File photo – The St. Bernard’s Crusaders defeated Technology 4-2 on Friday to advance to their sixth straight NCS final.

The St. Bernard’s Crusaders have qualified for a sixth consecutive North Coast Championship final in girls soccer after a 4-2 win over Technology in Rohnert Park on Friday afternoon.

The No. 3 seeds in the Division-3 bracket overcame an early one-goal deficit against the No. 2 Titans and settled into the game as the afternoon went on.

And they enjoyed a balanced attack with four different players scoring in the win.

“We played well,” head coach Jeff Sellars said. “I thought we controlled the game. We made the adjustments after we conceded the (early) goal and kind of took it from there.”

Eliana Sellars, Malia Masayos, Sahara Tupua and Amber Smith all scored for the visitors, who will now play No. 1 seed Mendocino in Wednesday’s championship game in Fort Bragg after the Cardinals sneaked past South Fork 2-1 in Friday’s other semifinal.

Smith and Eliana Sellars worked well together on the left side of the field in Friday’s win, while up front Masayos caused the Technology defense problems all game.

“Malia did a great job holding up the ball and laying off passes,” Jeff Sellars said. 

On the right, Alyssa Boham and Cadence Figas also worked well together, while the team defense did a good job containing the home team’s attack after the early setback.

“Our defense did a great job holding the line,” the head coach added.

The win continues a great recent run in the fall soccer playoffs for the Crusaders, who won three straight section titles in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

There was no playoffs held in 2020 because of COVID 19, but the Crusaders also qualified for the section decider in both 2018 and last season, when they lost to Little 4 rival Ferndale.

In other NCS playoff action on Friday, the Eureka girls defeated Upper Lake 7-0.