By MICHAEL JOHNSON

Bulletin correspondent

MODESTO — The latest in a brutal stretch of Valley Oak League contests continued for the East Union Lancers on Friday night, as they lost 49-14 at perennial Division I power Central Catholic in front of a homecoming crowd.

The loss is the fourth in a row for Head Coach Rodney “Booie” Daniels’ team, which came in having lost hard-fought matchups at Sierra and at home to Patterson and Oakdale. Things did not get any easier for the Lancers facing a Raiders team coming off of its first VOL loss since 2019.

Daniels’ defense was game early on, holding the vaunted Raiders rushing attack that has averaged 213 yards per game largely in check in the first quarter. Staunch play up front from a defensive line led by Davien Fagundes and Isaac Alvarez freed up line backers Brayden Camara and Hoku Ap’e to fly around and make plays limiting the Raiders’ offense that was without leading rusher Joey Alcutt, who missed the game after being suspended last week against Manteca.

“Ever since the Sierra High game where we got exposed in the run game, we spent a lot of time on stopping the run. I was very happy with our run defense tonight stepping up, plugging holes,” Daniels said.

After going into the first intermission tied 0-0, Central Catholic, led by Head Coach Roger Canepa, made adjustments that proved to be too much for the Lancers. On the 12th play of a drive that took over 6 minutes of game-time, junior quarterback Kayden McHenry rolled out after a play-action fake and found senior tight end Sebastian Campos for a 27-yard score to get the scoring started with 11:52 remaining in the second quarter.

Daniels recognized the play of McHenry, who finished the night 6-of-11 for 137 yards and two touchdowns through the air.

“Where we got beat was in the secondary tonight, they went over the top, which is unconventional of Central Catholic,” Daniels said. “They were able to make some good throws to beat us.”

The Raiders looked every part of their current No. 2 ranking in Sac-Joaquin Section Division I throughout the rest of the first half, amassing 35 total points before the break led in part by two touchdowns from leading rusher Carter Meeks, and a second touchdown pass of the half from McHenry this time to his favorite target Chase Perino for 30 yards just before the first half horn.

Perhaps the most surprising statistic of the night came on offense for Daniels’ Lancers, who amassed just 222 yards. Midway through the second quarter, the Lancers turned to sophomore quarterback Peyton Heath to replace senior Anthony Morales, who struggled to find a rhythm with his receivers as well as time to throw. While he did not lead a scoring drive until late in the fourth quarter, Daniels thought Heath gave his team a fresh look coming off of the bench.
“We pulled the sophomore up this week after some crucial interceptions the past few weeks took us out of games vs. Patterson and Oakdale when we were right there competing with those teams. He (Heath) put together some great drives and showed us some stuff. He’s still young and has some things to learn. Our offense is drastically more expanded than the JV offense. and he’s only had four days to learn it,” Daniels said.

East Union went to their third quarterback of the night coming out of the halftime break, as junior Kirk Simoni led probably the most complete drive all evening for the Lancers — 85 yards down the field capped by a 10-yard touchdown pass to do-it-all standout Camara to cut the lead to 35-7 with 7:28 left in the third quarter.

After seeing the play from his three quarterbacks, Daniels reiterated the signal calling job for the Lancers is still very much up for grabs.

“We’re going to let the guys battle it out, but we’ve got to lock in a quarterback before we get rolling here. We’re trying to find a guy who can make the reads and get the ball into our athletes’ hands. When we do that we are competing.”

The Lancers will continue competing next week, and it does not get any easier with cross-town rival Manteca (3-0, 6-1) traveling to Dino Cunial field for a 7 p.m, kickoff.