South Warren celebrates its 1-0 win over Warren Central in OT on Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at Warren Central High School in Bowling Green, Ky. (Daily News photo by Caleb Lowndes/caleb.lowndes@bgdailynews.com)

The South Warren boys’ soccer team’s offense kept simmering throughout Wednesday’s District 14 championship game against Warren Central.

South Warren piled up shot after shot, chance after chance, but were unable to break through. Tarik Hamzagic finally pushed the simmer to a boil with a game-winning shot in overtime that lifted the Spartans to a 1-0 victory. It was South Warren’s first district title since 2018.

“Warren Central is a really good team,” South Warren coach Tom Alexander said. “They are really young, but they have a strategy going into it and their strategy is to defend. They defend with everything they have and they make it really hard on you. They are incredibly well coached. They are well organized and they completely buy in to what they are doing.

“A lot of credit goes to them. They made it really hard on us.”

Warren Central (10-9), the No. 3 seed in the tournament. was looking to make it two wins over higher seeds in a row. The Dragons had perhaps the best look of either team in the opening half, with Mzaliwa Noel’s shot hitting the left post in the 23rd minute.

South Warren (15-3-2) started to amp up the pressure in the second half.

In the 69th minute, Leo Kogetsu’s shot right in front of the box was turned away by WC keeper Almian Sakanovic, leading to three corner kicks in a row – all ending with the Spartans unable to find that breakthrough goal.

“We’ve been working on our corners a lot this year,” Alexander said. “Our whole goal with the corners is to put pressure on the keeper. I really wish that we had buried one of them because I think that would have been better than to keep getting them over and over again.

“Their keeper made some great saves. They made it really hard on us.”

The Spartans had another chance in the 72nd minute, but Sakanovic made a diving save on a shot by Parker Jhamb – the last good look for either team in regulation.

One minute into overtime South Warren went a man down after Ahmed Becic received a red card. Despite being down a man the Spartans kept up the offensive pressure, with Hamzagic firing a strike from about 30 yards out in the 84th minute.

“I’d been wanting that the whole entire game,” Hamzagic said. “When it came to me, I just had to take it.”

South Warren finished with 14 shots, seven on goal. Sakanovic had six saves for the Dragons. Braxton McCoy had four saves for South Warren.

“You just have to give credit where credit is due,” Warren Central coach A.J. Ray said. “That was a hell’uva shot. That’s probably shot that goes in on most keepers in the entire state, so I can’t be mad at it. Upset we gave it up, but that’s a great shot.

“We played hard, but I think we get about a half a week to prepare for a possible rematch. We’ll come back and do a little better.”

Hamzagic was named the tournament MVP. Sakanovic, Noel, Kogetsu and Jamb were named to the all-tournament team – joining Warren Central’s Daniel Rivas and South Warren’s Amer Salihovic.

Both teams advance to the Region 4 Tournament, which begins Sunday at Bowling Green Junior High. The draw will be determined on Friday. While District 14 teams have met in five straight region finals, Alexander said he’s not looking at a possible rematch quite yet.

“The region gets to be crazy because every game is win or go home,” Alexander said. “Yes, there is a possibility that we have to play Central again, but we have to focus on whatever our next games are when the draw comes out. We will be a little short-handed without Ahmed. As long as we focus on each game and what is in front of us, then there is a chance we play them again and hopefully we get another shot for another region championship.”