Friday’s North Coast Section Division III boys soccer quarterfinal between Archie Williams and Terra Linda played out almost exactly like the scouting report suggested it would.

The Peregrine Falcons would lean on their set-piece superiority and long throw-ins while the Trojans would try to utilize their dynamic attacking talent to create chances in the run of play and whoever played to their strengths the best would live to see another day.

Archie Williams scored a pair of early goals, TL responded with three consecutive goals to surge ahead, then the Peregrine Falcons equalized on a set-piece late in regulation to force overtime and eventually penalty kicks.

Defender Rafael Gonzalez took TL’s sixth penalty, kissing it off the left post and in to send the No. 2 Trojans to a 6-5 shootout win after a 3-3 draw.

“For a split second when I heard it hit the post I didn’t know if it was going to go in or not,” Gonzalez. “It felt amazing — scoring the winning PK, I think that’s one of the best feelings you could have in a penalty shootout.”

TL (13-5-2) awaits the winner of Friday’s late game between No. 3 Benicia and No. 11 Sonoma Valley in the semifinals. TL hosts that game at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Prior to Gonzalez’s decisive kick — which came moments after Archie Williams missed its sixth kick — TL got successful spot kicks from Roan Goertz, Chris Maldonado, Liam Hadden, Leo Vicente and Kleber Maldonado.

“At first I got goosebumps because I thought (Gonzalez’s PK) was going to go out,” Kleber Maldonado said. “But surely it went in and happiness went through my body and I had to run to him, hug him and tell him ‘Good game’.”

The fact that it took six rounds of PKs — shootouts only go five rounds unless the score remains tied — underscores how close the game was even though the two teams go about their business in different ways.

Tenth-seeded Archie Williams (9-7-3) forged ahead 2-0 inside the game’s first 16 minutes following a long free kick and a long throw-in. Liam Tzortzis took a free kick from near midfield that Max Crock headed home in the 8th minute. Crock’s throw-in in the 16th minute led directly to Bennett Acker doubling the advantage to 2-0.

For the second time in two weeks, TL found itself staring at an early two-goal deficit against the Peregrine Falcons. The Trojans rallied out of a 3-1 hole to win 4-3 in the regular-season finale.

“Sometimes we’re a little bit shaky in the back but with the type of players that we have, especially with Chris and Elvin (Maldonado) and Liam when we pushed him forward, we’re never out of a game,” TL coach Mike Crivello said. “I don’t even have to say it. I think we all just inherently know that we’re not out of the game and we never are and I think we’re proving that over and over again. … We have too much firepower up top. We don’t want to be in that situation but we’ve been able to overcome it.”

Crivello moved Hadden up from left back to left winger and the move paid dividends.

“We play a lot through Liam when he’s up top because he’s such a great complement to Chris and Elvin,” Crivello said. “He’s just so dangerous on the wing in those 1v1 situations.”

The Trojans thought they’d climbed back into the game when Kleber Maldonado appeared to score but an offside flag kept the game at 2-0.

Still, just seeing the ball hit the back of the net seemed to inspire TL, who attacked in waves until breaking through legitimately in the 35th minute. Kleber Maldonado took a throw-in and the ball wound up at Elvin Maldonado’s feet to pull TL within 2-1 shortly before half.

“When they put that one in just before half, I felt like that changed the ebb and flow of the game,” Archie Williams coach Rene Ayala said. “It didn’t feel like we had a lead. It didn’t feel safe.”

TL validated those concerns in the 46th minute when Kleber Maldonado turned Archie Williams over in the midfield then played a ball to Hadden who scored inside the near post to level the game at 2-2.

The Trojans kept attacking and were awarded a penalty kick in the 63rd minute when Elvin Maldonado was taken down inside the box.

Kleber Maldonado, who was involved in all of TL’s goals, converted the penalty and TL was in front for the first time.

“(Kleber) is just doing everything for us,” Crivello said. “You can’t really carry a team — it’s not basketball — but if there’s a way to carry a team, he’s carrying us because he’s doing all the dirty work and he’s been on another level for us ever since that Archie game at the end of the regular season.”

Instead of pulling numbers back and defending a lead, TL pushed for a fourth goal to put the game well out of reach and almost got it. Archie Williams goalie Achilles Das made a pair of crucial saves in the last 10 minutes of regulation to keep his team in the game then stepped up when Archie Williams was awarded a fairly innocuous looking free kick near midfield in the 79th minute. Tiernan Bratcher got his head on the ball, deflecting it into the net to tie the game at 3-3.

“We were dead to rights there in the last five minutes and we happened to get a set piece around midfield,” Ayala said. “We practiced it during the week and Achilles put an absolute dot in the box. After that we got life again.”

Around the county

• Dominic Yu scored a pair of goals to lead top-seeded Marin Academy (17-1-1) into the NCS D-III semifinals following a 4-0 win against No. 9 Analy on Wednesday. Dane Knudsen and Reed Leidlein also scored for the Wildcats, who await the winner of the late game between No. 4 Ukiah and No. 5 Acalanes.

• Ally Hsieh was involved in every goal as No. 3 Branson (19-1-4) took out No. 6 Archie Williams (10-6-5) in the NCS D-III girls soccer quarterfinals. Hsieh assisted goals by Catrin Howell and Riley Pearson in the second and 13th minutes, respectively. Hsieh scored the third herself, on a pass from Pearson, in the 26th minute. Branson took a 4-0 lead into the half when Hsieh found Pearson again for a goal in the 38th minute.