The Bossier Bearkats will try to reach the Division III championship game for the second year in a row Saturday.
Standing in their way is The Willow School, which defeated the Bearkats 4-1 in last year’s championship match.
The semifinal match is set for 3:30 p.m. at The Willow School in New Orleans.
Bossier (18-4-1), the No. 4 seed, has defeated No. 29 Port Allen 8-0, No. 13 Sterlington 3-2 and No. 12 Belaire 3-1 in the playoffs.
The Bearkats came from behind against Sterlington. They broke a 1-1 tie against Belaire with goals in the last 20 minutes.
The Willow School (21-0-4), the No. 1 seed, has defeated No. 32 Kaplan 9-0, No. 17 Tara 4-1 and No. 8 DeRidder 5-0.
The match once again features head coaches who were once rivals as players at parish schools, Bossier’s Orlando Medellin and Willow’s Ben Barcelona.
Medellin played for Bossier and Barcelona for Parkway.
In last year’s title match, Bossier fell behind early and wasn’t able to rally.
The Bearkats have made it back to the semifinals despite losing six seniors off last season’s team that made first- or second-team All-District.
A mix of veteran players and newcomers have contributed to this season’s success.
Seniors include David Rojas, Jean Carlos Contreras, Joshua Campos, Alexis Serrano, Osman Padilla, Juan Prado, Cesar Espinoza and A.J. Shelton.
Eight different Bearkats have scored goals in the playoffs.
Sophomores Oscar Alvargega and Wilson Alvarado have scored three each. Padilla and junior Johny Hernandez have scored two each.
Rojas has had two assists.
Junior Logan Bamburg has been the goalkeeper in all three.
The Bossier-Willow winner plays the winner between No. 2 Vanderbilt Catholic and No. 3 University Lab for the title Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Southeastern Louisiana’s Strawberry Stadium.