High school soccer: Mountain View plays clinical soccer to eliminate Highland and head to 4A title game

WOODS CROSS — With as clinically as Mountain View finished off Highland in the 4A semifinals on Tuesday, it's hard to believe the Bruins weren't region champs — or even runner-ups.

Adversity derailed Mountain View's aspirations in Region 7 several times throughout this season, but that wasn't the case on Tuesday in an impressive 3-0 victory over Highland at Woods Cross High School.

The Bruins scored once in the first half and twice in the second half to advance to the 4A state championship for the fourth time in the last five years.

"We are playing our best soccer now. We've gone through some adversity this year, which is fine. It didn't rattle us too bad," said Mountain View coach Mark Graham.

Mountain View is 1-2 in those previous title games, a record it hopes to improve upon when it faces Mountain Crest at Rio Tinto Stadium this Thursday at 7 p.m.

"The first round against Salem Hills definitely brought confidence to us.. We've just kept going beating big teams. Nobody expected us to do it but we knew we could do it all along," said defender David Hardman. "We've pulled it together at the right time."

It took 20 to 30 minutes for Mountain View to settle into its possession-oriented game, and once it did Highland struggled to keep up in the battle of No. 3 seeds.

Josue Cisneros opened the scoring in the 30th minute with a driven shot near the top of the box that slipped past Highland keeper Hayes Hicken and glanced in off the right post.

The Bruins continued to get better as the game wore on, and eventually bagged an all-important insurance goal in the 53rd minute when Edgar Cordova headed in a corner kick by Alec Woolley.

Unfortunately for Cordova, he was shown a red card during the celebration for doing a backflip. It was only a soft red, however, and the Bruins weren't forced to play a man down over the final 27 minutes.

Realistically losing Cordova didn't matter. Mountain View's defense led by keeper Keegan Black has been sensational throughout the playoffs surrendering just one goal, and the Rams rarely threatened after falling behind 2-0.

"The game was a lot closer up to that point. Once we got that, then we had a lot of our chances," said Graham.

The Bruins tacked on its last goal in the 73rd minute on a breakaway finish by leading scorer Chris Reyes, his 19th goal of the season.

For Highland, its bid for a state championship trifecta came up short after winning football and basketball championships earlier in the school year.

email: jedward@desnews.com