Above: El Rancho’s Francisco Lara (9) is congratulated by teammates after scoring during Thursday’s 2-1 victory over South Torrance in the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs. (Staff photo by Keith Durflinger)

PICO RIVERA – Finally, a playoff victory with a little breathing room.
The score wouldn’t indicate it, but after two nail-biters for the defending CIF-Southern Section Division 4 boys’ soccer team El Rancho is one step away from a title game.
The Dons defeated visiting South Torrance, 2-1, in the division quarterfinals Thursday to advance to the semifinals.
Top-seeded and undefeated El Rancho (25-0) will travel to fourth-seeded Cathedral of Los Angeles on Tuesday. Cathedral was a 1-0 overtime winner over Santa Monica on Thursday.
For the second consecutive game, senior forward Francisco Lara scored twice for the Dons.
El Rancho coach Dominic Picon: “This one I don’t think should have been as close as it was. I feel the same way as the last one (a second-round win) and overall we played a lot better in this game than we did in the previous game. The second half was pretty close to domination. I was real happy, offensively, the way we played, especially in that half.”
– John Sherrard
Here’s the rest of the story:
El Rancho 2, South Torrance 1