Warren Central spent all night chasing a goal and a dream. It never caught either one.

Joseangle Solis scored early in the first half, and Mostafa Issa added the clincher late in the second as Center Hill beat the Vikings 2-0 in the MHSAA Class 6A boys soccer semifinals on Monday.

“As I told them before the game, it’s going to come down to execution and who makes the errors and unfortunately we made two errors and it cost us two goals,” Warren Central coach Greg Head said. “You take away those two errors, those two goals, and we’re in this game.”

Center Hill (14-8) won the Class 6A North State championship for the second year in a row, and will face South champion George County or West Jones for the state title on Saturday.

Warren Central (18-3-2) won the Region 2-6A championship and reached the state semifinals for the second year in a row after going 30 years without getting that far.

Head will only lose five seniors, four of them starters, and tried to focus on the positive direction of the program rather than a tough season-ending loss.

“When you wind up with only three losses for the whole season, that’s pretty good,” Head said. “We beat some good teams this year. We just fell a little short at North State. Hopefully we’ll meet up with them again and see what we can do next year.”

After Solis scored in the 10th minute, Center Hill spent most of the night frustrating Warren Central’s offense. The Mustangs continually broke up attacks just as they were getting going and played a solid game of keep-away when they had the ball.

Warren Central seemed to be building momentum midway through the second half. In a seven-minute span it had a scoring chance with a loose ball in front of the net, a shot by Nick Lee that was saved by the keeper, and two free kicks by Charlie Esparza that landed cleanly in front of the net but no one could get a foot on.

After Esparza’s second free kick, Center Hill started a counterattack that ended with Issa’s goal that made it 2-0. Issa evaded one defender just outside the box and WC keeper Jamarian Shelly inside it before burying the ball into the open net.

“When you’re down by one you’ve got to push up and go for that extra goal because it doesn’t matter if you lose by one or two, you’re still going home. We did that and missed the ball, and the ball went back and they got a 1-v-1 with the keeper. Which happens,” Head said.

The goal essentially ended Warren Central’s hopes, from both a mathematical and a momentum standpoint. The Vikings kept pushing but did not seriously threaten to score during the last 13 minutes.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Head said. “They gave everything they had.”