Central Coast Section football playoff berths from the Peninsula Athletic League's Bay and Lake divisions have been determined. No at-large berths will come out of those divisions. But with two weeks left in the regular season, it's still up in the air who will get the automatic berth from the PAL Ocean, clearly the PAL's most competitive division from top to bottom. And up to four PAL Ocean teams will be in the running for at-large berths.

Half Moon Bay (6-2, 3-1) is in first place, one-half game ahead of Burlingame (6-2, 2-1) and San Mateo (5-3, 2-1). Menlo School and South San Francisco are tied for fourth place. Both are 5-3 overall, 2-2 in league.

South San Francisco plays at San Mateo and Menlo hosts Carlmont on Friday at 2:45 p.m., and Half Moon Bay plays at Burlingame at 7 p.m.

"Last year it was around 19 or 20 (power ranking points) that got you into CCS," South City coach Frank Moro said. "If we win out we'll have 19.5. With the eight extra teams this year 19.5 might be a possibility. We're hoping, we're keeping our fingers crossed. But right now we have to concern ourselves with San Mateo, a very good football team."

The CCS added a fifth division this year, Forty teams will qualify for the postseason as opposed to 32 in the past.

Half Moon Bay and Burlingame each suffered its first PAL Ocean loss last Friday. San Mateo came back from a 14-0 deficit to beat Half Moon Bay 34-21, and

"This league is crazy," Moro said, "but that's what makes it fun.'

STREAK BUSTERS: The Menlo-Atherton girls water polo team won the Northern California Top 16 Tournament at UC Davis with a 4-3 win in the championship game over Monte Vista, breaking Monte Vista's 72-game winning streak.

"Winning this tournament was a first for M-A," said fifth-year coach Chris Rubin, a 1997 M-A graduate. "It's even bigger than winning CCS because we were competing against the best in Northern California."

Mary Jane O'Neill scored the winning goal in the championship game, breaking a 3-3 tie. Rebecca Dorst scored four goals in a 5-4 win over No. 2 seed Campolindo in the semifinals. In the first two rounds the Bears beat St. Ignatius 13-5 and St. Francis-Sacramento 7-2. Goalkeeper Emily Dorst had 46 saves over the four games.

Menlo-Atherton won its first CCS championship in 2007 but lost in the CCS final in double overtime last year.

"Depth is a strong point for this team," Rubin said. "We had a lot of kids returning. That end of the season heartbreaking loss stuck with the kids. They've been working hard day in, day out. It's nice to see we're playing well right now. I'm hoping it carries on the next couple of weeks to the CCS finals."

COUNTY SPORTS NOTES: Turner Baty, the quarterback on M-A's CCS championship team last year, played one game this year for St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida before transferring to New Canaan (Conn.). He is 92-of-143 for 1,464 yards with 16 touchdowns and three interceptions for New Canaan, the No. 1-ranked team in Connecticut. ... Former Menlo School running back Leon Ivery got his first start Saturday for Columbia and carried 16 times for 127 yards in a 23-22 loss to Yale.