CONCORD >> Ronan Rattigan was in a familiar spot, bearing down on the goalkeeper with a heap of Bellarmine defenders strewn in the De La Salle midfielder’s wake after he had dribbled out of trouble.

And just like his first goal, Rattigan shot the ball with such force that the ball almost ripped the net from the pipes after it lasered past the visiting goalkeeper on Thursday evening.

“Once I saw I was one on one with the keeper, I just had to score that one and secure the game,” said Rattigan, later adding, “Oh man, these are the games that we live for.”

His second goal of the second half came with seven minutes left in regulation, and rendered Bellarmine’s last-second goal irrelevant as De La Salle outlasted the Bells 4-3 in a thrilling NorCal Division I semifinal.

Rattigan and Preston Spalasso each scored twice for De La Salle, and Ben Sutton, Aidan Dempsey and Christian Sparacino scored for Bellarmine.

De La Salle (19-4-3) will face Everett Alvarez in the NorCal final today.

The battle of the Bay Area blue bloods lived up to the hype.

“The fact that there were six goals in the second half, a crazy second half, was nuts,” Bellarmine coach Conor Salcido said. “I’m super proud of our guys, and they fought. The fact that they scored in the final minute just showed that there was no quit with this group.”

Bellarmine has won 22 Central Coast Section titles and De La Salle has captured 14 North Coast Section crowns, both the most in their respective sections.

Each came agonizingly close to adding hardware to their crowded trophy cases last week, but neither did.

De La Salle lost 2-1 to Dougherty Valley in the NCS D-I final, while the Bells lost a two-goal lead in the CCS D-I championship match against Everett Alvarez and fell 4-2.

The Spartans used that loss in the section championship match as motivation, taking down Edison-Fresno 2-0 on the road as the No. 6 seed, before going up by a goal in the first three minutes of Thursday’s match when Spalasso finished off a low cross in the box.