One of these years, Warren Central will get over the hump and dethrone Clinton as the Division 4-6A boys’ soccer champion.

One of these years.

Not this year.

Nathan Thomas scored two goals, one late in the first half and the other late in the second, as Clinton beat Warren Central 2-0 Tuesday night at Viking Stadium.

It’s the seventh consecutive time that Clinton (8-3-3, 1-0 Division 4-6A) has beaten the Vikings (10-3, 0-1), and the Arrows essentially clinched the division title for the seventh season in a row. Clinton needs only to win one of its last two games, against Murrah or perennial cellar dweller Greenville, to wrap it up.

Warren Central’s last victory over Clinton was in January 2010, also the last time it won the division title. WC has only beaten Clinton twice since 2004.

“It kills me. They always have a great team. They are fast and they’ve got a lot of select players. It’s one of those things. We’re always close. It’s just the way it goes,” said Warren Central coach Greg Head, whose Vikings have lost by one goal in four of the seven meetings during their current losing streak to Clinton. “It hurts, especially when you lose a home game like this. My kids are hurting right now because we think we could have played better than what we played tonight. But they gave everything they had.”

Warren Central still appears to be in good shape to earn a playoff berth. It needs to beat Murrah (7-3, 0-0) on Friday and Greenville (0-5, 0-0) on Saturday. Both games are at home.

“We can’t overlook Murrah,” Head said. “If we’re going to make the playoffs, we’ve got to beat Murrah. They’re never a bad team. They’re always athletic and good.”

Clinton dominated on the stat sheet Tuesday night. It had a 17-2 advantage in shots and didn’t allow a shot on goal in the second half. On the scoreboard, however, the game was largely a stalemate.

WC goal keeper Chase Graham made 11 saves, but only a couple were exceedingly difficult. The goal that sneaked past him could even be classified as a soft goal, but it was enough to give the Arrows the lead and allow them to dictate the pace of the game.

In the last two minutes of the first half, Thomas collected a loose ball about 30 yards from the goal. In one motion he stopped, spun, and took a shot that had more hope than intent behind it. It bounced past Graham and into the left side of the net to give the Arrows the icebreaker.

“I was just looking down at the ball and trying to get it on target,” Thomas said. “I knew I struck it clean, and I just saw it going in the top corner and started celebrating.”

With the lead and some breathing room, Clinton controlled the game in the second half. Other than a few rushes, the Vikings struggled to sustain any offense. Needing a goal to tie and force overtime, Head moved one of his defenders up to create an attacking formation late in the game only to have it backfire.

In the 72nd minute Clinton’s Caleb Carpenter gained possession of the ball deep in Warren Central’s end. He sent a cross to Thomas, who was all alone in front of the net. He beat Graham again, who this time had little chance as Thomas shot from penalty kick range. The ball soared into the upper right corner to give the Arrows a 2-0 lead and sealed the victory.

“I think it was pretty evenly matched. We just didn’t pressure that one guy hard enough and he got that one shot off, and that set the tempo of the game,” Head said. “And then close to the end, I told the kids it doesn’t matter if we lose by one or two. So we changed our formation to try and get something going. It backfired on us, but we had to do something to get that attack going because we were running out of time.”

(G) Clinton 1, Warren Central 0

Warren Central and Clinton’s girls’ soccer teams seemed like they could have played all night without either one scoring a goal. One minor mistake by Warren Central, however, ensured they didn’t have to.

Clinton freshman Acacia Rodriguez converted a penalty kick after teammate Kaci Craft was fouled in the box, and it stood up as the game’s only goal as the Lady Arrows beat Warren Central 1-0.

Clinton (6-5-2, 1-0 Division 4-6A) won its 25th consecutive division game since the start of the 2010-11 season.

“It was just one of those games that was back and forth. There was a little period of time there, right after the first half, where Clinton really took it to us. We weathered that storm and were still 1-0. It just was not our night,” Warren Central coach Jay Madison said.

In a lot of ways, the girls’ game was a mirror image of the boys’ contest. Clinton outshot Warren Central 17-3, with a lot of its shots coming in clusters surrounding long periods of action in the midfield.

Warren Central keeper Layken Stockstill made 15 saves to keep her team in it, and the Lady Vikes (5-7-1, 0-1) had a few chances of their own. The best was in the last two minutes, when a corner kick made its way into a scrum in front of the net but no WC player was able to corral it and get a shot off before Clinton cleared the ball.

“It wasn’t our night. We had a few opportunities. We were kind of stagnant up front. We didn’t create quite as many opportunities as I wanted us to. But overall, I was pleased,” Madison said.

Despite the loss, Madison remained optimistic about the future for his team. They can still clinch a playoff berth by beating Murrah and Greenville later this week, and held their own against a perennial power Tuesday night.

“What I see the team doing, and who can do what on the team, is fine. We’ve got a few things we need to tidy up a little bit. But we’re what we are now. We can’t recreate this now. And I’m pleased with where we are,” Madison said. “To borrow a line from (Alabama football coach Nick) Saban, it’s a process and we’re two years into the process. I’ve watched our junior varsity team, some of whom were on the field tonight, and I see them already doing some of the things we’re talking about that our varsity is trying to catch on to with attacking and how we attack. We’ve got something like 12 ninth-graders, so we’re excited about the future.”