A pair of goals by Ryan Barnas and Hazen McMeeken led the Dowagiac soccer team to its first Division 3 district soccer championship since 2005.

The Chieftains rolled up a 3-0 first half advantage on its way to a 5-1 victory over visiting Coloma Saturday afternoon and a spot in the regionals for the third time under Dowagiac coach Mike Williams.

Barnas opened the scoring in the 12th minute and closed it in the 79th minute as the Chieftains outshot the Comets 22-8 in the title match.

After Barnas scored the opening goal, McMeeken netted the next two to give Dowagiac a three-goal advantage at halftime despite multiple quality scoring chances by Coloma in the opening 40 minutes of play.

“It’s great to win,” Williams said, “because we have had great teams the past five years. It means a lot that we got a break and got one this year. The last four or five years we’ve had South Haven in every final. We’ve been in the finals the past four years that I have coached. They were a tough team for us to beat. Finally they were out and we were able to take advantage of them not being in there for once.”

Williams said that once his team quit playing kickball and started playing soccer, it was able to control the flow of the game. That was evident especially in the second half when the Comets, outside of the one goal they scored, really never got a solid look at the net from the Chieftain defense.

“We moved the ball on the ground, foot-to-foot and we finished,” Williams said. “That’s how we beat these kind of teams. If we play kickball like we did against Hartford then it’s ugly. We did play kickball at the beginning a little bit. But then we started to move the ball on the ground aggressively and Barnas helped a lot in the center, more than any other day and he definitely helped us slow the ball down.”

In the second half, Dowagiac added to its halftime advantage when Zebell, who had two assists in the opening half, scored on a penalty kick after being taken down in the box.

Eight minutes later, Coloma mounted its best offensive attack of the half and came away with its lone goal when Chris Kraklau found the back of the net in the 64th minute.

The match would remain that way until Barnas completed the scoring in the match’s final two minutes and the celebration was on.

Dowagiac’s Jason Turner faced eight shots in the match and came up with six saves. Coloma’s Tyler Hester was credited with 17 saves.

Dowagiac will now travel to Hope College on Wednesday where it will be taking on No. 1 ranked Grand Rapids South Christian at 6 p.m. (see pairings at right)

“It’s a great facility and it will be a great experience for all of us,” Williams said.

Division 3 District final

Coloma…1

Dowagiac…5

Halftime score

Dowagiac 3, Coloma 0

First half

D – Ryan Barnas 12th minute (Craig Zebell assist)

D – Hazen McMeeken 22nd minute (Barnas assist)

D – McMeeken 26th minute (Zebell assist)

Second half

D – Zebell 56th minute (penalty kick)

C – Chris Kraklau 64th minute

D – Barnas 79th minute (Alvaro Scherer assist)

Shots on goal

Coloma 8

Dowagiac 22

Saves

Coloma 17 (Tyler Hester)

Dowagiac 6 (Jason Turner)

Varsity record: Dowagiac 11-6