IRVINE – Lili Reid didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. But she had enough to formulate the words “Why not” in her head. And so Reid kicked the ball over her head and became a hero for Foothill’s girls soccer team.

The sophomore – one of five sophomores in the starting lineup – scored the winning goal with 30 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Knights to a 4-3 victory over Portola in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 semifinals.

It was the first lead for Foothill, and it is sending the program to its first Southern Section title game.

It meant enough to Knights coach Steve Patterson, who is in his 25th season, that he started to get emotional when asked about it. But Patterson, like his players, regained his composure and delivered an answer.

“For me personally, being here so long, it’s well overdue,” Patterson said. “There were plenty of teams that could do it, but this is the one that proved they could do it, so we’re really happy for them. … To get to the final is everything they dreamt of. It’s a testament to how hard they worked the whole season

“These kids deserve this. I’ve never seen a team work as hard as this team. They come back, they come back, they come back. They fight and claw their way all the way back. To get to the finals feels really deserving for them.”

While Foothill celebrated like champions, there was a trail of purple tears on the opposing sideline for Portola (11-2-1). The loss snapped the Bulldogs’ 10-game winning streak and 13-game unbeaten streak – both school records. Despite the loss, Portola might receive a berth in the CIF Southern Regional tournament.

Foothill, which has come from behind in three of its four playoff games, will play Long Beach Poly in the final Friday, Feb. 28, or Saturday, March 1. Poly was a 1-0 winner over Buena of Ventura in the other semifinal.

Vanessa Paredes scored two goals for Foothill. Arllene Vite had a goal and assist, and Leslie Lopez had an assist. Lily Nesland had two goals and an assist for Portola, and Lorel Stringer had a goal.

“We knew they were going to pump the ball into the box, and sometimes that works,” said Portola coach Josh Stringer, whose team was missing Taylor Strickland on a recruiting trip to North Dakota State. “Three of their four goals were hopeful balls into the box.”

Foothill does a good job of creating opportunities, but Patterson said beforehand that his team’s ability to finish would be critical. In the end, it was critical – and they did finish.

The Knights had not scored more than two goals in their three previous games, all won by a 2-1 score.

On the decisive play, with the clock winding down on the 10-minute overtime period, Vite kicked the ball from 25 yards out into a crowd near the goal. “Somebody from their team headed it,” Vite said.

And then Reid went for broke.

“It kinda bounced around,” Reid said. “I was toward the end line, and I thought, ‘Why not just try to go for the goal, it’s the end of overtime.’ So I hit it over my head and it went over the keeper and into the goal.”

Vite, who tied the score at 1-1 in the 10th minute, admitted afterward, “I thought we were going to lose so many times.”

They might have, except their possession game wore down Portola in the second half when Foothill clearly was the predator. In the 47th minute, Paredes wiped out the 2-1 halftime advantage with a header after getting a nice bounce off the pass from sophomore Leslie Lopez.

Despite Foothill’s domination in the second half, Lily Nesland decided to carry Portola on her shoulders – at least for the 12 seconds or so that it took her to take the ball 40 yards down the sideline and find the inside of the far post from 15 yards. There was only 6:21 on the clock at the time. It looked like the response needed to send Portola to the finals.

But with 1:30 remaining, Paredes scored her second goal on a brilliant free kick from near the end line that bent its way inside the post.

“It was unbelievable,” Patterson said. “You can’t do it any better than that.”

That sent the game to overtime, where Portola looked like it had caught its second breath and had a couple of chances – until Foothill’s Reid knocked the air out of the Bulldogs’ special season.

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