SOUTHERN SECTION SOCCER PLAYOFF ROUNDUP

In another boys’ match:

Temecula Valley 2, Oak Park 1--Jeff Gibbons scored Oak Park’s only goal in a Small Schools Division semifinal match at Oak Park.

No. 3-seeded Oak Park (17-2) led No. 2-seeded Temecula Valley (21-1-5), 1-0, at halftime, but Temecula Valley tied the score early in the second half. GIRLS

Simi Valley 3, Mater Dei 0--Mater Dei, which won the 3-A title last season, finally met its match in the 4-A semifinals as Simi Valley easily handled the Monarchs at Mater Dei. The Pioneers play El Toro in the final Friday at 6 p.m. at Gahr High.

Simi Valley (24-2-1), the No. 3-seeded team and champions of the Marmonte League, dominated No. 2 Mater Dei (23-4-2) by flooding the Monarchs’ end with players who were ready to pounce on second chances.

“They just put so many players forward and we never got organized defensively,” Mater Dei Coach Becki Schelhorse said. “They had girls running through all day long. We didn’t know where they were coming from. Their transition game was very good today.”

Simi Valley threatened from the beginning, narrowly missing a goal in the first 30 seconds. The Pioneers, who outshot the Monarchs, 24-11, scored five minutes into the game when Brandi Freidrich slipped past a Mater Dei defender and tapped a shot that rolled across the goal mouth and into the corner of the net.

Simi Valley’s other goals weren’t flukes. Senior midfielder Liz Albin scored her 17th goal of the season midway through the first half on a hard shot to the upper left-hand corner, which came on a rebound of her own shot. After Tarnay knocked a corner kick away out from the goal with 10 minutes left in the half, forward Holly Bennett controlled the ball and scored her 18th goal on a shot to the right corner.