Coming off a stinging draw with Sierra to open the VOL girls soccer campaign on Friday, Manteca withstood a late charge from East Union on Monday and held on for a 2-1 VOL win at Dino Cunial Field.

With the Buffaloes (1-0-1 VOL, 16-0-2 overall) leading 2-0 thanks to their second goal by Alexia Alva barely a minute into the second half, the Lancers (0-1-1, 5-7-2) answered with 10 minutes left in the game on a goal by Addy Soulier assisted by Tallon Cervantez. East Union stepped up its attack after that but could not duplicate Sierra’s last-minute goal on Friday that took a victory away from the Manteca.

“It was a tight game tonight,” Buffaloes coach Justin Coenenberg said. “Coming out, I could tell we had a little bit of a hangover from the Sierra game. They were still kind of down, and even though we didn’t lose the Sierra game, they thought we should have won it.

“But we were able to come out here and get the win, and hopefully this pulls us out of the funk we were in.”

Center-mid Corrine Jones, who won the majority of her 50-50 balls on Monday, spotted Alva with a through ball seconds after the second half kickoff and Alva took it from there, dribbling for approximately 20 yards before blasting the ball into the net for a 2-0 Manteca lead.

“I think we kind of started off a little slow,” Jones said. “We were still a little disappointed with how we ended things on Friday against Sierra. That was a game we had dominated and we kind of let up on ourselves.

“So coming in here we really wanted to come out and show how we had been playing in the pre-season. I don’t think this was our best game but I think were elevating from how we played on Friday and I think this team, even though we are super young, is going to keep getting better and elevating.”

Alva’s first goal came from a 20-yard shot off of an assist from the wing by Sienna Jones in the 14th minute.

“The first one was a perfect through ball,” Alva said. I took the shot and didn’t overthink it.”

“I had a breakaway for the second and I took the shot and it went in. I didn’t overthink that one, either.”

Genesis Rodriguez made nine saves for the Lancers, and Manteca’s Haylie Brasil tallied four saves.

East Union hosts Oakdale on Wednesday, and the Buffaloes travel to Modesto to face Central Catholic.

Junior varsity

East Union 2, Manteca 0

Cheyenne Hudson and Gwen Baker each scored a goal for the Lancers.