BUCHANAN — Senior Alec Saylor scored three goals to lead the Dowagiac soccer team to its first district championship since 2010.

The Chieftains blanked Berrien Springs 4-0 in the Division 3 title match, played at Buchanan Middle School Saturday.

Dowagiac will face Hopkins in the regional semifinals at 5 p.m. on Tuesday at Grand Rapids Catholic Central.

Grand Rapids South Christian and Hudsonville Unity Christian will play in the other semifinal at 7 p.m.

The finals are set for 7 p.m. on Thursday at Grand Rapids Catholic Central.

“We have had good teams every year, we just could not break through,” said veteran Dowagiac coach Mike Williams. “So this year, I mean especially with this group of seniors, we have five really good seniors. And they have a lot of compliments with the sophomores and juniors. This is a big-time sophomore group. They are big in numbers and experienced.”

Dowagiac got a first-half goals from Saylor, who now has 35 on the season, to take a 1-0 halftime advantage on the Shamrocks.

The Chieftains, who defeated Berrien Springs 3-0 in a non-conference match eight days earlier, got second-half scores from Saylor (twice) and Cristian Wilson.

“As you see, he is in the right spot,” Williams said of Saylor. “He is not shooting from 25 (yards) out or anything like that. He is just in the right spot because he knows where we feed the ball to. He has a nose for the goal and he has all year. That is why I moved him up to forward at the beginning of the year and we had some mids that could fill that spot now.”

Wilson’s goal capped an eventful final 40 minutes, which included Berrien Springs coach Heber Campechano and three players being ejected from the match.

Dowagiac’s defense kept goalkeeper Victor Zavala a lonely man for much of the match.

The Chieftains outshot the Shamrocks 18-3.

“Our defense has been consistent and solid all year long,” Williams said. “I have two sophomores, a junior and senior back there. Today we had three sophomores back there because Cristian Wilson drops back because we needed him to mark No. 10 (Shane Gaban). He was not there the first time we played them and he would have had a huge impact if we did not shut him down.”

Saylor and Chance Wernlund, who had a pair of assists on Saturday, have been waiting a long time to win a championship.

“It is about time,” Wernlund said. “It feels a lot better than I thought it would. We are more of a family. We have chemistry for sure.”

Wernlund also showed up in the scoring column a bit more during the district tournament as teams try to shut out Saylor.

That allowed him to show off his scoring talents.

“I make more through runs instead of just staying outside,” Wernlund said about his scoring two goals in both the quarterfinals and semifinals. “That helped. It spread out their defense and helped me out.”

Saylor’s 35 goals this season ranks right up there with the Chieftains’ all-time leading scorer Steve Mazimpaka.

He thanked his teammates for making it possible.

“It feels good,” he said. “We just worked hard, gave our all and played as a team. That won us the district championship. I did not feel comfortable until after the fourth goal and time was ticking down.

“It has been a good year. I cannot thank my teammates enough for the assists and the help on my goals.”