With host East Union’s clinging to a one-goal lead in the 37th minute Thursday night, goalie Andres Garcia booted the ball from his 18-yard line to Manteca’s 18 — or 82 yards — to Benjamin Diaz, who got past the Manteca goalie for a score in the Lancers’ 2-0 Valley Oak League boys soccer win at Dino Cunial Field.
“They were pressing and we didn’t have all of our starters,” Garcia said. “We play what we had, and I saw a space open when Gio (Perez) pulled one of the defenders up, and I saw Ben (Diaz) make the run and bam, he made it and I got the assist.”
Once Diaz got the ball he didn’t let up.
“I didn’t give up on it,” Diaz said on his goal off of Garcia’s assist. “I kept pressing.
“Their goalie came out on me and I beat him to it and placed it in.”
The Lancers (5-2 VOL, 13-9-1 overall) got on the board at the end of the first half with an Alexis Berber goal off an assist from Perez.
East Union outshot the Buffaloes (3-4, 9-14-1) 19-4 with 11 shots on goal.
“Our team plays the possession game,” Lancers coach Ronnie Green said. “We were missing several players tonight, but Manteca put up a good fight. They are rebuilding and doing a great job at it. More power to them. I hope they win the rest of the games in our league — that would also help me out.
“It was a well-played game. I am happy with the boys, and I think we did everything we wanted to do tonight.”
Manteca shocked the VOL Tuesday night when the Buffaloes handed Sierra its first league loss. Manteca was looking for lightning to strike twice in the same week, to no avail.
“I felt like we were passive, I felt like we were scared,” Buffaloes coach James Burns said. “We had a terrible warmup and it spilled over into the game. This felt a lot like a hangover from Tuesday’s win. I tried to stress to these guys over the last couple of days that the win against Sierra cannot be the highlight of their season, that they have to continue to chase the other teams.
“Today, we started on our back foot and let them be the aggressor, and we were chasing goals the whole way. We were never in this game, and that’s what is disappointing. We have been in better form than this when we have been playing well over the last two weeks. Tonight was a shame, because we are so close to clinching a playoff berth, and with East Union down a few players we thought we had a chance to come in here and maybe finish the week 2-0 and topple another heavyweight. We just didn’t show up and that’s what’s concerning to me is that there was no fight in us tonight.”
Alberto Gutierrez tallied nine saves for Manteca, and Garcia put up three saves for the Lancers.
Junior varsity
East Union 5, Manteca 2
Ricardo Cardozo and Efren Ruiz tallied a brace apiece for the Lancers.
East Union’s Manny Curiel added a goal.
Juju Orejel scored both goals for the Buffaloes with one assist from Andres Gomez.
