From the sports archives: San Mateo boys' soccer team stuns St. Ignatius in the Central Coast Section semifinals

"We ran a lot of guys a lot of minutes,” Callaghan said.

The Bearcats had other ideas. After seeing the Wildcats score the equalizer with three minutes left in regulation, San Mateo put it’s foot back on the gas. In the waning seconds of regulation, San Mateo's Benny Angeles sent a long ball to Angel Mejia. With a defender on his shoulder, Mejia had a step and broke in on goal. The S.I. goalkeeper came off his line but Mejia went around him and with a defender crashing into him, calmly slotted the ball into the empty net to give the Bearcats an incredible 3-2 and send them into the Central Coast Section Division II finals.

"It was nice teamwork,” Mejia said. "I was just hoping I was going to score.”

"Incredible,” Callaghan said. "These guys have such an incredible will to win.”

The third-seeded Bearcats will face either No. 4 Willow Glen or No. 1 St. Francis Saturday at Gilroy High.

San Mateo (18-2-2 overall) took a commanding 2-0 lead at halftime, as Alejandro Mendoza scored twice for the Bearcats.

His first strike came in the 10th minute and foreshadowed Mejia’s game winner. Mendoza ran onto a ball into space, beat his defender, went around a charging S.I. goalkeeper and calmly slotted it to the right corner for the 1-nothing advantage.

"We try to go out fast,” Callaghan said. "We have very good forwards.”

Mendoza hooked up with Ezequiel Sandoval for the 2-0 advantage in the 25th minute. Sandoval made a run down the left sideline. A Wildcat defender missed on a clear attempt and Sandoval broke in on goal. As a defender and goalkeeper closed on Sandoval, he sent a short cross to the front of the goal where Mendoza got inside position on his defender and scored into an empty net.

At halftime, Callaghan reiterated to his team to keep working.

"We talked about going for that third goal,” Callaghan said.

San Mateo began working for that dagger goal, but as the half wore on, the Bearcats appeared to lose some of its aggressiveness.

"We took our foot off the pedal,” Mejia admitted.

S.I. started it’s comeback in the 54th minute when James Smith headed home a Shane Slosar corner. The Wildcats tied it with three minutes left in regulation when a San Mateo clearing attempt deflected off a teammate and right to the feet of Eli Love, who buried it.

That second Wildcats strike re-awoke the Bearcats as they pressed hard for the go-ahead score. They had a couple of close chances before Angeles found Meija.

"We just kept pressing,” Mejia said.

Division III

No. 3 Sacred Heart Cathedral 4, No. 2 Burlingame 3, 2 OT

The Irish’s Oscar Reyes scored in the 98th minute — about two minutes before the game would go to a penalty-kick shootout — to end the Panthers season short of a CCS championship for the second year in a row.

Last year, Burlingame advanced to the championship game, only to lose 3-2 to Willow Glen.

Twice Burlingame (11-8-3 overall) held a one-goal advantage and twice Sacred Heart Cathedral (13-6-4) tied the game. The Irish took a 3-2 with about 20 minutes to play, but a goal from Burlingame’s Sam Schneider with about five minutes left in regulation sent the game into two, 10-minute overtime periods.

Burlingame opened the scoring in the 14th minute when defender Mark Lopez intercepted an Irish clearing attempt and rifled a low, hard shot into the lower left corner of the net from 35 yards out to give the Panthers’ a 1-0 lead.

SHC tied the game 10 minutes before halftime. Using some fancy footwork, Jonathan Rojas beat two Panther defenders along the endline before feeding a pass to a wide open William Velasco in front of the net. Velasco’s one-timer tied the game at 1 at halftime.

The Panthers went ahead 2-1 when Kasey Wakasa was taken down in the penalty box, earning a penalty which he calmly converted in the 50th minute, but the Irish came right back with the equalizer three minutes later. Velasco scored his second goal of the night off an assist from Dashiell MacNamara.

Rojas put SHC up 3-2 with a goal off an assist from Wesley Chambers, but Schneider’s late strike sent the game to extra time.