Greenwood's Roxanna Saifizadeh (4) dribbles between Bowling Green's Katie Moore (11) and Bailee Sowell (14) Thursday, October 19, 2017, during Bowling Green’s 3-1 win in the Region 4 Girls Soccer Championship at South Warren High School. (Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com)

Right from the beginning, Whitaker Buchanan declared it was Bowling Green’s night.

The Lady Purples got to work early and the freshman Buchanan put the finishing touches on another region championship and earned an individual scoring record in the process.

Bowling Green took control six minutes into the match and kept Greenwood off balance in a 3-1 victory to win the Region 4 championship Thursday night at South Warren High School.

Bowling Green (14-3-1) won its ninth region championship since 2000 and will play at Henderson County on Tuesday to open the first round of the state tournament.

The Lady Purples were on edge from the very beginning with Buchanan calling her team to bring the intensity. Riley Thompson scored in the sixth minute, then Buchanan put the dagger in Greenwood in the 53rd minute for a three-goal lead, a goal that gave her the school’s individual season scoring record of 32 goals.

“We knew Greenwood was going to come out focused and we knew that we had to come out with even more intensity and even more focus and get that win tonight,” Buchanan said. “Before the game, we talked about how we had to have high pressure and get on them early. Riley Thompson scored a great goal early on to get early confidence.”

Bowling Green’s win over Greenwood (20-4) marked the third and final victory of the season against the District 14 and Region 4 rival. One goal separated the two previous matches in the regular season and district championship. Greenwood gave up a two-goal lead to lose the regular-season match, then Buchanan hit an overtime golden goal for Bowling Green in the District 14 final.

There was never any doubt who the better team was in another Bowling Green-Greenwood region final.

The night indeed belonged to the Lady Purples.

“We had a game plan coming in and the kids did a great job to execute it,” Bowling Green coach Lisa Correa said. “We put a lot of pressure on them right from the start. We won the ball in the air and we were trying to get to every ball first. We played with a lot of tenacity tonight. It was a whole team effort.”

Greenwood’s attempt at defending its region title won last year came with limited offensive chances against Bowling Green. Although Bowling Green held a 3-2 shots on goal advantage in the first half, both attempts found the net.

Greenwood finally scored with 17 minutes to play when Sarah Scott sailed a long ball by Bowling Green keeper Bailey Cross.

The Lady Gators put four more shots on net in the last 10 minutes, but couldn’t put anything by Cross.

“That early goal definitely set us back a little bit,” Greenwood coach Zach Salchli said. “I thought the second half, we had better play. That early goal was difficult for us to rebound from. The girls fought and that’s all I can ask for. They fought until the very last second.

“I think Bowling Green’s back line did a fantastic job and Bailey Cross made some great saves. We had some good looks and she came out and made terrific saves.”

Bowling Green’s three goals were the most Greenwood allowed all season. The Lady Purples scored that many twice and were the only team from Kentucky to beat the Lady Gators.

“This was a great year,” Salchli said. “We won 20 games. There’s so many highlights from this year that have been amazing. It’s sad to end now, but it’s been a fun ride.”

Bowling Green started its own fun in the region championship when Thompson caught Greenwood goal keeper Elizabeth DeMarse up in the box and sailed a long shot over her head for a 1-0 lead.

Emma Wilgruber cleaned up a deflection in the 22nd minute to take a 2-0 lead into halftime.

Buchanan put the game out of reach on a long dribble down the right side, juking around Ellie Belcher before tapping a left-footed shot into the left corner for a 3-0 lead.

Buchanan, Wilgruber and Cross were named to the All-Region 4 Tournament team while Madison Carby was named tournament MVP. Greenwood’s Scott, Catherine Gott and Alexa Ketchum also earned All-Tournament honors.

Bowling Green’s next opponent, Henderson County, defeated Caldwell County 5-0 Thursday night to win the Region 2 championship.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” senior Bailee Sowell said. “This team has been working hard toward this. This is what we wanted, but we want to go far at state. We stress a lot this year on team bonding and I think that helped us a lot tonight in pushing through in this game.”{&end}