MOUNTAIN VIEW — In “Top Gun,” Tom Cruise’s character Maverick famously assesses a combat situation by saying, “I had the shot, there was no danger, so I took it.”
Turns out it isn’t just in military movies where that happens. With Mountain View and Clayton Valley tied 1-1 six minutes into overtime on Thursday in their CIF NorCal Division II semifinal, MV’s Cyrus Shafie had the ball at his feet on the right side of the field, a few yards outside the 18-yard box.
But he wasn’t pressured, and he had plenty of time to line up a shot. So he brought his right leg back and whipped a streaking attempt on goal, burying his shot past the CV keeper in the top left corner of the net and punching Mountain View’s ticket to the D-II final with a 2-1 win.
“The ball was rolling,” Shafie recounted. “It seemed like a nice spot, and I saw the goal. I said, ‘One goal is all you need to win. Might as well try it. Try something new, see what happens.’”
Shafie’s long-range attempt electrified the Mountain View bench, including coach Jim McGuirk, who wasn’t expecting his junior midfielder to take the chance from so far away.
“From here, he hits it and all you think is, ‘It’s not going to go in, right?’” McGuirk said. “You don’t see balls like that go in. And then you see the back of that net go. It’s a pretty perfect hit. It was a great shot.”
The golden goal gave Mountain View (19-2-3) a shot at a NorCal title for the first time since 2019 and only the second time ever. The Spartans made the D-II final in 2019 and lost 1-0 to St. Francis of Sacramento.
“It was not our expectation this year,” McGuirk said. “We always want to do that. But I’ll admit, I didn’t think this was this type of team. I thought we’d have a good team. We had a lot of new guys this year with the guys we lost, and we had a lot of guys that stepped up.
“The cool thing is they know what this school is like. We’re the only team in CCS the last three years to be in NorCal every year. So the expectations are there, which is good. And all year long, we’ve found a way to step up. They continue to find a way.”
Shafie said his attempt was instinctual and didn’t require any pre-planning. It turned out to be just what the doctor ordered for Mountain View.
“I just saw the ball, I thought, ‘If I can get the right connection, maybe something will happen,’” he said. “Not even really thinking. Just hit it, and it was perfect.”
It was Shafie’s second goal of the game. He put MV up 1-0 in the first half with a penalty kick in the 33rd minute, but Clayton Valley (18-4-1) quickly responded after the break, drawing a PK of its own that Rohman Mahmood buried in the 43rd minute.
But after Shafie struck again in overtime to net his game-changing brace, the Ugly Eagles were stuck with an unhappy ending to what has been a special season in Concord.
“I’m gonna remember these guys,” said CV coach Guillermo Jara. “They won the league, we made it to the NCS semifinal, the first year in history that we made it to the state semifinal. This will go down in my books as one of the greatest teams that I’ve had, and one of the longest and greatest runs we had in our whole school history. I call it a magic carpet ride. It’s come to an end, but it was magical for this group. I’ll never forget it.”
For the first time in six years, Mountain View will have the chance to win a NorCal title. That’s music to the ears of the young man whose frozen-rope shot gave them that opportunity.
“It means a lot, especially after last year,” Shafie said. “We lost in the same place in CCS, and then in state, we lost early on a long trip. It means a lot to the seniors getting to the finals, something we haven’t done in a long time and the school hasn’t done. Everyone’s really excited.”
