Santa Monica gets victory in overtime

Santa Monica, which has been nationally ranked in various boys’ soccer polls all season, showed why Saturday with a 2-1 sudden-death overtime victory over Poway in the inaugural Southern California Regional Division I championship at Downey Warren High.

Junior Juan Magana scored the winning goal for the Southern Section Division IV champions five minutes before the match would have gone to penalty kicks.

Santa Monica (29-0-1), which scored 110 goals and gave up only 16 this season, is in contention to win two mythical national championships. Coming into Saturday the Vikings were ranked No. 2 by StudentSportsSoccer.com and No. 4 by the National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America.

Artur Jozkowicz set up junior Ricky Martinez in the 47th minute to give Santa Monica the early lead.

The Titans (27-3-2) came right back, though, and tied it two minutes later.

The game stayed that way until 10 minutes into overtime when Magana’s shot bounced off a defender and into the net.

Santa Margarita 1, San Diego Cathedral 0 -- The Eagles made a first-half goal from midfielder Alex Rodriguez stand up as they recorded their 19th shutout of the season in the Division II regional final.

The Eagles (24-3-4), the Southern Section Division I co-champions, gave up only 12 goals this season, breaking a school record set in 1993.

Los Angeles Salesian 3, Avenal 0 -- Chris Chavez, Diego Hernandez and Brian Beltran scored as Salesian (19-1-2) bounced back from a disappointing semifinal loss in the Southern Section Division V playoffs to win the Division III regional title.