Jim Mashek

With all due respect to Yogi Berra, it ain’t over until … well, the KHSAA says it is over.

The Bowling Green High School boys soccer team had to endure a restart of the KHSAA 4th Region championship game — the shootout phase, actually — after KHSAA officials decided an “incorrect application of the rules” would give Warren Central High School a chance to squeeze past the Purples into the state tournament on Monday night.

Four days after the championship had been decided — or so everyone thought — at Franklin-Simpson High School, when the Purples prevailed 7-6 in penalty kicks. Bowling Green used a late goal to tie the match at 3, and after two cautiously played overtime periods, the verdict would be decided via penalty kicks.

Both teams used players multiple times in that penalty kicks matchup, although Warren Central did it three times, to the Purples’ one.

The Dragons needed a penalty kick from WCHS senior Kimbilinga Elvis to extend the match on Monday evening, at The Pit on the Bowling Green Junior High Campus, and Elvis found the back of the net to begin the additional drama to the matchup.

Both squads then converted two penalty kicks to keep the match alive, at which point Warren Central’s Yaye Kayunda lined up his ball about 12 yards (10.97 meters) from the net, with BGHS sophomore William Swietek in goal.

Swietek was forced into the pressure cooker because his BGHS teammate Uriel Muniz Guron couldn’t play because of injury.

Swietek dove to his left, to stop Kayunda’s low shot, knocking it away to bring the Purples’ players — and before long, the school’s student body — running onto the field in celebration.

The Purples will now travel to Owensboro High School for Tuesday night’s first-round KHSAA state tournament game.

BGHS coach Ben Mucjic declined to speak to the media after the completion of the match on Monday.

Bowling Green takes a 12-8-2 record into Tuesday night’s state tournament game in Owensboro, while the Dragons finish their season at 17-4-2.