Winning their “Pool B,” the Rio Rancho High School boys soccer team advanced into a state semifinal Thursday evening at 7:15 at the State Farm Insurance Soccer Complex.

Coming off an easy 5-0 victory over Highland on Thursday, the Rams (20-2) needed overtime to beat a feisty Los Lunas team, 2-1, Saturday afternoon.

The Rams meet third-seeded Mayfield for the third time this season – and at a different location each time. The Trojans are the “Pool C’ winner; La Cueva and Sandia, longtime District 2-5A foes, face off in the other semifinal game Thursday.

The Rams celebrate Nico Muniz's game-winner in OT Saturday afternoon.

The Class 5A state championship game is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday on field 8.

The Rams beat the Trojans Sept. 13 at Albuquerque Academy in the championship game of the Chargers’ annual tournament, then edged them 2-1 at Rio Rancho Stadium on Oct. 4.

The Rams go into the semifinals for just the second time in school history; they lost to Eldorado, 3-0, in 2005, the year they began their run of 1-5A titles.

Rio Rancho takes a 12-game winning streak into semis; the Rams’ last loss was on Sept. 18, when La Cueva shut them out, 4-0, at the soccer complex.

Rams 2, Los Lunas 1 (OT): Julian Roberts displayed his fancy footwork a few minutes into overtime, baffling a Tiger before passing the ball to Nico Muniz, who booted it home for coach John Shepard’s 99th victory at the helm.

“I’m tired. We really needed to come up with that win,” Roberts said. “We were excited to come out here and play. We got caught up in that 1-0 (deficit), going into overtime. We worked on it in practice, it worked for us, so we came out and took that game.”

“That guy’s got an endless motor and he’s got that great touch. He’s just quicker than anybody else, except a couple of our guys,” Shepard said. “Julian’s a game-changer; there’s no question about it.”

The Tigers (13-9) played more like La Cueva, Eldorado or Sandia Saturday afternoon, taking an early lead with a goal in the third minute off starting ‘keeper Devin Potter.

The Rams knotted the game in the 50th minute on a goal by Sean Deller.

The game remained knotted at 1 the rest of the way, not that the Rams had a handful of scoring opportunities in close, necessitating overtime.

The Tigers had their work cut out for them, as far as advancing to the final four, after being dropped by Highland, one of their District 5-5A foes, 1-0 on Friday. The Rams had humbled the Hornets 5-0 Thursday afternoon in the first day of “World Cup” pool play.

“It’s like everyone’s coming out here and playing their hearts out,” Roberts said. “Soccer’s a crazy game. You win a game at state and it puts you in good position. They’re playing all for it, we come out flat-footed; they came out raging and they got it in there, so credit to them.”

Shepard, unaware it was his 99th victory since succeeding Tim Magee as head coach in 2002, also touted the work of the Tigers for playing an inspiring game.

“Their team played really hard and you kind of have to respect that. They kind of knew they weren’t playing for anything. It’s their last game of the season and they were playing for pride,” Shepard said.

“If they would have rolled over, it wouldn’t have done either program any good,” he said. “So I’m glad they came out and gave us all we could handle.”

The Rams and Tigers were together in District 5AAAA in 1998 and ’99.