By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Bulletin correspondent
Sierra High boys’ soccer team opened up VOL play with a tough 1-0 win over visiting Manteca Tuesday night at foggy Daniel Teicheira Memorial Stadium.
The Timberwolves outshot visiting Manteca 18 to three, but were unable to put away a struggling Buffalo side.
“Finishing has been our weakness the last three or four games,” said Sierra coach Joe Pires. “Even
though we’ve won we’ve kept teams in the game by not finishing opportunities that we should.”
The Timberwolves, (1-0-0, 7-1-0) controlled the ball for much of the first half against the Buffaloes, (0-2-0) 1-11-0). Pacey play down the wings from Hamzah Niru and Nathan Perez created chances for the Sierra, but the home team found the lone goal of the night on a corner kick late in the first half. The corner was taken short by junior Preston Gallegos, and fell to the feet of senior midfielder Logan Silva, who slotted it past Manteca goalkeeper Leo Garcia to put the hosts up 1-0.
The goal was the lone tally against the senior Garcia, who kept Manteca in the match all night long, coming up with 10 saves against a Timberwolves team that struggled to find the back of the net.
“When you keep teams in the game like we have been, they keep getting motivated thinking they have a chance, and we get tight on our end, so you end up fighting the other team and yourselves,” said Pires of his teams struggles in the final third.
Pires’ side held the Buffaloes to just two shots on goal, with their duo of goalkeepers Andrew
Gilton and John Thomson needing to make just one save each as they split time in net. The light work on the night from the keepers was due in large part to a staunch back line from Sierra, led by senior defender Noah Ofman, who’s unit was there to shut down any potential attacks from Manteca.
“Defensively we played pretty good night, there were a couple of breakdowns in the midfield that our defense had to pick up, said Ofman. “But we did not give them any real chances and it was nice to keep the clean sheet.”
The shutout was the fourth of the season for the Timberwolves.
“We’re solid on defense,” said Pires. “There are lapses sometimes and our guys know they are good we just need to keep them focused.”
Sierra’s defense will be test in their next contest Thursday night back against Oakdale, who average 2.9 goals per game on the season.
“Every game is important, its league now. Hopefully
we can clean up some of the mistakes we made today and finish better. As you can tell from tonight these league games are going to be tough,” said Pires.
Manteca will look to bounce back on Thursday night as they travel to Patterson, who is coming off an 8-1 win at Central Catholic on Tuesday night.
