DRAPER — The Viewmont Lady Vikings soccer team finished the regular season as just the fourth seed coming out of Region 1 — they even had to win a play-in game just to enter the playoffs.

But now, after Tuesday night’s thrilling 1-0 overtime victory over the Skyline Eagles thanks to a goal by Ali Forsberg, they have a chance to win the state 5A soccer title.

The title game will be at Rio Tinto Stadium Friday, with the game time starting at 4:30 p.m.

“Ali has come through for us the past three or four games,” said Lady Vikings coach Eric Landon. “And our defense played well all game long.

“We have to understand that Friday will be very important for us.”

Both teams battled to a scoreless first half, but the Vikings were in control for the majority of the period.

During the half, Viewmont had many free kick and shot opportunities that didn’t go their way. Within the first 15 minutes, the Vikings had exposed the Eagles defense by taking three shots on goal, two of them off free kicks.

The Eagles’ goal keeper, however, saved all three attempts to keep the game scoreless.

Skyline had attempted to mount an offensive attack of its own, taking three shots from just outside the penalty box.

Their attempts were also thwarted by Viewmont goal keeper Alex Cook, who made a diving effort on one of those shot attempts.

“I can’t say enough about her, our defense, everybody,” said Landon. “This team is very tough, though.”

The Vikings came out firing on all cylinders offensively in the second half, as they controlled the game for most of the 40 minutes.

A carbon copy of the first half, Viewmont had at least six good shots within the first 25 minutes of the second half.

All of these, however, were either stopped by the Eagles’ keeper or barely missed the back of the net.

The six missed attempts came in a variety of ways, as a corner kick was headed by Viewmont over the net, two clean shots went wide of the net, and a free kick was saved.

Skyline had one good scoring opportunity in the second half with roughly 10 minutes to go, but Cook saved that effort in order to keep the game scoreless.

Viewmont had two more good shots on goal in the final 10 minutes, but a corner kick was headed by Viewmont right to Skyline’s goal keeper — and Abby Holbrook’s shot also went right into the arms of Skyline’s keeper before the end of regulation.

In the overtime period, it didn’t take long before Viewmont found its way into the state finals, as a free kick from Viewmont met the foot of Forsberg.

Forsberg made one move to get a clean shot and fired over the diving Eagle goal keeper for the winning goal.

After the goal was confirmed, Vikings fans rushed onto the field to celebrate with Landon and the team.

The Lady Vikings will now take on Brighton, which defeated Davis 3-0 in the other semifinal game played earlier at Juan Diego High School.

“Brighton is going to be tough,” said Landon. “And we know they have a lot of good players.

“We’re going to have to make sure we don’t stay too focused on one player, because if we do, there are other players out there who will come in and bite you.

“If we stay focused and play defense like we did tonight, I think we’re going to give them a good game.”

sgillet@davisclipper.com