SOUTHERN SECTION SOCCER PLAYOFFS : DIVISION I GIRLS : Marina Stops El Toro’s Playoff Run

As long as they were going down, the El Toro Chargers preferred losing by a landslide.

And for the first time since Coach Kerry Krause took over the El Toro girls’ soccer program three years ago, he will be watching a Southern Section final from the stands.

“I’ll have to pay this time,” Krause said with a grin after watching Marina give his team a soccer lesson and run away with a 3-1 victory in a Division I semifinal Tuesday.

Marina will play Claremont, a 1-0 winner over fourth-seeded Simi Valley, for the title at 6 p.m. Friday at Cerritos Gahr High School.

Krause was gracious in defeat and praised a Marina team that dogged the second-seeded Chargers all afternoon.

“It was a tough one to lose,” Krause said, “but if you’re going to lose, get hammered, and (Marina) did that. . . . Give them a lot of credit. They deserved to win. They outplayed us. They kicked our fannies.”

Third-seeded Marina, which had lost two games to El Toro (19-3-3) this season, advanced to its first section title game. The Vikings marched back from a 1-0 first-half deficit after Jenny Kluegel had scored for El Toro.

In a span of 17 minutes, Marina (19-4-3) scored three goals by doing what coaches Bobby Bruch and Brandee Craig had been telling the team in preparation for this game.

“Stay composed in front of the goal,” Craig said.

With help from an assortment of teammates, sophomore Cassie Cambell on a header, freshman Jenny Bensen on a breakaway and Rhiannon Tanaka on a sharp-angled shot were the picture of composure, and hunger.

“I think we wanted it more than they did,” Bensen said.

El Toro’s elimination marked the first time since 1984 that a South Coast League team won’t be in a section championship game.

It also dropped the Chargers’ playoff record since 1990 to 14-2 and gave the Sunset League and its champion something to cheer about.

“(El Toro) has a fantastic team, you can’t take anything away from them,” Bruch said. “But we gave ourselves some credibility.”

Now and for the future. While El Toro will lose 13 seniors off this season’s roster, Marina has one freshman, nine sophomores, six juniors and three seniors.