MOUNTAIN VIEW — It’s almost as if it was scripted.
St. Francis, the No. 2 seed in the CIF NorCal Division I bracket, had faced No. 5 Archbishop Mitty three previous times this season. The Lancers had won two of three, most recently beating the Monarchs 1-0 for the CCS Division I title last Friday at Santa Clara University.
Nothing was a mystery. Everything was up for grabs.
And once again, it was the Lancers that came through. Hosting Mitty at their home stadium in Mountain View, the Lancers bided their time in a virtual stalemate until Miliani Makasini found an opening.
In the 73rd minute, Makasini found a threaded pass from teammate Emmy “Salsa” Salita at her feet, then employed a clinical finish to thread the ball over and around Mitty goalie Vivian Baker and into the bottom left corner of the net.
In a game this tight, that was all she wrote. St. Francis won 1-0, and the Lancers had definitively stamped themselves as Northern California’s best girls soccer team in 2025.
“Last 10 minutes, team was working so hard seeing the goal,” Makasini said. “I had one chance, and I took it. I was nervous, but I was able to stay composed, get it down. That was it.”
So it was. St. Francis (21-2-1) has made a habit of shutting teams out in the playoffs this season. The Lancers have not conceded a goal since the CCS semifinals and have not conceded more than one goal in a single game all season long.
It was clear the Lancers would be stout defensively. It was just a matter of if the winning goal would come.
“Tight game,” St. Francis coach Carlos Barboza said. “Lot of respect to the opposition. Today, it was a tougher game. Everyone’s tired. It was gritty. It wasn’t as pretty. You know everything about them. You’ve got to play chess each and every time. It was four times in a season, but it was three times in exactly one month. So it was extremely tough.”
The Lancers made a tactical tweak in the second half that helped shift the game in their favor and set up Makasini’s game-winner. They brought a fourth player up higher in the middle of the field, and the resulting run of play paid dividends before long.
“It wasn’t due to Mother Nature this time,” Barboza said, citing St. Francis’ wind-aided winner against Mitty in the CCS title game. “We actually made it (happen). They were doing a good job marking us in our formation, all the way up until we made an adjustment and played four in the middle. And I thought from that point on, we were knocking on the door.”
Makasini kicked the door down with her strike, the only perfect finish on a day where chances were few and far between. It was going to take an exquisite effort to break through either defense, and Makasini was the only one who found the magic touch.
“We deserved it,” Makasini said. “It feels great. Mitty did a great job, kept us honest. But to get these three wins, it’s big from our standpoint, and we’ll keep going. The legacy keeps continuing. And for those coming in, (the goal is) to continue working hard and continue this Lancer pride.”
Mitty coach JT Hanley, though he would have preferred a win, was proud of his team simply for reaching this stage. The Monarchs (19-3-3) lost several players from their 2024 NorCal championship team, and Hanley expressed pride in how Mitty exceeded external expectations this season.
“We started four freshmen and a sophomore tonight,” Hanley said. “All six of our freshmen played significant minutes in this game, along with a couple other 10th-graders. So we come back with a really, really young team.
“Nobody expected us to be in either of these games. And weirdly, sometimes when they’re young, they need to taste this to know what they don’t want. So my hope is that those youngsters learn from this, and that the upperclassmen who will be coming back provide a really good, solid base for us next year. But we’ll be back for sure.”
There’s no reason to believe the Monarchs won’t be back in the mix next year. But so too should the Lancers, and they were the ones who left the 2025 season on top.
St. Francis’ season will end with a win, but the Lancers wouldn’t mind playing another game. There is currently no NorCal-SoCal state championship game to pit the regional champions in each half of the state.
But one could be in the works as soon as next year, and St. Francis is all for it.
“I think we’re gonna do that next year,” Barboza said. “I know the girls were bummed, because we knew it was coming. I didn’t know if it was this year or next year. We actually went down to play a tournament to play those teams, and it was awesome for the girls. I’m looking forward to playing teams that you’ll never see otherwise.”
Makasini didn’t mince words about a potential state championship game.
“We need one,” St. Francis’ hero said.
