Manteca’s 4-0 win over Ben Holt Academy to open its own Buff Cup tournament was not just another win. The win in the basin at Woodward Park was the first tournament win for this senior class and the first shutout of the season.

“But this is the first time this group, this senior class, in the four years they have been there that they have notched a tournament win. It is a big milestone, another check for us.”

Manteca (4-7-1) held the Bobcats to no shots in the first half, but Ben Holt Academy got off six shots in the second half with five on frame.

“I think that reflects our youth,” Burns said of the second-half shots by the Bobcats. “I think the boys are getting better, so the first 35 minutes they were fresh and they felt good. But as soon as fatigue started to set in and they started to lose their discipline, you could see that Ben Holt had some chances and put some pressure on our goalie (Alexandre Lira), but he is a high-level player so there was no real concern with him back there. He is good with his hands, good in the air, good with his voice and he helped see it through for us.

“That is the next step for this group is learning to finish out matches. We have been really good for spurts, good for a couple of games here and there, but it is the consistency that is evading us right now.”

Lira posted five saves, all in the second half, with his last one being one for the highlight reel. He laid out to his left and pulled the shot in on his fingertips.

“To me, that last save was routine,” Lira said. “I train every day and have been doing this for a long time.

“To do it every day in training and then come out here and do it in a game feels good.”

Jose Flores notched a brace with a pair of goals and nearly had a third, but teammate Kevin Mundo got to a deflection off of Flores’ first shot and was able to get the ball in the net for a 1-0 Buffaloes lead. Flores got the second goal off of an assist from Yhair Martinez, Fernando Lopez ran the score to 3-0 when he rebounded his own shot and Flores capped the scoring when his cross sailed wide right and into the net.

“That second one was a lucky goal,” Flores said. “I was trying to send it to our striker and it went in.”

Manteca faces Central Catholic this morning at 9 and Escalon at 12:30 p.m. to wrap up pool play.  

East Union 3, Millennium 0

Following a sluggish start, the Lancers (4-4) pulled away in the second half thanks to a hat trick by Gio Perez.

“In the first half, we were playing a bit lazy and a bit rusty,” Perez said. “We picked it up in the second half. We started passing the ball to each other and playing. I got a through ball, took a touch and shot it from 20 out for our first goal.

“The next two were the same so we just had to look for the through balls. And one we found that we found a weakness and we took advantage of it.”

Once East Union gelled with the absence of two players, the Falcons (0-3) were unable to keep pace.

“We started flat,” Lancers coach Ronnie Green said. “We are missing two players today, so we just started super flat.

“We were trying to get better and better in our system and then in the second half we started to figure it out because the first half was ugly.”

This morning at 9, East Union faces the Manteca JV, a fill-in for pull-out Waterford, and then this afternoon at 12:30 the Lancers finish pool play against Lathrop.

Lathrop 9, Manteca JV 0

The Buffaloes JV (1-3) filled in for last-minute pull-out Waterford.

“This was good work for Manteca,” Spartans coach Alfredo Reynaga said. “It was a great opportunity for them to see what the varsity level looks like, that way they can get accustomed to it going forward.

“We concentrated on specific topics of possession, overlapping runs, opening outside channels to work on crosses. We used it to try to improve for two tough opponents tomorrow in Millennium and East Union.”

Ociel Mora and Jorge Garcia paced Lathrop (6-3-2) with two goals apiece. Eduardo Torres, Aron Hernandez, Abdullah Maqsoodi, Jordan Le and Luis Mora all added one goal apiece.

The Spartans wrap up pool play today with games at 9 a.m. with Millennium and 12:30 p.m. with East Union and Manteca will fill in at 9 this morning with East Union and at 12:30 p.m. with Millennium.