SAN RAMON >> Seconds after the referee’s whistle blew three times and finalized Dougherty Valley’s 2-1 victory over visiting De La Salle, victorious goalkeeper Atharv Kundur could finally exhale.

The East Bay Athletic League rivals had battled for 80 minutes in the North Coast Section Division I championship match this past weekend, and Kundur had spent the better part of the last hour and a half defending corner kicks and threatening De La Salle set pieces.

With the hard-fought game finally over, the senior celebrated his school’s first-ever section title in any division.

“This moment, this is so special,” said Kundur, whose team received the No. 1 seed in the NorCal Division I regional and will be at home today to face eighth-seeded Davis.

The match on Saturday was a contrast of styles between 14-time NCS champion De La Salle, and the new kids on the block in Dougherty Valley.

Many of the Wildcats’ most incisive passes skimmed across the turf, immune to the same gusts that could knock a long ball off-course in the air.

The frigid, wintry winds forcefully cutting through the air at Dougherty Valley’s soccer field had little effect on the home team.

Those quick passes, often from technically gifted attackers such as Praneel Siddireddy, Jameson Raby and Hudson Pipp, continually kept the hosts a step ahead against De La Salle.

Dougherty Valley outshot De La Salle 10-6.

Pipp, somewhat ironically, scored Dougherty’s first goal on a rare Wildcat corner kick, with his looping pass turning into a shot that bounced off the De La Salle keeper in the 17th minute.

“That’s something he’s done before,” DV coach Bijan Sadeghy said.

The game then entered a scoreless phase, though not for lack of effort by either side. De La Salle, led by Ronan Rattigan and Matthew Rajecki, employed a direct passing attack that looked to take advantage of the Spartans’ size advantage.

The Spartans focused on generating offense via set pieces — corner and free kicks — and kept the Dougherty Valley defense, led by Michael Xiong and Juan Sanchez, from getting too far forward.

“They’re super well-coached by Derricke Brown and they’re a fantastic program that has been here before,” Sadeghy said. “I’ve seen them come back in so many different games.”

Dougherty Valley fans finally celebrated a second goal in the 68th minute after a number of close calls when senior midfielder Emmanuel Silvera banged one in past the keeper to put Dougherty up 2-0. That insurance goal proved to be invaluable two minutes later when Rattigan buried a penalty kick with 10 minutes left to play.