Bowling Green repeats as 4th Region boys soccer champions with 4-0 win over South Warren

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Pit over at Bowling Green Junior High School played host to the 4th Region boys soccer championship game on Thursday night, with the defending champion Bowling Green Purples rematching with South Warren shortly after the team’s 2-0 victory just one week ago in the 14th District final.

This was the matchup in the 2024 championship, of course Bowling Green ended on top in that story, and Thursday was a new chapter in the rivalry for the 4th Region.

First strike in the game came just under 10 minutes into action, Barzilai Ruelas with the cross off the left foot and Baraka Gatsimbu with the finish off the right foot, the sophomore had one goal all season leading up to this night, he doubled that to make it 1-0 Purples.

It was a very physical match, to no one’s surprise, and with a Spartan foul in the box just 10 minutes into the second half, that opened the door for the Purples’ Ruelas to get in on the scoring, his penalty kick made it 2-0 Bowling Green.

For insurance, Christian Ramirez would fire two more scores behind the Spartan goalie in the final 20 minutes of play, leading Bowling Green to go back-to-back in the 4th Region with a 4-0 victory over South Warren.

After the win, Ramirez talked on how exciting this team is, and head coach Craig Widener discussed the road ahead at the state tournament.

“This team is wonderful. When I scored, man, the feeling was amazing, like my whole body was just tingling and, you know, it was just all excitement,” Ramirez said.

“The talk after last season was about how many seniors we lost and about maybe that we’re going to be a little bit down, but I think everybody forgets that seven or eight of these kids stepped on the field in that game, so, we’ve got some experience,” Widener said. “How much it’s going to matter, I can’t tell you. We’ll find out Monday or Tuesday when we figure out who we’re playing and when we’re playing. We’re going to take it game by game and luckily this time we don’t have to get on a bus, we get to stay home.”