The Marana Mountain View boys outlasted Oro Valley Ironwood Ridge 2-1 Wednesday night to capture the Division II/Section VI title heading into the playoffs. Although the  No. 2 Mountain Lions were already headed to the playoffs, the championship guarantees an automatic bid from the section.

Finishing with a regular season record of 10-0-1, Mountain View will earn the section title over Tucson Catalina Foothills (9-2-1) based on a better divisional record while Ironwood Ridge (6-3-1) is most likely ranked too low to earn an at-large bid.

Junior defender Jonny Bruss scored on a hooking shot over the defensive line on a penalty from about 30 yards out to put Mountain View up 1-0 in the 6th minute and then senior Ian Kesterson sent one in (28th minute) that resulted in an own goal to give the Mountain Lions a 2-0 lead.

At that point, the Nighthawks had one real threat and had no sense of urgency but that all changed when senior Gabriel Villa scored in the 33rd to cut the lead down to 2-1.

"We came into the season knowing we had to make this the best season we possibly could," said Kesterson. "We worked hard in the offseason but the momentum shift came when we tied Catalina Foothills. That's when we knew we had a chance."

Mountain View had what could have been a disastrous start by going 0-3-1 at the preseason Brandon Bean Invitational but first-year head coach Tony Jensen quietly built up the program from that opening week to a point where they will get a super seed when the brackets come out on Friday at 2 p.m. at AZPreps365.com.

"A lot of people didn't give us a shot with all the great teams down here," explained Jensen. "And you saw how awesome Ironwood Ridge played tonight. It was almost as if they were the team going to the playoffs so we have a lot of stuff we need to clean up to be ready for the playoffs."

Mountain View won a state championship in 2007 but that seems like a generation ago.  It remains to be seen if this group of boys can capture that magic again but we will find out when the playoffs begin next Wednesday, Feb. 4.