MATTHEWS, N.C. — To win the boys soccer title, you’ve got to have a rock solid team. Enter the Granite Bears.

You also need great individual performances. Enter Angel Ortiz-Osorno.

Ortiz-Orsono’s hat trick led Mount Airy to the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A boys soccer championship, the program’s first title, with a 4-3 victory over Hobbton.

Both teams were aiming for a first state championship in the sport and both had suffered heartache in the late postseason for much of the last decade. Mount Airy, the 13th seed from the West, was making its first championship appearance after having been stopped in the regional final four times.

The Granite Bears showed their fortitude by winning on the road in four straight rounds before reaching the state final.

“They had to beat four out of the top five seeds in the West,” Mount Airy coach Cody Atkins said. “For them to finish the deal is just unbelievable. I’m proud of every single one of them.”

The crowd on Saturday at the Mecklenburg County SportsPlex was treated to a flurry of second half goals. Mount Airy (24-3) took a 1-1 game at halftime, took a two-goal lead, then lost that lead to a dangerous Hobbton (23-6-1) team, then won it in the 74th minute.

In the end, Hobbton was more dangerous on breakaways, but Mount Airy won thanks to its passing in the attacking third. Hobbton, the third seed from the East, was making its second appearance in the state championship. The Wildcats were also runner-up last year.

“They gave it their all,” Hobbton coach Christian Vega said.

It was 1-1 at halftime and both teams — who had scored more than 150 goals each this season — were getting acclimated to the wider field. Hobbton took the lead 1-0 as Henry Garcia struck in the 9th minute breakaway off a Ricardo Diaz assist and Mount Airy’s Ortiz-Orsono scored a free kick from 30 yards out in the 34th.

Ortiz-Orsono struck again early in the second half, getting a touch on a cross from freshman David Garcia. With the outside of his foot redirecting the ball past the keeper to the near side post, the score was now 2-1 in the Granite Bears’ favor in the 49th minute.

Not long after, in the 55th minute, Jonathan Valadez made it 3-1 for Mount Airy, fighting off a defender to receive a through ball from Chris Castillo and poking it past the keeper.

But Hobbton had a response.

Diaz drew a foul in the box and Ulises Perez scored the penalty in the 65th minute to cut the deficit to 3-2. Garcia’s second goal of the game, getting on the end of a long ball and working his way around the defender, made it 3-3 in the 72nd.

It was still anyone’s game.

But the Granite Bears had the game winner still to come. Valadez’s shot was saved and pushed wide, where it fell to Barack Galloway. He lifted a cross to the other side of the box, and Ortiz-Orsono headed in his third of the game to earn MVP honors.

“I was still pushing the team,” Ortiz-Orsono said. “When that ball went down that way, honestly I was just hoping my right winger would send it in. I was all by myself and he did exactly that.”

Before the game, each team honored its sportsmanship award winner for the season: Garcia from Mount Airy and Jonathan Salazar from Hobbton.