SANTA CLARA — It had to be him.

Cyrus Shafie had a hat trick in the Central Coast Section Division I semifinals on Tuesday, and longtime coach Jim McGuirk called him “the best I’ve coached” in his 38 years at Mountain View.

So it was only right that in the 100th minute of the Spartans’ championship match with top seed Alvarez, Shafie would be the one to draw the fateful penalty in the final moments of extra time.

He took a couple steps and buried the kick off the hands of Alvarez’s goalkeeper, giving Mountain View a 2-1 lead it would not relinquish.

Moments later, the final whistle sounded, and Mountain View had won the section’s top division for the second time in four years.

The Spartans entered the Division I tournament as the No. 7 seed, just like the 2023 team that won Mountain View its first CCS championship.

“I knew the clock had stopped. It was two minutes,” Shafie said. “So that means the game ends at any moment. Anything I’m looking for, it’s a goal or foul. And I saw the kid, he slid in. I decided not to touch the ball, so he hit me and it worked out perfectly.”

Shafie has been the talisman for Mountain View (18-3-2) dating to last year, when his scoring was essential for a team that lost six players to club ball during the season.

With that group back in the fold, the St. Mary’s commit remained the Spartans’ go-to guy, and the no-brainer choice to take the penalty he drew.

“You want that guy who’s confident,” McGuirk said, “and I haven’t had a player more confident than Cyrus probably ever.”

Shafie was set up to go for the win by goalkeeper Aiden Tassa, who made a phenomenal save diving to his left on a volleyed close-range shot off a cross in the 94th minute.

“I still feel like I’m dreaming,” Shafie said, “but it’s amazing to see everyone, my parents, friends (celebrating). The whole team is such a good group. We love each other so much. It feels amazing. There’s no feeling like that.”

GIRLS

Los Gatos edges St. Francis for Open crown: Los Gatos goalkeeper Cora Bryant’s stop in the third round of penalty kicks gave Los Gatos the edge it needed to secure a 4-3 win over St. Francis in the top-flight section title game.

The penalty shootout ended a game that finished 0-0 after regulation and extra time, making Los Gatos the first public school to win the CCS’s top division title since Mountain View in 2022.

It is the Wildcats’ first top-flight CCS title since 2014 and the sixth in school history.

“We knew it was going to be a battle from as soon as that whistle blew until the very end,” first-year Los Gatos coach Lisa Mitchell said. “St. Francis is a phenomenal team, and it was a grind out there, and we knew it could have gone either way. Both teams had chances. Both teams had a strong back. And so we were just hoping that we could get one. But they weren’t giving us anything.”

Los Gatos (18-1-3) couldn’t get a goal, but the Cats took control of PKs when Bryant knocked down Julia Malcolm’s kick by diving to her left and stopping it short.

Then Leighton Ozawa stepped up and buried her kick, giving the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.

Caitlin Motil converted for St. Francis to keep the pressure on Los Gatos, but the Cats’ Ale Munneke matched her in the fourth round.

Then in the fifth, St. Francis’ final shot went wide of Bryant’s leftward dive and the right post, setting off a swarm of Wildcats who descended upon Bryant in the heart of the 18-yard box.

“I’ve done it before, so it was nothing new to me,” Bryant said of the shootout. “But still, it’s stressful, because it’s me against another keeper. It’s really stressful, but I trust myself. I practice it all the time with my team, so I knew I was capable of making the saves, and I did it.”

Bryant was a contributor in regulation as well, playing the 100-plus-minute game and stopping multiple tricky St. Francis shots to keep Los Gatos level.

“Cora did an amazing job for us on the field as well as in the PKs there,” Mitchell said. “Cora stepped it up, and she had some amazing saves in the game. It was a team win, obviously. But Cora was one of the main ones.”