Another year, another chance for Port Of Los Angeles High girls soccer.

That's all they wanted, and that's all they strived for from the first day of preseason practice, and most likely since coming so close a season ago.

Now the Polar Bears got that chance for the fourth time in five years.

It wasn't pretty, but POLA once again toppled Crosstown League nemesis Foshay Learning Center of Los Angeles, 3-0 in the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division 4 semifinals at Field Of Dreams in San Pedro. Timely goals at the most opportune moments, combined with a gritty tag team effort at goalie by seniors Daisy Garcia and Emily Haugen was enough to propel the top-seeded Polar Bears (22-2-4 overall) into another title tilt.

POLA will face sixth-seeded Northridge Academy, a 2-1 winner over second-seeded Sherman Oaks CES, on Saturday, 3 pm at Sotomayor High in Los Angeles.

"It feels amazing to have the opportunity to play in the City Section final for the second year in a row," POLA junior forward Anna Vidovich said. "My team is amazing and I couldn't ask for a better group of girls to chase after the ring with."

Also for the first time in six years and 21 playoff games in their history, the Polar Bears also don't have to deal with Los Angeles CES, who has eliminated POLA in either the semifinals or championship game itself, for five consecutive seasons. POLA is now 16-0 in City Section playoff games against other schools not named Los Angeles CES and is currently on a 15-game unbeaten streak (13-0-2).

Last time the Polar Bears tasted defeat was a 3-1 loss to San Pedro on December 23.

However, trying to beat the Wolverines (9-7) for a third time appeared to be tricky for POLA until a Foshay defender was called for a handball in the 16th minute about 30 yards away from the net.

Enter the wizard of free kicks... POLA sophomore extraordinaire Briana Mancilla.

Teeing up the ball exactly the way she wanted it, Mancilla would, almost effortlessly, blast in a perfect kick in the upper left corner of the net for a 1-0 POLA lead.

"I was just super happy to be able to finish that shot and put us in the lead from an early start," Mancilla said.

Eight minutes later, Vidovich would find a crack in Foshay's armor and somehow eluded two defenders, sending a cross that somehow went into the same spot of the net as Mancilla's goal, giving POLA a 2-0 lead which stayed that way before halftime. Before Vidovich's goal, Garcia managed to make a leaping save to stop a shot that headed towards the center crossbar.

"I surprised myself on that one," Garcia said on the most critical of her three saves. "I've always practiced those saves, but never got the opportunity to do it in a game."

To Foshay's credit, they continued to push POLA nearly to their limits the entire second half, stopping possible breakaways, but in the 65th minute, Mancilla would strike again with a perfectly placed corner kick, and sophomore Christy Messner would rush in to finish it off at point blank range for the game's final goal.

"I was pretty relieved that we got that third goal to seal the game," said Mancilla of her 26th assist this season. "And to be able to assist that goal felt amazing."

What would even be more amazing for these Polar Bears would be to finally finish a season with a championship to cross it off their checklist of goals they set for the 2015-2016 season, and the focus will be extremely high in trying to knock off a Northridge Academy team that has defeated the No.3 (Elizabeth Learning Center) and No.2 (Sherman Oaks CES) seeded teams by one goal in the final two rounds to reach the championship game.

"I'm really confident in our ability as we all want the win this championship so bad," Vidovich said.

In the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division 1 semifinals, San Pedro girls soccer lost 2-0 to top-seeded Taft of Woodland Hills, ending the fifth-seeded Pirates' 18-game winning streak. In spite of that heart-wrenching defeat San Pedro finished with a school record 20 wins (20-3-2 overall record), something no other Pirate girls soccer team before them had ever accomplished.

It was the fourth straight time in two years San Pedro lost to Taft, including a 3-1 setback to the Toreadors on December 4 earlier this season.