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The South Fork girls lost their North Coast Section Division-3 soccer playoff semifinal at Mendocino on Friday afternoon, falling 2-1 to the top seeds in the bracket.

The win for the Cardinals sets up a championship showdown against St. Bernard’s, which defeated Technology 4-2 in Friday’s other semifinal.

The loss ends the season for a young South Fork team that featured no seniors this fall and should be back stronger than ever next year.

“This the furthest the South Fork girls have ever gone in the postseason,” said longtime Cubs head coach Ann Constantino, who has been coaching the team for the past 26 years. “And the girls are super proud of that.

“I think this group will be back next year super strong, when all the 11th graders are seniors.”

In fairness to the No. 5 seeded Cubs, the NCS schedule makers did not do them any favors.

This was the team’s second playoff road game against a higher seed in less than 48 hours after beating Calistoga 1-0 on Wednesday night, and they competed in both games with several players battling illness.

“They really stacked the deck against us,” Constantino said. “We were very tired and we had a lot of people still sick.”

After one of their best performances of the season in their playoff opener, the Cubs struggled to keep that momentum going on Friday, with multiple unforced errors and poor communication.

The Cubs also missed a penalty kick.

There were, however, a number of standouts in the loss, most notably the play of the influential Molly Perkins, who led the way once again.

“In the second half, she put the team on her back,” Constantino said. “She’s probably been our best leader all year and she got our energy going.”

The Cubs trailed 2-0 at halftime, but Hannah Savio would cut the deficit in half after the break, with Kendall Kercher assisting on the goal.

Impressive freshman Calleigh Smith also had a good game to cap a big debut season at the high school level.

“She played extremely well,” Constantino said of the roving right winger. “She was all over the place.”

Kiana Savage also impressed for the Cubs in defense, while goalkeeper Makenzie Brewer had another strong game between the posts after just taking from injured starter Aurora Galaz in the playoffs.

“Makenzie deserves a lot of credit for taking on that pressure packed position,” the coach added. “She did a great job.”