IDAHO FALLS — The Century Diamondbacks are one win away from a state championship.

    But they didn’t reach the title game without a little drama.

    The Diamondbacks were tied 1-1 in the closing minutes of regulation against the Moscow Bears, and right outside the box, directly in front of the net, Century’s Kennedy Yost drew a foul in the 79th minute.

    Century was awarded a free kick and Diamondback head coach Jamshid Roomiany chose his senior defender Katherine Roberts.

    “I told her, ‘Katherine, relax your foot, relax your foot, calm down and go for it,’” Roomiany said.

    As she stepped up to the ball, Roberts said she thought to herself, “Just keep it low. Keep my shot low so it won’t go over and just hit.”

    And, boom, she slammed the game-winning goal high over the goalkeeper’s outstretched gloves to catapult the Diamondbacks into the 4A state championship game with a 2-1 win over Moscow Friday afternoon at the Idaho Falls Soccer Complex.

    The title match, at 6:30 p.m., is against Bishop Kelly, the reigning 4A state champions, and the team that knocked Century out of contention last year.

    “Me and my teammates have worked so hard to get to this final, and it’s just finally here,” Roberts said, who, as a senior, has one final game to play in a Century uniform. “So we’re ready to play.”

    Against the Bears, though, the Diamondbacks had to fight a determined, scrappy team.

    In the first half, Century controlled possession but struggled to get off quality shots.

    That was until the 37th minute. Freshman Kennedy Yost barreled into Moscow’s box, splitting through two defenders, and, seemingly by force of will, rammed the ball past the keeper while fighting off defenders for a 1-0 lead. For the small-statured Yost, it was her second goal of the tournament.

    “Bishop Kelly has tall defenders. (Yost) is going to be a thorn in their side,” Roomiany said.

    Like the opening 40 minutes, in the second half the Diamondbacks continued to control possession.

    And with a desperate Bears squad looking for an equalizing goal, the physicality only heightened. Two yellow cards were handed out to both Moscow and Century.

    On a counter, Moscow did find the goal it needed. In the 50th minute Ashley Engberg sent a cross into the box that Julianne Renner finished. It was Moscow’s second shot of the contest. After having controlled much of the game, the Diamondbacks found themselves in a fight for survival.

    “We had to keep our head,” Roberts said. “We had to keep mentally focused, because once someone scores on you and ties up the game, if you let down, then they’re going to come back and get another goal. So we had to be mentally prepared for that.”

    The Bears never did find that second goal, and, in fact, Moscow’s forwards never had another shot.

    “Our girls didn’t want to take it to a tie. They wanted to win,” Roomiany said. “They were very angry. They were not angry at their teammates. They were angry at the situation that we tied. We played harder.

    “Constantly, we sent the ball through. Lots of high balls in the box. We put them under pressure. ... We knew something good was going to happen.”

    Now Century prepares to challenge the Bishop Kelly Knights. The Knights beat Preston in the first round 4-0 Thursday and Twin Falls 3-1 Friday.

    “We won’t give them anything,” Roomiany said. “We are going to try and go through and play very hard from the beginning to the end. We have a fit team, and we are capable of playing two 40 minutes of really hard soccer. We won’t accept defeat from anybody, period.”