Today’s Soccer Championship Games

BOYS’ DIVISION III

Santa Margarita (16-7-4) vs. Torrance (14-10-5), Cerritos Gahr HS, Saturday, 2 p.m.

Neither team was expected to make the playoffs, much less reach the section title game. Santa Margarita got hot when Coach Curt Bauer juggled his formation, moving forwards Matt Moses (nine goals, 12 assists) and Tim Pierce (10 goals, eight assists) to the midfield. Junior goalkeeper Byron Foss has six shutouts in a row and seven in eight games and senior Nick Sparks, who missed the first eight games playing football, has been effective as sweeper. Moses, a two-time all-league player, has signed with Stanford. Torrance started even worse than Santa Margarita. The Tartars were 2-9-4 after 15 games but finished the regular season 8-1-1 and made the playoffs as an at-large team, becoming the only fourth-place team to qualify. Sophomore Greg Johnson has been instrumental in the Tartars’ playoff victories. Johnson, who was called up from the junior varsity after the regular season, has scored four times in the playoffs and has game-winners against Brea Olinda, Sierra Vista and Servite.