BELLFLOWER — Peninsula’s boys volleyball team recovered from blowing a 2-0 lead Wednesday night to outlast St. John Bosco in five sets, 25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 19-25, 15-11, in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

The Panthers (20-7) got a team-high 23 kills from Drake Harris and 14 from Kyle Boger. The duo had three kills apiece in the deciding set.

“We made some good changes and played together as a team,” said Boger, who helped complement a strong start from Harris as the match got into the later stages.

Peninsula will host Santa Margarita (24-8) in the quarterfinals Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Peninsula coach Kevin Williams said moving Boger to the middle in the fifth set was one of the team’s key adjustments.

“(Boger) is a phenomenal middle,” Williams said. “We did it because they were cheating (off), so we wanted to hold ’em in the middle so they had to take him away from us — which opened up everything else.”

Clinging to a 5-4 lead in the fifth set, Peninsula got separation with a spurt ignited by a Bosco attack error. Carter Zee, Tyler Hartley and Boger then each produced kills to push the advantage to 9-5.

The Braves (23-13) pulled within a point on two more occasions, the last time at 11-10, but never had a lead in the final set.

The Panthers secured three of the final four points, including a swing down the middle from Bosco’s Ayden Fariester that went long for match point.

“Our passing was good ... and we just played as hard as we could and we won it,” Harris said.

The start to the match could have just as easily been a reversal of roles.

Bosco had a 13-7 edge in blocks, including six in the opening set, but was unable to seize control in either of the back-and-forth frames.

Harris produced 12 of his kills over the opening sets to set the tone for Peninsula.

Braves coach Gerald Aquiningoc said his team’s lack of experience played a factor early.

“This was the program’s first playoff match since 2016,” Aquiningoc said. “None of the guys have ever been in the playoffs. We have a freshman setter, we have a lot of freshmen on the court.

“It took us two sets to settle in and figure out that it’s just another game. When we put that much pressure on ourselves, it’s just hard. We gotta be perfect for three sets, and we were perfect for two. But we couldn’t sustain it for that fifth set.”

Fariester had 14 of his match-high 26 kills through two sets, but Bosco got a needed spark from Franklin Shiekh in the third and fourth sets to even the match. Shiekh had 15 of his 18 kills after the first two sets.

“Franklin and Ayden have been our workhorses,” Aquiningoc said. “They’re the ones that get us points. Tonight, it took Franklin a little while to start, but they did what they did all season. Ayden, I’m just super proud of him, man. He had a night, and we just came up short.”

Among Shiekh’s moments were a five-point outburst to put the Braves ahead 12-6 in the third and critical kills on half of the final eight points in the fourth.

“We were more consistent,” Shiekh said.