Thirty-seven points will win a lot of football games. Thirty-seven points in the first period tends to put things away early.

In No. 4 Manteca’s 64-18 win over visiting fifth-seeded Rodriguez in second-round Sac-Joaquin Section Division II football action, the massive first-quarter blitz for the Buffaloes included a punt return, a kickoff return and a fumble return.

“We scored every way imaginable in that first quarter,” Manteca coach Mark Varnum said. “They did some stuff early to kind of poke the bear and fire us up, and they paid for it.”

With the Buffaloes (10-1) leading 14-0 midway through the first period, Chris Chavez walloped the Mustangs ball carrier, forcing a fumble for Mathieu Evans to scoop up and ramble 30 yards to bump Manteca’s lead to 21-0.

“We had an echo called where I play back and I had coverage,” Evans said. “Chris (Chavez) hit the guy, and I picked it up and ran.

“I celebrated. It was a good time.”

Following an 85-yard pass to Keylen Highbaugh from Marcianno Syess (7 of 14 passing, 117 yards, touchdown) to draw the Mustangs (11-1) within 21-6, Nate Slikker charged the ensuing onside kick and sprinted 49 yards for the score.

“I saw the ball kicked to me,” Slikker said. “And then I saw the hole open up.

“I play a lot of Madden and NCAA, and I saw the opportunity and I took it.”

Quinn Martinez capped the opening-period deluge on a 70-yard punt return with 2:27 showing on the clock.

“I hoped he was going to kick it to me,” Martinez said, “And I took off to the right side, because I saw an opening there.

“I had blockers in front of me, and from there I just scored.”

The bulk of the conventional scoring for the Buffaloes came from Nikko Juarez (seven carries, 174 yards, two touchdowns; one reception, 51 yards, touchdown) with touchdown runs of 50 and 67 yards and a 51-yard pass from Owen Gulley (2 for 3 passing, 76 yards, two touchdowns) in the closing seconds of the first half. After making the catch, Juarez was smothered but spun out of the jam for the run to the end zone.

“I didn’t know if I was going to get out of it or not on that pass play,” Juarez said. “I did a spin move, and once I did the spin move I realized I was out of there.”

Martinez added another score on a 25-yard touchdown toss from Gulley, Elijah Stevenson followed Juarez’s first touchdown run with a 2-yard scoring plunge and Preston Smith capped the Manteca scoring parade on the game’s last play with a 2-yard quarterback keeper around the end.

Isaiah White led the ferocious Buffaloes defense with eight tackles. Kyrin Barajas made six stops, Evans forced a fumble and made five tackles, Martinez chipped in four stops and Josiah Sagapolu three. Joshua Mellion recovered a fumble.

Manteca travels to Rocklin next Friday to take on the top-seeded Thunder at 7 p.m.