PLAYOFF PROFILES : He’s Aiming at Final Goal

Pete is nimble. Pete is quick. Pete wants a championship.

That’s Pete Vagenas, St. Francis High’s slight but skilled soccer midfielder who leads the Golden Knights into the Southern Section Division III final against Arroyo Grande on Saturday at Gahr High in Cerritos.

Vagenas is 5 feet 7 and 135 pounds but his impact on the St. Francis team is immense. His playmaking passes and lightning-quick lateral movement allow the Golden Knights to utilize the entire field and to sustain a potent attack.

“His passing skills are combined with terrific peripheral vision to see open men; it’s amazing,” Alemany Coach Lowell Thomas said. “We did our best to [defend] him and it was somewhat effective but not really.”

Vagenas has 19 goals and 19 assists and forms a dangerous tandem with outside midfielder Eric Johnson, who has 20 goals and 14 assists. The two first played together as 6-year-olds in a youth league, then helped St. Francis’ 1992-93 junior varsity to a 15-0 record. They have played varsity the past three seasons.

Vagenas, who has signed to play at UCLA, has lifted the St. Francis program. Golden Knights Coach Glen Appels said it is the school’s first appearance in a section championship since the football team won a section title in 1964.

Last season, St. Francis won the Mission League title but was ousted in the second round. This season the Golden Knights finished second in the league behind Loyola, but Vagenas and nine fellow seniors have kept a sharp focus through the playoffs.

“Last season we got caught looking ahead,” said Vagenas, the 1994-95 Mission League player of the year. “But this season we’re a lot more intense. For a lot of guys, the ones who won’t play college soccer, this is it.”