It’s the curtain call, at least for now, between Bowling Green and South Warren.

The two storied programs will meet in the playoffs at 7 p.m. on Friday at South Warren High School one final time before the Spartans move to Class 6A next season. It will be the sixth time the two programs have faced off in the postseason since first becoming district rivals in 2017.

The postseason clashes have seen plenty of drama, a few surprises and some dominant performances. Here is a look back at the previous postseason meetings:

2017: South Warren 28, Bowling Green 21, third round

After losing to the Purples 43-7 in the first-ever meeting between the two schools one month earlier, South Warren pulled off the shocker to win the region championship and earn its first-ever win against BG.

Christian Winn ran for 180 yards and three scores, including the game-winner with 6:38 left.

“Everyone else feels like the little brother to Bowling Green and we didn’t want to fit that mold,” Winn said. “We came out and gave it to them.”

Bowling Green entered the night on a nine game winning streak, with quarterback Beau Buchanan without an interception in the previous 12 games. South Warren picked off Buchanan three times and added five sacks to stymie an offense that had little trouble scoring in the previous meeting.

“It was a bad night,” Bowling Green coach Kevin Wallace said. “You have to be at your best when you play at a high level. South Warren was at their best and they certainly played with great effort and belief in themselves. I’ll take the blame for it. We weren’t at our best and that’s my responsibility.”

South Warren would fall to Covington Catholic in the next round of the 5A playoffs. Wallace would step down in February to take the head coaching job at Louisville St. Xavier with Mark Spader promoted to head coach for Bowling Green after 14 years as an assistant.

2019: Bowling Green 20, South Warren 13, second round

Conner Cooper’s 22-yard run set up a 3-yard touchdown by JaVyan Collins with 44 seconds left as the Purples earned the season sweep against the Spartans.

Bowling Green won despite being held to 185 yards of total offense. Javeius Bunton ran for 67 yards, while Cooper threw for 27 yards on six completions and added 28 yards on the ground.

“We get another week of life. We made things messy,” Spader said. “It might be one of the sloppier big games I’ve been around, but what I say about this team all the time is they will battle, battle, battle.”

Sophomore quarterback Caden Veltkamp, playing for the first time since suffering an injury against Warren Central in week 5 of the regular season, was 13-for-26 for 80 yards and a game-tying touchdown pass to Jantzen Dunn with 2:14 remaining. Kobe Martin ran for 127 yards for the Spartans.

“It seemed like it was really kind of that way the whole year. It really kind of took us a half to get going offensively. It was kind of the same here and they’ve got a good defense too and that plays a role,” South Warren coach Brandon Smith said. “I feel like, for the last half of the season, if we’ve played on one half of the field it’s been hard for us to get out of it and that finally caught up to us.”

Bowling Green would go on to beat South Oldham before falling to Covington Catholic in the 5A semifinals.

2020: Bowling Green 41, South Warren 24, second round

Bowling Green forced eight turnovers and blocked a punt to beat the previously unbeaten Spartans and avenge a 10-7 regular-season loss.

“It’s South Warren, it’s our biggest rival and it is the playoffs,” Spader said. “That alone says enough, but it is a district title and I say regions are so special. We became so spoiled around here for a while that everybody just took regions for granted. We worked for that one last year and we are to this point now. Our kids are hungry and here’s a chance to get another one.”

Trailing 16-14 in the third quarter, Bowling Green exploded for three touchdowns in just under three minutes to take control. Tucker Strode recovered a blocked punt in the end zone to give the Purples the lead with 4:57 left in the third.

Two straight turnovers from South Warren led to two more scores for Bowling Green – a 45-yard touchdown pass from Cooper to Eli Burwash and a 3-yard touchdown run by Javy Bunton.

Christian Conyors returned the ensuing kick 95 yards to cut the deficit to 34-24, but Bunton’s second touchdown run of the night sealed it midway through the fourth quarter.

“You can’t survive (eight turnovers), especially against a good team,” Smith said. “There is no way to survive that. Most of them, they got the ball down in our territory. You talk about momentum. You are not going to overcome it. There is just no way.”

Bowling Green would go on to win the 5A state title, beating Owensboro 17-7 in the championship game.

2021: South Warren 28, Bowling Green 3, second round

Veltkamp’s touchdown pass to Avrin Bell on the final play of the first half gave the Spartans the lead for good as South Warren completed the season sweep against the Purples.

Bowling Green led 3-0 before the touchdown on the final play of the half. Veltkamp and Bell hooked up on a second touchdown pass in the third quarter and Martin added two fourth-quarter touchdowns to allow the Spartans to pull away.

“I definitely didn’t think it was going to go like last time (when the Spartans won 36-7),” Smith said. “We hit some adversity there … but I am really proud of the guys and the way they responded, especially in the second half.”

Martin finished with 130 yards rushing, while Bell had seven catches for 81 yards. The Spartans finished with 382 total yards, while the Purples had 149 total yards.

“Against a really good team, (the end of the first half) was a big blow there,” Spader said. “I would have liked to have seen that 3-0 lead last a little longer and see what kind of pressure we would have put on them, but they’ve got a championship-level team and did what they had to do. They controlled that second half. That’s what great teams do.”

South Warren would go on to beat Frederick Douglass 38-26 in the Class 5A state title game to earn the program’s third title in seven years.

2022: Bowling Green 34, South Warren 0, second round

After needing a last-minute touchdown to beat South Warren in the regular season the Purples left little doubt in the rematch, building a 21-0 halftime lead and cruising from there.

Bowling Green finished with 508 yards of offense. Deuce Bailey threw for 261 yards, while Javen Huddleston ran for 198 yards on 22 carries after rushing for 145 yards in the regular-season win over the Spartans.

“I couldn’t do any of this without (my offensive line),” Huddleston said. “They’ve been so good all year.”

South Warren finished with 115 yards of offense and one turnover to fall for the third time in its final four games. The Spartans finished 6-6, the most losses in a season since the inaugural season in 2011 when the Spartans finished 4-7.

“We had a lot of adversity from the very beginning, preseason on,” Smith said. “It’s one of those things where I feel like we could never dig ourselves out of the hole. I thought at the beginning of the year this group had a lot of potential. The truth of it is sometimes it never comes to fruition.”

Bowling Green would go on to beat South Oldham and Southwestern before falling to Frederick Douglass in the 5A title game.