The identity is still to be determined for Warren Central. And as far as Dragons coach Aaron Ray is concerned, it’s OK if the Dragons never find a niche as long as he sees 11 players working together.

A recent stretch of wins – four of the last five – and a loss where they dominated for the most part has been due to watching all 11 guys jell.

Warren Central carried over a strong mindset from a weekend tournament back into District 14 play Tuesday night by scoring three goals in the first half and allowing minimum shots for Bowling Green in a 4-0 victory.

“I think the fellas are just coming together more, being more of a team on the field,” Ray said. “I don’t really know what our true strength is now or what identity we have. All I know is 11 guys have to play offensively and defensively and as long as we’re doing that we should be able to get some good results.”

The Dragons (6-4 overall, 3-1 District 14) are finding balance through the lineup with four different scorers contributing against the Purples (1-9, 1-3). Warren Central jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first half with goals from Jimmy Estrada, Fahrudin Alic and Kaung Hein.

Kevin Mendez scored the fourth and final goal with nine minutes left in the game.

The Dragons came out of a three-game slump to win three straight last week. Two wins in the Purples Classic came before a 2-1 loss in the tournament finale to Oldham County, a team ranked 12th in the state Maher rankings.

Estrada said it took the team putting away individual preferences that hindered them early in the season to find the recent string of wins.

“It is a level of maturity,” Estrada said. “In the beginning of the season we started to play selfish and that was breaking our team down. (Ray) would get onto us for that and he would let us coach ourselves and our own practices to build our team chemistry. That really helped out with playing as a team. The games become easier for us and we’re winning more games.”

Estrada kept that consistency going early with a goal in the sixth minute off an assist from Alic.

Hein crossed a long roller from the left side to Alic for his second goal on a slider in the right side of the net in the 33rd minute.

Two minutes later, Hein intercepted the ball just outside the box, worked around Bowling Green defender Naid Gagulic and placed it right over goalkeeper Amran Linares’ shoulder to go up 3-0.

Mendez added the Dragons’ fourth goal with 9:05 left in regulation. Mendez collected a deflection near the right post and his shot bounced off the keeper’s save attempt into the right side of the net.

The loss was Bowling Green’s ninth straight, the longest losing streak for the Purples since closing last year out with four straight losses. Before that point, Bowling Green hadn’t lost more than three in any given season since 1998.

Bowling Green hasn’t scored more than one goal since it’s season-opening 4-0 victory over Warren East on Aug. 13.

“You look at the goals that beat us and it often starts with the ball at our feet and we make a poor decision and follow it up with a poor reaction,” Purples coach Scott Gural said. “One of our things is not compiling mistakes and we’re doing an awful lot of that. It’s too late in the season for us to be making these kinds of mistakes and a quality team like Warren Central is going to capitalize on it when we play poorly like we did tonight.”

Warren Central dominated the possession battle in allowing just one shot from Bowling Green in the second half.

“They saw how good they could be when they’re playing the right way and tonight they applied that to a district game,” Ray said.

The Dragons will play in the Boots and Butts Soccer Classic this weekend in Hopkinsville before returning to district play next week for a rematch with the Purples on Sept. 11.

Bowling Green travels to St. Xavier, the No. 1 team in the Maher rankings, Saturday.

“I hope there’s some frustration with it, but hopefully there’s enough frustration to motivate people to work and do the little things that are going to make the big difference,” Gural said. “We’re clearly not where we need to be.”{&end}