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.”