Warren Central’s boys’ soccer team has decided to stick around in the program’s first appearance in the Kentucky 2A Championships.

After rolling to the Kentucky 2A, Section 2 championship with wins over Allen County-Scottsville, Logan County and Franklin-Simpson, the Dragons hosted Section 1 champion Calloway County in Monday’s semi-state round.

Warren Central (7-1-2) simply swamped the Lakers, with six different Dragons scoring in a 6-0 shutout win that set up an appearance in the Kentucky 2A semifinals Sept. 16 in Owensboro against the Boyle County-Fleming County winner at 2 p.m. The final is set for Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. in Owensboro.

“Having a knockout-type tournament, it gets us prepared for later in the season,” Warren Central coach Aaron Ray said. “These guys know coming into it, this is one game and you’re done. So just having the mentality to be able to come in and play a one-and-done tournament gets us ready for October.”

Warren Central’s Eldin Delic opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a knuckling shot that slipped through the Lakers goalkeeper’s hands.

Six minutes later, the Dragons’ Kenasi Mpenda took a nice feed from Daniel Nkurunziza and beat a defender before pushing a rising shot under the crossbar.

Mzaliwa Noel got into the scoring act five minutes after that, finishing a header in the penalty box for a goal that pushed Warren Central’s lead to 3-0. That’s where the score stood at halftime, thanks to a couple saves from Dragons goalkeeper Almian Sakanovic.

“We were able to come out and just establish our game,” Ray said. “A couple blunders in the first half and we got lucky – our keeper came up big when they were trying to even it back up. But I think for the most part we were able to play our game and just show the potential that we have for the rest of the season.”

After outshooting the Lakers 8-3 in the first half, the Dragons kept up the steady pressure over the final 40 minutes.

Byaunda Elombelo’s blast from the top left side of the box pushed Central’s lead to 4-0 in the 62nd minute.

The Dragons then struck twice within less than a minute as Houng Ha scored on a penalty kick, then Edwin Delgadillo pushed a loose ball in the box past the keeper for the game’s final tally with 14:39 to play.

“We approach these with full effort and we expect to go 100% out here,” Delic said. “We play like it’s our last game and we try to do what works best for us.”

Nkurunziza finished with two assists, while Elombelo and Noel had one assist each in the win. Dragons goalkeepers Almian Sakanovic and Javier Duncan combined on the shutout.

Warren Central hosts District 14 rival Bowling Green on Thursday.