Kienan.ODoherty@pressdemocrat.com

For years, Sonoma Academy’s girls soccer team has been known as the owner of seven North Coast Section titles.

But since making the switch to the winter soccer season eight years ago, the Coyotes hadn’t been able to capture that glory again. In fact, for the past three years, all of the teams they’ve lost to in the playoff tournament went on to claim the section championship themselves.

Until Friday night.

The Coyotes finally won that elusive title in a 1-0 double-overtime victory over University-San Francisco on their home field in Santa Rosa, securing the NCS Division 2 pennant.

“We’ve had some great players and teams in the past, and it’s not easy to have everything going the way you need to in four consecutive games,” Sonoma Academy head coach Chris Ziemer said. “This group has some shared experiences — we have some great seniors and then a big group of juniors — who have some big wins and difficult defeats. That kind of galvanized us together … we knew we had the potential to be a good group, and we challenged ourselves and got on a roll.”

The wild, winning goal came off the boot of star forward Elaina Bruntlett in the second overtime period.

With the score still knotted at zero and the ball pinging around the midfield, Mia Carpenter played a long ball over the top of the Red Devils’ defense. Bruntlett recognized it immediately and made the perfect run between the two center backs, tracking the ball the whole way as it bounced toward the goal.

University goalkeeper Liv Anschutz came off of her line to try and punch the ball out, but Bruntlett’s head got there first. She headed the ball toward the open goal, and it took two bounces before hitting the post and rolling back into the field of play.

A University defender misread it and couldn’t get to the ball in time. Bruntlett, as instinctual as always, followed up her header and stuck out her leg to kick the ball into the top of the net.

What followed was the sort of commotion that only occurs after a victory as dramatic as this one.

The entire Sonoma Academy faithful ran onto the field from the stands, surrounding the players who had just enveloped Bruntlett moments before. Bruntlett probably had the most subdued reaction to it all, hugging her teammates in part joy, part relief.

“All season long, we’ve been preparing for this,” Bruntlett said after the game. “I have confidence that my team can keep the ball out of the net on our end, and I’m confident that my team will help me get the ball into the net on the other end. I knew I had 10 more people on the field with me and another eight on the sidelines ready to help win.”

While it took until the second overtime for the fourth-seeded Coyotes to get their goal, they were on the front foot all game long and had plenty of clear chances against No. 6 University.

None was perhaps clearer than in the 58th minute. Anschutz had saved a shot off of the crossbar and Bruntlett was there to head it in. But she was called offside and the score remained 0-0.

Not seven minutes later, Carpenter let one rip from long range — but that, too, hit the crossbar and bounced down right in front of goal.

It seemed like the breakthrough could come at anytime. The Sonoma Academy offense was clicking and so was the defense, led by Avery Cline, Kate Bilal and goalkeeper Dahlia Scanlon.

They were able to neutralize a physical University squad, making clearance after clearance and save after save. Scanlon had to save two dangerous corner kicks early on.

“I was just always staying ready for that second ball, always staying ready for that rebound,” the goalkeeper said. “I really just rely on my team to help me clear it, and they give me so much confidence.”

“We’re very good at covering for each other,” Bilal added. “Especially speaking for the backline, I know that if I get beat I have my two outside backs and Avery (Cline) to help out. Relying on each other is definitely working.”

Sonoma Academy (15-4-2) can now celebrate this victory for a little while before focusing on the Northern California regional tournament this coming week.

Can they take it a step further in NorCals? If Friday night’s win showed anything, it’s that they have the resilience and confidence to do just that.

“Since we’re all juniors and seniors here, I feel like we’ve grown as a team,” Cline said. “We had a young team a few years ago, but I knew we had great potential. I was only hoping that this could be part of the end of my senior season. We’re so tight, we had such good energy and we support each other through all of our challenges. It’s just been amazing to work with.”