Draw Shakes Up South Coast : Division I: Mater Dei, Capistrano Valley and San Clemente to play teams from powerful leagues.

Woe are they.

As they tell it, every South Coast League representative in the Southern Section Division I football playoffs has a difficult opponent for Friday’s opening round, as if that’s breaking news.

“Anyone who tries to sit down and figure out the luck of the draw is wasting a lot of energy,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said.

Not that it stopped Rollinson from puzzling over the Monarchs’ first opponent. Mater Dei meets Santa Fe Springs St. Paul, a team whose presence--barely--in the draw gave the Del Rey League a 25% representation.

“They’re 7-3 and they’re an at-large team?” Rollinson said.

Mater Dei is hardly the only South Coast team wondering about the Del Rey show of strength. Capistrano Valley will face Los Angeles Loyola, the third-place team from the Del Rey League. (Second-place Encino Crespi will play Long Beach Jordan and league winner La Puente Bishop Amat, the top-seeded defending champion, meets Lakewood.)

“This league has had two of the top teams in the western United States for the past 10 years,” St. Paul Coach Marijon Ancich said.

Bishop Amat won the league with a 5-0 record, while the other three teams finished 3-2. “They’re all second-place teams, and I think we got the best of them,” Capistrano Valley Coach Eric Patton said.

And Loyola does best when it’s running the ball. Quarterback Bobby Thompson has thrown four touchdown passes this season.

The key, Patton said, will be to stop Loyola’s run, play mistake-free football and explore all available offensive options.

“If we’re unable to throw or run in critical times, we’ll get beat,” Patton said.

One of St. Paul’s biggest assets is its head coach. Rollinson calls it a revitalized program under Ancich, who returned to St. Paul--he was originally there for 18 years--after a nine years at Tustin.

Rollinson called St. Paul’s defense a legitimate threat but not nearly the threat Ancich considers Mater Dei’s defense.

“All those huge linemen, they have seven on the field and 30 on the sidelines,” Ancich said. “It will be a challenge for us just to get a first down.”

San Clemente avoided a Del Rey matchup, but playing undefeated Quartz Hill, the Golden League champion and third-seeded team, is just as worrisome. Quartz Hill plays like an Ancich-coached team, according to Triton Coach Mark McElroy.

“They play basic football and they play it well,” said McElroy. “They play like Marijon Ancich-type teams. They play hard-nosed football and put their best athlete on defense.”

Quartz Hill has a few decent athletes on offense, too. Quarterback Brad Norris is the fifth-rated passer in the section (2,494 yards, 24 touchdowns) and set single-season school records in passing and touchdowns. Receiver Troy Searcy (37 catches, 984 yards, 16 touchdowns) has scored four touchdowns on pass receptions in two games.

McElroy was stunned by his team’s performance in Capistrano Valley’s 38-0 victory Friday.

“It was almost a tragedy after everything we’d done this year,” McElroy said. “I hope it woke them up and that that attitude prevails.”