REDWOOD CITY — At first, no one knew just what to make of Wednesday’s stunning turn of events.

Incredibly, the Carlmont High boys soccer team LOST to Menlo School, 1-0. That alone had the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division’s coaches buzzing.

But another realization quickly followed that created an even bigger stir. Carlmont’s loss along with Sequoia’s 0-0 draw with Burlingame AND Woodside’s 3-1 win over Terra Nova meant the Bay championship picture and the division’s postseason-bid allotment had just taken a hair-pin turn.

Standings on the sidelines at Sequoia with Burlingame coach Fred Cesano and Sequoia coach Kurt Devlin, we all started to do the math. First Carlmont coach Jason Selli, and then Woodside coach Juan Caballero joined the conversation via cell phone.

Sequoia gained a point and would finish at 22, with a bye on Friday. Carlmont stayed at 19. And Woodside jumped to 19. Both Carlmont and Woodside have games on Friday, so they could potentially reach 22 to tie Sequoia (and they will be favored to do so).

What happens then?

“It’s a mess, that’s what it is,” Carlmont’s Selli said. “I have absolutely no idea. I really don’t know.”

Selli’s immediate thoughts echoed those of his counterparts. The chief concern among some of the coaches was how a potential three-way tie would effect the Bay’s mini-tournament next week. The division’s top-two finishers earn automatic Central Coast Section postseason bids, and all along, the leaders have wanted to avoid leaving their CCS hopes tied to winning the play-in of the Bay’s third- through sixth-place teams.

Caballero and Selli were trying to figure how the day’s results might effect whether their teams would finish first, second or third. While we all suspected that the first tiebreaker would be head-to-head competition, no one had immediate answers as to whether that would be the case with a three-way tie.

(A subsequent conversation with PAL Commissioner Terry Stogner and a look at the sport’s bylaws revealed that head-to-head would indeed be the tiebreaker, for two or three teams.)

But in the heat of the moment, there were more questions than answers. And a bit of panic. When the Bay ballooned to 11 teams last season, evidently no one expected a potential three-way championship. The crowning highlight of the division’s set-up–the CCS play-in tournament–has had teams scrambling to both avoid it (the top-two teams) and to find a way into it (the middle-of-the-pack sides) both last season and this year. And it’s all about that third playoff bid.

“I don’t want to go to the (Bay) playoff,” Woodside’s Caballero chipped in. “Any team can be beat in this division. The four teams going in (to the play-in) are all powerhouses. Anyone can be beat. Everyone just wants to get away from that four team tournament.”

In the midst of the speculation, 32-year coaching veteran Ed Huber saddles up to chat with the group. Huber can’t believe Carlmont lost to Menlo. And then, when informed of the Bay standings and pondering a three-way championship, he points out the third-place team would actually have the same record as the first-place team.

Huber, a former Sequoia and Woodside coach, can’t resist a chance to needle Burlingame’s Cesano (whose team has been eying the play-in as its opportunity to qualify for CCS).

“Maybe there won’t even be a playoff,” Huber says to his buddy.

Quickly retorts Cesano: “There better be a playoff. We put that in (the bylaws).”

The coolest coach was without question Sequoia’s Devlin. Having lost control of their own fate with regards to the Bay championship by virtue of their 1-1 tie with Menlo on Monday, the Cherokees were sitting pretty by post-game Wednesday. And they didn’t even have to win (or score) to do it.

“We didn’t get the goal, but the main objective was to get the point to get into CCS,” said Devlin, whose team would’ve clinched at least second place and a playoff bid with a tie Wednesday, regardless of any other outcomes. “I told the guys, ‘I’ll see you Monday at practice.’”

Meanwhile, Cesano was pleased his Panthers kept their poise against a CCS-caliber opponent. After fending off several Sequoia attacks in the first half, Burlingame gradually plowed through to take control by game’s end.

“We broke ‘em down with our power game,” Cesano told his players afterwards. “We kept at it. We’ve just gotta get this team into CCS. That just shows you what we can do. No complaints.”

Defending-champion Burlingame clinched a spot in next week’s mini-tournament with the draw, and Cesano was pleased to think about the CCS bonus points his side would receive for tying a league champion.

Assessing the wild Bay finish, Sequoia’s Devlin pointed toward upstart Menlo, which has an impressive three-game run of tying Terra Nova and Sequoia and then beating Carlmont. “The bottom teams are starting to sting the top ones,” he said.

Menlo coach Giles Scott couldn’t contain his excitement when asked about downing the Scots.

“Yeah, it was awesome,” he said. “I thought we totally deserved it.”

Having clearly established itself as the division’s heartbreaker down the stretch, Menlo is finally playing up to its coach’s expectations.

“That’s where we should be,” said Scott, whose team is clinging onto long-shot hopes of making the play-in tournament, needing a win over Woodside and two Terra Nova losses. “We’re as good as those results. That’s how good we are. We just underperformed before.”

Woodside can take the Bay’s second seed and earn an automatic CCS spot by beating Menlo on Friday. But Caballero wasn’t any too excited at the thought of needing his team to get through the surging Knights to do it.

“Oh man, these guys? They’re tough,” Caballero said of Menlo. “How come they gotta start now? It’s gonna be a coin flip.”