SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Corner kicks in the sixth and 16th minutes found their way into the opposing cage, lifting top-seeded St. Francis to a 2-0 win over fifth-seeded Homestead in a windy and soggy CIF NorCal Region Division II girls' soccer semifinal game held at American River College Soccer Stadium Thursday night.

The Troubadours improve to 22-4-3 and earn a return trip to the regional championship. Oddly, their title match opponent will be Granite Bay, the very opponent SF beat to win its 15th all-time Sac-Joaquin Section banner the previous Saturday. The No. 7 Grizzlies posted a 3-2 mild upset of No. 6 Las Lomas on the opposite end of the bracket Thursday.

St. Francis dominated the first half with a 17-3 shot advantage, in part due to the strong winds out of the south playing to its favor, although it was a non-shot that put the Troubies on the board. Just five minutes and 22 seconds into the contest, sophomore Miley Blough sent a corner kick into the Mustang goal box. A Homestead player attempted to clear the ball away from SF's Maggie Koerwitz, but instead had the ball shank sideways past her own goalkeeper and fellow defender into the left edge of the cage.

The Mustangs nearly scored on their own cage 10 minutes later, with the ball drifting over the top. Still, this put Blough back at the corner, from which she delivered a kick to the trio of Koerwitz, Elizabeth Barger and Mia Barsotti. Barger knocked the ball off the far post and in before Mustang senior Brooke Young could intercede, doubling the score to 2-0.

Armed with the tailwind, St. Francis continued to threaten in the first half, but sophomore keeper Myley Markley posted four saves down the stretch before the break, including a picturesque stop against Yasmin Azar in the 39th.

Homestand also had chances to spoil the shutout, but Koerwitz and later Estella Bacsafra blocked shots by the Mustangs' leading scorer, Saara Lahtela. Troubie senior Angelina Delaini posted four saves in her shutout win, including two against midfielder Jamie Nguyen.

A headwind in the second half did not prevent St. Francis from continued chances to add to the lead. Giada Pagano played a ball to Tacori Abril in front of the goal in the 49th, only to have Markley intercept the cross. Markley also halted something of an "around-the-horn" look from the Troubadours, with a ball traveling from Barger to Barsotti to Caitlin Hafenstein to Azar. Azar turned and fired, only to have Markley glove the strike.

St. Francis won its last NorCal championship in 2019, posting 2-0 shutouts against Leland and Cardinal Newman, before blanking Mountain View by a 1-0 final in the championship. That run featured offensive contributions from Grace Barger, older sister to Elizabeth; Jackie Koerwitz, older sister to Maggie; and Janae DeFazio, older sister to 2023 graduate Jaycee. Lindsey Porter, who served as a volunteer assistant coach for SF in 2022-23, had one of the goals in the Leland win. Finally, all three shuouts in the NorCal tourney were credited to goalkeeper Gigi Koerwitz, then a sophomore.

Saturday's championship game will take place at Jesuit High School at 3 p.m.