The anticipation as the Burlingame and Woodside Priory girls soccer programs take aim at their inaugural Central Coast Section titles will build for a few more days. Saturday’s championship contests at San Jose’s Valley Christian High were postponed until Tuesday because of a forecast of high winds and a fierce rainstorm.

In the Division III title match, No. 4 seed Priory (17-6) meets second-seeded Scotts Valley (15-2-5) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. The Division II final follows at 7 p.m., as top seed Burlingame (22-0-2) faces No. 6 Presentation (17-6-4). Both contests are at Valley Christian.

“CCS made the right decision given the field and the way the wind and the rain will affect it,” Burlingame coach Phillip De Rosa said during his team’s practice Friday afternoon. “Now, it’s called keeping (the players) focused for a few more days.”

Priory coach Damian Cohen, whose team has a CCS-best 16-game win streak, had no complaint with the postponements announced midday Friday.

“I think it only helps us,” Cohen said. “I think it’ll be better soccer, and hopefully that’ll favor us.”

Asked if there was any downside to delaying Priory’s first appearance in a section final, Cohen laughed.

“I wasted some of my motivational speeches,” he said. “I used them a little early.”

De Rosa, whose team is the only remaining undefeated side — boys or girls — said his reaction was “a positive and a negative.

“No. 1, a disappointment, because everyone wants to play,” he continued. “The girls are ready to go.”

The Burlingame coach added that attempting to hold a post-game awards ceremony in foul weather would be disastrous, no matter the winner.

“They deserve better than that,” De Rosa said.

“You know what else?” he said. “I don’t want this (season) to end. This way I get ‘em for practice for a few more days.”

Stop me when I lose you.

Serra needs Carlmont to beat Burlingame. Terra Nova needs Burlingame to beat Carlmont. Burlingame needs to beat Carlmont. And Carlmont doesn’t really have much to play for.

Welcome to the wild final week of the regular season in boys soccer. The Central Coast Section postseason seeding meeting is set for Saturday, and a handful of County programs have absolutely no idea whether they are playoff-bound.

Three programs, to be exact. Burlingame, Serra and Terra Nova. Two of the three (Burlingame and Serra) control their CCS fate, but must notch league-tournament upsets to garner automatic bids. Terra Nova? No control whatsoever.

But much will be decided by late-afternoon on Wednesday, at the culmination of the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division’s CCS play-in tournament. With the assist of some heavy-duty numbers-crunching from Serra mathematics teacher (and soccer coach) Jeff Panos, here’s the breakdown:

(NOTE: CCS power points are based on a team’s final 18 results. League tournaments — PAL Bay, WCAL, etc. — DO NOT count toward those points.)

Burlingame can likely only get into CCS by beating Carlmont. The Panthers would earn the PAL Bay’s third automatic postseason berth by winning the play-in tournament. But if they don’t do that, they will almost certainly find themselves with too few power points to earn an at-large bid.

“I’m kind of feeling we’re too close in points to be at-large for sure,” Burlingame coach Fred Cesano said before the play-in began. “I’m worried. I feel like we need to win the tournament.”

Terra Nova can only gain consideration for a CCS berth if Burlingame makes the postseason field. A CCS bylaw prevents a team from leapfrogging another side from its own league, irrespective of the two teams’ power points. Translation: because Terra Nova finished fifth in the Bay and Burlingame fourth, Terra Nova can’t get in UNLESS Burlingame already has.

This rule hurts Terra Nova big-time. In terms of power points alone, the Tigers should fall comfortably in front of both Serra and Burlingame (to name two local teams in contention). But none of that matters if Burlingame doesn’t get in.

“It’s not in our hands,” said Terra Nova coach Ernie Brockmeyer, adding that his team became a big Burlingame fan the minute it lost 2-0 to the Panthers in Monday’s play-in opener. “Our hope is they take it all.”

Meanwhile, Panos abruptly reversed course on Tuesday in regards to whether he feels Serra has enough power points to earn an at-large bid if the Padres don’t beat Bellarmine in Thursday’s WCAL tournament championship game.

“If Burlingame wins, I think we’re out,” said the Padres coach, who previously stated he thought a regular-season ending win over Sacred Heart Cathedral had lifted Serra out of “bubble” status.

His logic? It’s two-fold.

1. With only eight TOTAL at-large berths available (for Division I and II), “bubble” teams can’t afford late-season upsets that give lesser teams (those with fewer power points) automatic CCS slots. If Burlingame takes an automatic bid, Carlmont will surely earn an at-large berth. (The Scots appear to have more power points than any PAL Bay team and Serra). A Burlingame win also would resurrect Terra Nova’s at-large prospects. And if both Carlmont AND Terra Nova swipe up at-large berths, Serra would begin to find itself on the short end of the numbers’ game.

2. Panos also listed Gunn and Palo Alto as teams that have been charging hard and appear to have vaulted Serra in the power-points department. Neither is a league champion, meaning they would stand to take an at-large berth “away” from the Padres and others.

And then we come to Carlmont. The Scots appear to be in the enviable position that they have already accumulated enough power points to earn a CCS bid. Translation: they do not have to beat Burlingame to make the playoffs.

Asked whether his team “needed” to win on Wednesday, Carlmont coach Jason Selli replied: “We want to win.”

In a 4-0 win over Menlo-Atherton on Monday, a result that likely extinguised M-A’s CCS hopes, Selli gave ample playing time to some second-stringers. Afterwards, he said he was confident his team would qualify for the postseason via an at-large bid if necessary, and added that he wouldn’t risk injuries in an anticipated physical matchup with Burlingame.

So, barring Serra upsetting nationally-ranked Bellarmine on Thursday, three teams’ CCS fates may directly hinge on the Burlingame vs. Carlmont showdown … and Carlmont isn’t one of them! Should be fascinating stuff.

Let me get this straight:

Aragon, Carlmont and Woodside all lost on the same day?!?!

We’ve known that girls soccer in the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division has been extremely competitive, but I challenge you to find one person who believed that would’ve happened at any point in the season.

Adding to the huh? nature of Tuesday, Carlmont and Woodside qualified for the Central Coast Section playoffs despite losing. And Menlo-Atherton, which began the day in eighth place, not only won, but gave no fewer than three other programs a huge assist by doing so.

Talk about confusing.

Mostly, it comes down to M-A handing Aragon a 3-0 loss.

“You are kidding me,” Woodside coach Jose Navarrete said when told of Aragon’s defeat. “Unreal. Whoa. Shock. Shock. Shock.”

Aragon began the day in fourth place at 23 points, one point in front of Menlo. Woodside and Carlmont both had 29, tied for second behind Bay-champion Burlingame. With two games remaining (entering Tuesday), Aragon was still (barely) in the race to finish in the top-three, a result that would earn an automatic CCS berth.

But thanks to M-A’s upset over the Dons, both Woodside (a 1-0 loser to Menlo) and Carlmont (which fell 2-0 at Burlingame) retained their six-point leads over Aragon. With its win, Menlo vaulted Aragon and sits in fourth with 25 points, but the Knights could pull no closer than one point behind the second-place teams by winning their finale. So … Woodside and Carlmont clinched playoff berths.

(If Woodside and Carlmont finish in a tie, Woodside earns the Bay’s second seed for CCS seeding purposes thanks to its 1-0-1 record vs. the Scots. And both teams appear headed to the Division I bracket, but that’s a whole separate story.)

So M-A helped Woodside and Carlmont secure their CCS berths. But the team that benefited the most from M-A’s big day was Menlo.

Both Aragon and Menlo were already looking at the at-large route for playoff qualification. But the CCS bylaw that prevents leapfrogging a team in the same league could damage Menlo’s chances should the Knights have enough power points to otherwise qualify but finish behind Aragon.

True, Menlo’s two-point lead over the Dons seems somewhat fluid when considering the Knights finish at Burlingame while Aragon wraps up with San Mateo. But Menlo has positioned itself to control its own fate, at least as far as fourth place is concerned.

“Which is great,” Knights coach Donoson Fitzgerald said. “We want to get in fourth. Wow, I’m shocked (about M-A beating Aragon). Shocked but happy.”

As for Tuesday’s result that had the Bay buzzing …

M-A jumped to lead in the first five minutes when Ashley Parrish punched in a pass from Vanessa Renkel. But then Aragon took over in the middle of the first half and threatened to pull even.

M-A coach Jenna Carson said the high pressure the Dons were inflicting was exactly the type of scenario that had been her side’s downfall on many occasions. The difference on Tuesday? “It started with the goalie,” Carson said.

Bears junior net-minder Brooke Weisenfluh came up with the clutch stops to protect her team’s slim lead, and then M-A’s offense responded by adding to the advantage. With Renkel, a sophomore forward, assisting again, freshman Gillian Collum notched a transition goal that put M-A up, 2-0. And then Renkel completed her impressive haul by scoring the third goal down the stretch.

“We play Aragon hard for whatever reason,” said Carson, whose team tied the Dons 1-1 earlier in the season. “The girls feel they should beat Aragon no matter where Aragon is in the standings. … (It was) definitely nice for our program.”

Despite his surprise at the final score in the M-A vs. Aragon game, Woodside’s Navarrete said he knew all too what M-A could do. Woodside beat the Bears 3-1 in the Bay’s second round, but Navarrete and Carson both said the score was deceptive and that M-A had the upper hand except for the Wildcats’ scoring binge (three goals in 10 minutes).

“Ninety-five percent M-A,” Navarrete said. “That was the biggest whupping we got. They just toyed with us. … They were way more athletic than we were.”

As for Aragon, coach Michael Flynn had no answers when asked how his team suffered a second straight 3-0 loss.

“I don’t know. I really don’t,” he said minutes after the game. “We’re done. I don’t even think I’m going to take my team to CCS.”

Less than two weeks ago, the Dons were flying high after a 2-1 win over Carlmont. But three lows in a row have proved trying, especially for a team that had only lost once all season before that.

The guess here? A win over San Mateo makes the Dons very competitive for an at-large berth. And if the Dons can put the brakes on their skid …

Aragon has beaten Woodside and Carlmont, and owns a tie against Burlingame. Talk about the type of team nobody would want to face come CCS.

Two quotes from elsewhere in the Bay:

San Mateo coach Victor Montoya, after his team recorded its sixth tie of the Bay season, a scoreless draw at Terra Nova: “I’m setting the record here.”

Burlingame coach Phillip De Rosa, on his players bearing down on an unbeaten Bay season after already clinching the championship: “They’re not satisfied. That’s the key.”

Whew. A dizzying final week of the boys soccer regular season in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division is coming to a close. All that’s left is Terra Nova’s visit to Menlo-Atherton on Saturday morning.

A few quotes, as the dust is finally starting to settle, that didn’t make the newspaper:

Woodside coach Juan Caballero, on his thoughts before his team’s finale with Menlo School: “At first, I was really nervous. I didn’t want to be in that damn little tournament.”

Carlmont coach Jason Selli, on losing out on the shot at an outright Bay title, most notably after Wedneday’s 1-0 loss to Menlo: “We had a lot of opportunities to control it … and we didn’t do it. We’ve had a lot of opportunities, and we’ve kind of squandered them.”

Sequoia coach Kurt Devlin, on Carlmont’s nosedive: “They’ve gotta be kicking themselves.”

More Devlin, on avoiding the Bay’s CCS play-in tournament: “Luckily, because that’s a crapshoot.”

Woodside forward William ‘Henderson’ Lopez, on the surprise that his team’s Bay title hopes were still alive after Carlmont’s loss to Menlo: “We thought that we didn’t have a chance anymore. That gave us a chance.”

More Lopez, when asked what he would’ve said if told in the beginning of the season that Woodside would share the title with Sequoia: “I wouldn’t be happy with that because they’re our rivals. … The battle for Redwood City is still undecided.”

Caballero, on the tri-championship: “I wouldn’t have believed it was possible. Out of us three, I would’ve thought one of us would’ve taken it. Sucks, because you wanna have it by yourself, but what can you do? Having part of the title is better than not having anything at all.”

Selli, on the tri-championship: “I think we’re disappointed. I’m sure Woodside and Carlmont are disappointed as well.”

Capuchino coach Rod Kovacevic, whose team avoided a drop to the Ocean next season by winning its last two games to finish in seventh place: “That’s very nice. … They know their coach likes to keep (playing) in the Bay league. Definitely (nice) for everyone, especially me.”

Westmoor coach Omar Rashid, whose team hung in there despite eventually losing to Ocean-leading South San Francisco (which earlier had beaten the Rams, 4-0): “The final score was 2-1, but we played a helluva game today. (Westmoor goal scorer Andreas Portillo) took four guys in the box. Literally, a beautiful goal.”

More Rashid, who is coaching Westmoor’s boys AND girls teams this season, on a week made extra-heavy with two make-up contests: “Tomorrow will be my sixth game this week. Scott, I don’t drink, but tomorrow I’m going to buy a two-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi and just enjoy myself.”

And the funny-man prize of the day goes to …

Woodside’s Irvin Castillo, on head referee Chris Miller’s electric-orange jersey: “Miller looks like the highlighter I bought at Albertsons.”

WOODSIDE — Big-time players stepped up in big-time games atop the Peninsula Athletic League’s Bay Division on Friday afternoon.

With a chance at tying Sequoia for the boys soccer championship, both Woodside and Carlmont needed to pull out all the stops. The result? Some fantastic goal-scoring, wins by both sides … and a tri-championship.

Sequoia was already in the clubhouse with a three-point lead, so Woodside and Carlmont were determined to get the jump early in their bids to catch the Cherokees. They succeeded. Both challengers leaped to 3-0 halftime leads to remove any thoughts of a letdown or a hair-raising second half.

At Woodside, the Wildcats’ internal scoring competition resulted in some high-voltage offense against pesky Menlo. Alex Lopez got the scoring barrage (three goals in a nine-minute span) started in the 26th minute after his brother, William, created some room inside the box. William, nicknamed Henderson, deftly manuevered around a pair of defenders on the left side, spinning completely around to pass back to his sibling in the center. Alex didn’t hesistate, cracking a right-footer home.

Then, Henderson and fellow senior playmaker Oscar Yniguez resumed what has been a spirited battle for the team scoring lead. First, Henderson burst free to run onto a nice pass from Daniel Gasparini toward the right side of the box. With the goalie out, Lopez didn’t have much of an angle, but that didn’t matter. Bam! Short-range right-footer into the net.

Lopez: 16 goals on the season.

Six minutes later, Yniguez sized up a free kick from the middle of the field. Thirty-three yards out? No problem. The senior midfielder unloaded on one of the left-footed rockets he’s become known for. Nevermind Menlo’s wall. Nevermind the goalie. It was hard. It was on frame. And it was quickly, very quickly, into the back of the net.

Yniguez: 15 goals.

Yniguez had another chance to add to his impressive set-piece scoring resume early in the second half, but his blast from the left side swerved wide left at the last possible moment. The wicked spin was impressive — (how does he do that?!) — but no goal.

It didn’t matter.

A few minutes later: “Yniguez … from the top of the box … good!”

Yniguez: 16 goals.

And we’re tied!

“He’s kind of mad right now, but he’ll get over it,” a smiling Yniguez said of Lopez.

Lopez grabbed the early goals lead on his running mate this season, and kept padding his total. He’s been at or near the top of County scorers all season. (With 18 goals, South San Francisco’s Aldo Castro has a two-goal lead over the Woodside stars, Terra Nova’s Pedro Mendes and Ryan Ratto of Serra.)

Yniguez, despite a handful of masterful games, trailed his teammate 13-10 entering the final week. Lopez hasn’t exactly tailed off, scoring once each against Hillsdale, Terra Nova and now Menlo. But Yniguez has been connecting at DOUBLE that rate. The slick midfielder who says he’s headed to San Jose State has scored twice in each of his past three games.

“I was a lot ahead of him,” said Lopez, shaking his head. “(But) I’m happy for him.”

Added Yniguez: “Maybe it’s my time to score now. … Today, I got him.”

“Whoever wins the little competition,” Yniguez continued, “as long as somebody keeps scoring … let’s keep scoring.”

Woodside coach Juan Caballero, who has enthusiastically watched his players try to one-up each other, couldn’t agree more.

“They can keep it up,” he said. “As long as they score, I don’t care who wins. They’re helping each other. They’re not being greedy about it.”

Lopez has 13 assists — tied for the County lead with Serra’s Hitallo Nava. Seven of them have come on Yniguez goals. Meanwhile, Yniguez has set up his teammate in three of his seven assists.

Meanwhile, at Carlmont, star forward Adam Tahar led the charge in the Scots’ 5-0 win over Half Moon Bay, scoring twice in each half to push his season total to 15 goals.

First, the tall senior one-timed a pass from Alfonso Molina into the net, and then benefited from one of Zade Elmowafe’s two assists to score again after a move inside the 18-yard box.

And in the second half, Tahar drilled a ball from a step outside the box, low and on frame, for Goal No. 3, and then connected off another Elmowafe feed to complete his quartet masterpiece.

Carlmont coach Jason Selli said Tahar took the Scots’ 1-0 loss to Menlo School on Wednesday — a defeat that cost the team a shot at the outright title and eventually relegated them to the Bay’s play-in tournament next week — particularly hard.

“He was really disappointed and down after the Menlo game,” said Selli, commending his senior for leading the quick turnaround. “We had to regain some of our confidence and self respect after Wednesday’s performance.”