Gissel Reyes scored an early goal Wednesday, and East Union held on to win 1-0 at Manteca and clinch its first Sac-Joaquin Section playoff berth in three years.

The Lancers (5-5-1, 11-10-2 overall) locked up the third automatic playoff berth in the Valley Oak League with one game remaining. Patterson’s 1-0 loss to Sierra also played a part in them qualifying before their regular-season finale against second-place Oakdale next Monday.

“It’s always hard to beat Manteca at Manteca,” East Union coach Jason Silva said. “It’s hard to compete with a team like this, but it’s a rival, and the girls stepped up to the challenge. They knew what they had to do. We got the three points, which secures us third place and we’re moving onto the playoffs.”

Thanks in large part to Reyes’ early hustle and some clutch goalkeeping from freshman Kadence Rossi.

Manteca (1-9-1, 5-15-3) struggled to play out of the Lancers’ high press at the outset. In the third minute, Reyes stole the ball from a Buffaloes center back near the 18-yard line and poked it past goalie Keira McCulley (five saves).

“Just great hustle by Gissel,” Silva said. “It seems like we have been starting off games fast, and that was one of the things we wanted to do. We were able to put a lot of pressure on them early, and Gissel did a great job of stealing the ball in Manteca’s defensive third and scoring the goal.”

Then the Buffaloes took over for about the next 25 minutes, they just didn’t have any goals to show for it. By the 30th minute, Manteca had an 11-2 shot advantage.

“I was very please with the effort, especially in the first half. I thought we were pretty much in control,” Manteca coach Justin Coenenberg said. “Obviously, the mistake at the beginning of the game was unfortunate, and with those girls back there, it’s a mistake that doesn’t happen too often.

“I thought we responded well and kept playing hard through the half.

“It just tells the story of the season — two steps forward, one step back. We’re able to create opportunities, just not capitalizing.”

Manteca had a chance to answer East Union’s goal right away after Kailee Jackson’s centered pass took a fortunate deflection off a defender and gave Kaley Crawford an uncontested 1-on-1 opportunity that she took right at the keeper.

Jackson was also denied on some great looks. She had one shot get blocked by a diving, fingertips save from Rossi. Another bounced down off the crossbar on a direct kick from just outside the penalty box, and Leslie Gutierrez’s half-volley on the rebound was sent wide.

Manteca outshot the Lancers 19-13, and Rossi racked up seven saves.

“The defense was bend-don’t-break,” Silva said. “There were some mistakes we made and were lucky to work out of them to keep it 1-0. Kadence came up huge. It’s nice having a true goalkeeper this year. She’s kept us in so many games this year.”

Silva plans to rest some of his ailing players next Monday against Oakdale, which still has a shot at winning the league title.

Meanwhile, Manteca looks to end its season strong at Central Catholic. The Buffaloes’ streak of 10 straight seasons of making the playoffs has ended, but the future looks bright with all but three players returning. Serenity Cerritos, Kaley Crawford and Gina Hirle were the three seniors honored before the game.

Among those expected to return is talented attacker Joanna Roa, who missed her entire junior season with an ACL injury.

“(The season has) been a little frustrating and hard on the girls, but I’ll say this about them, they keep playing hard despite all the setbacks we’ve had this year,” Coenenberg said. “With a lot of them coming back, hopefully this makes them a little more hungry.”