BEAUMONT — Goose Creek Memorial played its best brand of keep-away against District 21-5A champion Port Neches-Groves.

Seeded fourth from 22-5A, the Patriots dominated possession and cruised to a 3-0 bi-district round victory over PNG on Thursday at the Lamar University Soccer Complex, resulting in the Indians’ early exit from the 5A boys playoffs.

“They absolutely controlled the tempo of the game, got us out of our element,” Indians coach Chad Luttrull said. “But if we don’t make mistakes on those three [scoring] plays, there’s not three goals in the back of the net.”

PNG finished the season 18-8-1.

GCM (10-6-6) outshot PNG 9-3 but capitalized on costly errors by the Indians, who made a much shorter drive to Lamar than the Patriots.

Alejandro Alonso scored off a rebound almost 17 minutes into the match, Brian Diaz converted a penalty kick with 4:38 left before halftime and Dawit Nelson took a cross pass and sent it into the net almost 5 minutes into the second half.

“We gave up a PK on a silly foul,” Luttrull said. “We had a miscommunication with our goalie. Our goalie called for the ball and our defender didn’t hear it. Everybody’s a little discombobulated, and they get a goal. And the third goal they scored, the ball bounced in the box, and we preached to them don’t let the ball bounce in the box. Three big mistakes cost us tonight.”

The win proved huge for a Patriots team that waited 17 days to play its regular-season finale, thanks to spring break and the Intercontinental Terminals Co. fire that impacted many communities in eastern Harris County. The Patriots made up a game at Friendswood, a 2-0 loss, on Monday.

“This is a good group of boys,” GCM coach William Freeman said. “One thing we wanted to identify was focus and preparation because we still had one last district game on Monday. And, so, as a group, we were still preparing for Monday, knowing we had to turn around and play either PNG or Dayton. Not trying to look forward and just preparing, taking it one day at a time, and then once we determined the seed, it was just business as usual.”

PNG leapfrogged Dayton by one point on the final day of 21-5A play to win that district.

Luttrull and the Indians now have to look ahead to a season when their two goalies, Isai Acosta and Santiago Agudelo, become seniors and their leading scorer, Jason Lovejoy, will enter his junior season.

“We always take these events and we learn from them,” Luttrull said. “It’s heartbreaking for those seniors. My heart goes out to them. We sure do appreciate everything they’ve done over four years for us.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews