ALBANY >> The San Rafael High girls soccer team refused to let the sun go down on its season, even after the sun disappeared beyond the horizon as the North Coast Section Division IV semifinal went to penalty kicks on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs converted five consecutive spot kicks by Arlin Guzman, Ryder Higgins-Jones, Jaela Brown, Rachel Iredale, and Darby Fones. Goalie Emely Chacon saved the fifth and final kick of the shootout against Saint Mary’s of Albany to lift San Rafael into the section final.

San Rafael won the shootout 5-4 after a 1-1 draw through regulation and two shortened overtime periods.

“It feels super unreal,” Chacon said. “It feels just amazing, it feels pure. I feel so insanely happy and so blessed to be with this team. We show up for each other and we play for each other and we’re genuinely a family.”

No. 6 San Rafael (15-8-0) is set to travel to No. 4 Sonoma Valley (9-8-5) — 1-0 winners over No. 8 Pinole Valley — for the title game at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Days after qualifying for the first section semifinal in program history, the Bulldogs added some more firsts to their resume — first section final and first NorCal playoff berth.

“It feels great,” said Jocelin Romero, who scored San Rafael’s goal in regulation. “It feels awesome to be part of this group that takes our (program) to the first final and I’m just really proud of my team.”

The Bulldogs and Panthers lined up on the field and were introduced to the crowd then the national anthem was played around 3 p.m. — when the game was scheduled to start. Three things were missing before the game could officially begin — the referees. Longtime Marin refs Stewart Permar and Raffi Baumann happened to be at the game as spectators and were pressed into emergency duty with a third ref who was in the area.

For both sets of players, having the game — easily the biggest one of their high school careers — delayed about 70 minutes was less than ideal, but it may have worked to San Rafael’s benefit.

“Honestly I think it was a little bit advantageous for us,” San Rafael coach Nichole Caiocca said. “When we play early in the day, right when we get out of school, it’s tricky for us. Our homefield advantage is a night game, right? So I think us having a bit more time to be awake and alert and disconnect from school was actually really nice. Obviously not an ideal situation when it came to not having refs. … I think we got lucky to get that game in, honestly, with three refs.”

The two teams played a relatively even first half with no genuine chances for either side. That all changed in the 46th minute when Romero scored to put San Rafael in front 1-0. Brown had the ball on the right side of the field and spotted Romero in a similar position as she was in for the game-tying goal against El Cerrito in the quarterfinal.

“I dribbled down and it was the same thing as last time,” Brown said. “Jocelin was open on the top of the box then she drove and made a perfect shot. … I know she’s the person I want to play it to. I trust that she’ll make it every time. She did and that put us ahead and gave us the momentum for the rest of the game. That was a great goal for her.”

San Rafael seized control of the game for the next 30 minutes or so, creating a few golden opportunities to extend its lead. Romero nearly returned the favor to Brown, crossing a ball toward her inside the 6-yard box that flew just over her head at the back post in the 55th minute.

Maybe a minute later, Higgins-Jones rattled the crossbar with a shot from outside the 18-yard box.

San Rafael’s most dangerous moments usually came when Brown got loose down the right wing, often beating multiple defenders for pace to create chances for her teammates.

“I know that’s one of my best abilities,” Brown said. “I just take my touch and I know I have to get to goal and give our team a chance. I think that just makes me work harder in the moment. Seeing people run to get the ball from me, it just makes me work harder and know that I have to get past the defenders to get to goal.”

San Rafael kept pushing for a second goal but it never came. The Bulldogs had done a strong job of limiting Saint Mary’s looks at goal but a late warning sign came in the 76th minute when the Panthers got past San Rafael’s back line before Fones made an important clearance.

Saint Mary’s defender Zoe McGhee took full advantage of her team’s best opportunity of the game and scored the equalizer in the 77th minute.

The two coaches agreed to play two five-minute overtimes as the available sunlight likely wasn’t going to allow the teams to play the traditional 10-minute halves.

Neither team created much in extra time but Saint Mary’s ended the game with a shot on target that Chacon saved to get the game to penalties.

Chacon still had one more crucial save to make in the penalty shootout and did so, bringing her tally of saved spot kicks to four in the past two games and sending her team into the section final.

“I was just reading her eyes and it’s all in the eyes,” Chacon said. “The eyes never lie. Her eyes said that she was going left and I trusted it and I went left.”