 overall, 4-0 District 14) is in control of the No. 1 seed for the District 14 tournament in October. The Dragons had shootout goals from Elocho Ramazani, Kiza Anzuruni and Senid Avdic while Esmic blocked all three shots from South Warren.

The senior keeper deflected shots from Sadmir Bahic, Eldin Velic and Orlando Gil to keep the winning streak alive.

“That was probably the most memorable moment of my life,” Esmic said. “I’ll never forget that. It was crazy. The confidence kept building and I knew I was going to (block the last shot).”

The Dragons made it a regular-season sweep on South Warren (5-2-2, 4-2), which currently sits second in the district seeding.

Warren Central did it with leadership solely on the field in the absence of head coach A.J. Ray, who was serving the second of a three-game suspension after being ejected Saturday at Hopkinsville.

Warren Central girls’ soccer coach Alex Tungate filled in for Ray on Monday, and athletic director/girls’ basketball coach Joe Hood will serve as head coach Thursday when the Dragons travel to Warren East.

“I’m glad for them and I’m glad for coach Ray that he’s really developed a program that is as special as it is,” Tungate said. “The kids know what the expectation is and they know what they want. … There’s really no need for me being here. They’ve got the leaders on the sideline and I’m just lucky to be part of such a great game.”

Warren Central put South Warren on its heels early when Bawi Thang hooked a left-footed shot right by Spartans keeper Alex Cohron less than a minute into the match.

Spartans senior Anatoli Emina tied the match with 3:25 left in the first half on a rolling free kick that Esmic made contact with, but the ball rolled out of his control and slowly slid inside the right of the net.

It was only Esmic’s second goal allowed all season and the first since Aug. 22 against Daviess County.

Not many chances presented themselves the rest of the night up until the shootout. The Dragons outshot the Spartans 5-4.

“I feel like we matched up pretty well,” Emina said. “We matched their intensity for a full 90 minutes and went to PKs. We both had great scoring chances, just couldn’t finish. … We matched their speed up top and created chances. They’re really quick everywhere.”

On the first shot of penalty kicks, Esmic dove left for an easy block on Sedmir Bahic’s shot. Ramazani put the ball in the right side of the net to put the Dragons up 1-0 in the shootout. Esmic blocked the next two shots from Velic and Gil to the left while Anzuruni went top shelf over Cohron and Avdic put the game-winner in the left corner.

Esmic said the win to extend the win streak and control the district’s top seed all without their head coach showed plenty of growth for the team.

“This one definitely means more,” Esmic said. “The team came together and worked as brothers. We communicated and talked so much. We’ve never talked this much, ever. Just getting scored on like that, it would’ve sucked to lose, but it was a nice win.”{&end}