Bowling Green shifted to championship pregame mindset immediately after beating Glasgow 3-0 in the Region 4 Tournament semifinals.

It’s the mantra Scott Gural kept reminding his team during cool down. When you’ve caught fire like the Purples have, there’s no margin for slipping out of whatever mindset is working for Bowling Green, especially with South Warren awaiting Thursday night.

Bowling Green handled business once again with a second straight shutout in as many nights Wednesday and advanced to the Region 4 Tournament championship game against the Spartans at 6 p.m. Thursday at South Warren High School.

Bowling Green (7-16-3) lost to South Warren (14-8-1) in the three previous meetings this year.

“Tomorrow we know we’ve got our hands full,” Gural said. “It’s going to be an absolute battle for the region championship against South Warren on their home field. They’ve already proven three times that they can beat us and we’ve got a lot to prove tomorrow.”

So far through the unlikely postseason run, Gural quipped that the Purples “could’ve been doing it all season long.”

“It’s nice that we’re doing it now,” the coach said. Of Bowling Green’s seven wins, four have come in the postseason that started in the District 14 Tournament on Oct. 8.

Those victories have combined for 12-0 scores with the lone loss being a 4-3 decision to the Spartans in the district final Oct. 11.

Bowling Green had a lead in the game before allowing two goals in the second half.

The Spartans earned a first-round bye in the region tournament before making quick work of Logan County in a 9-0 win in the other semifinal match Tuesday.

South Warren is just two years removed from its own region championship.

“South Warren is going to be ready,” Gural said. “They’re defending their home turf, we’ve got to match their intensity and then some because we’re not going to get a win without that.”

Unlike their win in the tournament opener against Franklin-Simpson, the Purples needed nearly the entire half to finally break through the Glasgow defense.

Anderson Escobar scored the first goal by going top-shelf near the left post in the 35th minute. Just two minutes later, Escobar crossed a longball to leading scorer Amisi Byamungu, whose one-timer off the pass put Bowling Green up 2-0 at the break.

Byamungu scored his second goal of the night – fourth of the tournament – with 19:17 left in the second half to put the match away.

It took eight shots on goal before the Purples could score Wednesday.

“Just high intensity the full game and keeping the pressure,” Escobar said on attacking the Glasgow defense. “Every time we lose the ball just recover. … Just keeping the possession, we had it most of the game. The game is never over no matter what minute it is and just keep playing hard.”

South Warren 9, Logan County 0

Eldin Velic and Anthony Cano each had two goals to help South Warren ease by Logan County 9-0 in the region semifinal opener.

Orlando Gil added four assists for the Spartans, who will play the Purples in the region final for the fifth time since 2012.

The District 14 Tournament champions have won four straight going into Thursday.

South Warren started sluggishly despite carrying a 4-0 lead into halftime.

“We want to make sure we take it one game at a time and that’s our main focus,” South Warren coach Tom Alexander said. “We kept possession really well, but we came out a little slow and looked a little complacent, especially after the first goal, but the movement picked up a lot more after we talked at halftime.”

All nine goals were assisted against Logan County (10-8), which reached the semifinals after beating Clinton County 5-0 on Tuesday.

With Gil leading that charge with four assists, Alexander likes the flow of his team with Bowling Green waiting Thursday. The Spartans have outscored Bowling Green 15-5 in three meetings this year.

“I like the way our team is starting to move the ball more,” Alexander said. “I like how we work even when things aren’t going our way. We have a couple of guys who didn’t have things go their way and they still worked extremely hard today. Regardless if they get goals or assists or if they don’t find themselves on the stat sheet, as long as they’re working that’s going to create chances for us as a team.”{&end}