SUNNYVALE >> To be the best, you have to beat the best.

Soquel High’s girls soccer team, despite having leading scorer Isis Tumanson sidelined by a season ending knee injury sustained in the opening round of the Central Coast Section playoffs four days ago, appears intent on proving itself as such.

Lynaea Vallett scored in the first half, and teammates Isela Gonzales and Haily Betterman added insurance in the second half of the No. 5 seed Knights’ 3-1 upset of No. 1 Fremont in the CCS Division IV semifinals on Wednesday.

When the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the match, giddy Knights streamed from their bench to join their teammates on the pitch and form a jumping, screaming mass of joy.

“We keep growing as a team, and today was the best game we’ve played all season,” said Knights head coach Jose Sierra, who led Santa Cruz’s girls team to section titles in 2000, ’02 and ’03.

The Knights, the runner-up to Aptos in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League, advance to a section final for just the second time in program history. They lost 5-0 in the to Menlo in the D-I final in 2021.

Soquel (13-4-3 overall) faces No. 2 Christopher (13-5-4) of Gilroy, the runner-up in the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Santa Teresa East Division, for the section championship at Del Mar High in San Jose on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“That’s the best I’ve seen us play,” Knights defender Chloe McGilray said. “I think we really just wanted it. Us, finally being in the semifinals, we were like, ‘Wow, this is real. We’re a really good team.’ We’ve seen this potential from the start, I would say. During league we had some rough patches and it was kinda a struggle for us to want it. But, being CCS, it just kinda hit us. We just connected. We clicked.”

The Cougars, a two-time CCS champion making its fourth championship game appearance since 2019, snuck past No. 3 Nueva 4-3 in a penalty-kick shootout after finishing regulation and overtime deadlocked at 2-all.

With Tumanson sidelined, each player on the Knights’ roster took it upon herself to dig a little deeper, run a little faster, pass a little crisper, challenge a little harder. Their relentless spirit not only impressed Sierra and Knights fans, but Fremont coach Payam Hajjarian, too.

“They got a couple of players in the middle, they’re workhorses,” said Hajjarian, of the Knights. “What I like about them is they anticipate; they didn’t react. They were in the place they needed to be, and once they got it, they knew where to go. They worked well as a team. They have a system and they played the system.”

As big as the challenge was to replace Tumanson’s offensive output, the Knights were also tasked with containing senior Rylan Cashman, a Santa Clara University commit who has scored 45 goals this season. And they did.

“Anytime she got the ball, we needed a second defender; and they did that,” Sierra said.

Cashman and the Firebirds (17-4-1), the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division champion, went on the offensive for the opening 10 minutes of the match, but the Knights dominated much of the remaining 70 minutes by making countless breakaways.

Vallett gave the Knights all the offense they’d need with her fifth goal of the seasonm which came in the 29th minute. She made a run up the left touchdown and was greeted by two defenders in the box. The ball caught air and Vallett kneed it over the defense, which included onrushing goalie Monica Nevarez, and into the far post.

Vallett immediately put her hands on head, a reaction of both excitement and disbelief.

“I was so excited. I was very surprised,” Vallett said. “It took off a ton of pressure. It gave us that confidence boost that we needed.”

Fremont pressured the Knights to close the half but found itself staring down a 1-0 deficit.

Whatever strategy Hajjarian and the Firebirds concocted at the half didn’t pay immediate dividends. Soquel scored twice in the opening eight minutes of the second half.

Gonzales gathered a pass from defender Milana Flores at midfield and made mad dash down the right touchline in the 45th minute. Nevarez charged out of goal, leaped, and got a piece on Gonzales’s shot. Only a fingerprint’s worth. The ball sailed into the back net and Gonzales beelined to her bench to celebrate her 10th goal of the season with teammates.

Three minutes later, the Knights were back on the attack, and Fremont’s Alexa Bajaras fouled Vallett a couple feet outside the penalty box.

Soquel was awarded a direct free kick, and kicker Haily Betterman made the Firebirds pay for their infraction. Her shot, despite being taken from a bad angle, cleared the three members of the wall, and took a hard left turn into the goal, just beyond the reach of Nevarez.

It was Betterman’s second goal of the season.

Fremont applied pressure late and got on the board in the 74th minute on an own goal.

Soquel garnered five corner kicks and Fremont took four.

Nevarez and Knights goalie Bethany Mansfield each finished with three saves.