Boys’ Soccer

How much do the Orange County boys’ soccer rankings count? They didn’t count for much last year as seven of the top 10 teams in the final sportswriters’ poll didn’t advance past the second round of the Southern Section playoffs and only eventual Division III champion Santa Margarita made it out of the quarterfinals.

This year, they count for something as five ranked teams have reached today’s semifinals: top-ranked Woodbridge plays at Santa Barbara in Division II; fourth-ranked Servite hosts San Marino in Division IV; sixth-ranked El Dorado and ninth-ranked Brea Olinda meet in a Division III semifinal and 10th-ranked Santa Margarita is at Compton Dominguez in the other Division III semifinal.

The only unranked county team playing today is Orange Lutheran, which travels to Pasadena Poly in Division V.

Santa Margarita, trying to win its third consecutive Division III title, has had one of the stranger seasons of any county team. The Times ranked Santa Margarita first in the preseason. But by early January, the Eagles were out of the playoffs and winless in the Sea View League at 0-2-1.

“We have a young team,” said forward Sebastian Galmarini, who scored a goal and had an assists in the Eagles’ 3-0 quarterfinals victory over Trabuco Hills. “We had only four returners and two starters back and we weren’t real organized.”