After seeing its season end on penalty kicks to Bowling Green last season, the Warren Central boys’ soccer team has been on a mission in 2017.

The latest stop in the redemption tour came Thursday, with the Dragons securing the District 14 tournament title with a 1-0 win over South Warren at Warren East.

Warren Central got a goal early and made it stand to follow up a perfect regular season in the district with a tournament championship.

“The beginning of the season we had a goal, that was to sweep the district – and we did that – and to win (district tournament),” Warren Central goalkeeper Kemal Esmic said. “I think we used last year as fuel. Losing last year in PKs, it motivated us every practice to come out there and get better.”

The Dragons got the only goal they needed in the 18th minute thanks to an alert play by James Khual. The junior tried to get a shot off that was deflected, but South Warren was unable to clear – and with South Warren keeper Ryan Bilbrey still on the ground after diving on the first shot attempt, Khual was able to bury the follow.

“I was trying to assist for my teammate, but then they kicked it back to me so I put it in,” Khual said. “As soon as I got the ball, I knew it was going to go in.”

That was the only goal of the night as both defenses stifled the opposing offenses. Warren Central (19-1) outshot the Spartans 12-6, with a 6-4 advantage in shots on goal. Three of South Warren’s shots on goal came in the second half with the Spartans desperately trying to net the equalizer.

Warren Central coach AJ Ray said he believes this is the program’s first district championship, adding it’s been a special run for his team, which recorded its 14th shutout this season in Thursday’s win.

“It’s another big step for this team and this entire program,” Ray said. “I didn’t think it would be this good. I knew we may get to district finals, compete for a district and region championship, but the record as it is – with only one loss – I wouldn’t have predicted that at all.”

Warren Central’s Elocho Ramazani was named the tournament MVP, joined on the all-tournament team by Esmic and fellow Dragons Senid Avdic, Yan Aung. South Warren’s Semir Selimovic, Carlos Ramic and Sadmir Bahic, Bowling Green’s Naid Gagulic and Chris Miller, Greenwood’s Hunter Hawkins and Angello Alfaro and Warren East’s Corey Skaggs were also named to the all-tournament team.

South Warren played without Luie Kogetsu, who suffered a wrist injury late in Wednesday’s win over Bowling Green, and keeper Alex Cohron, held out as a precaution.

“Give credit to Warren Central, they came out and they executed,” South Warren coach Tom Alexander said. “They executed their game plan well and I thought we were a step slow today. I think our touches were a step slow, our movement was a step slow, our passes were a step slow.

“We had a few players in some new positions because we were trying to make up for not having Luie. We were trying some new things out today. We have a few days before we get to work on it for the region tournament.”

Both teams advance to the Region 4 tournament, which begins Monday at Greenwood High School. As a district runner-up, the Spartans will play Monday with Warren Central having a two in three chance of earning a bye to Tuesday in the six-team tournament. The two teams couldn’t meet again until the region championship.

“Hopefully we can get another chance to play them again and we can play a little faster,” Alexander said. “We did it last year. We won the district last year and it didn’t matter. We still had to play Monday-Tuesday. Now we know 100 percent going in that we are playing Monday-Tuesday.”

Ray said he wouldn’t mind seeing South Warren again because it would mean his team would be playing for a region championship.

“We definitely want to have another shot at them,” Ray said. “It’s hard to beat a team three times, but four times … that is going to be even more pressure. We would look forward to the challenge and would love to see them.”{&end}