MODESTO — The East Union Lancers moved to 3-0 against Modesto City Schools on the season Friday night, as Jason Stock’s young squad got five turnovers from its defense to go along with three touchdowns by junior Gunnar Fay en route to a 42-0 victory over the Enochs Eagles.

“It wasn’t always pretty tonight, but it feels good to have won our first three games,” Stock said. “We know we’re staring a big game against another good D-IV school (Placer) in the face before a grind of a VOL (Valley Oak League) schedule. To start the season the way we have will help us compete better in those games down the stretch.”

After a Week Zero bye, East Union (3-0) has cruised through the start of its schedule to the tune of 127-6 combined scores in wins over Modesto, Johansen, and Enochs (1-3)

“We have some things to clean up, for sure,” Lancers wide receiver Fay said. “We know moving forward, we won’t be able to get away with some of the mistakes we made today, but we also did a lot right that we can build off of next week and beyond.”

The East Union offense led by sophomore quarterback Dante Tafoya (78 yards passing) showed flashes of what could be to come later in the season, as the young unit jells after the Lancers lost a ton of talent to graduation.

East Union received the opening kickoff against the Eagles and proceeded to go 64 yards in 13 plays capped by an Albie Menchaca (17 carries, 114 yards) touchdown from 9 yards out to open the scoring for the Lancers.

“Our line was opening some big holes for us to run through tonight,” Menchaca said. “There were times where I was 3-4 yards beyond the line of scrimmage before they were able to touch me, and when that’s happening, you know your guys are winning up front.”

East Union’s defense made life tough on Enochs and its quarterback Chance Bunch for most of the game. The first big play wasn’t one of the team’s five turnovers however, as the unit came up with points of its own as a swarm of Lancers tackled Eagles running back Mason Shaw for a safety to make the score 9-0 Lancers after an Elias Lopez punt pinned Enochs at the one yard line.

“One of the big positives in the game was definitely the way the defense played,” Stock said. “As we kept shooting ourselves in the foot on offense they seemed to rise up and make plays on the other side of the ball to keep momentum on our side.”

The defense picked the offense up again early in the second quarter. After Tafoya was stopped on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Enochs took over deep in its own end. Four plays later, the Eagles would snap the ball over Bunch’s head into the end zone where Fay jumped on it for six more points for the Lancers defense.

“Kind of an opportunistic play,” Fay said. “The ball felt like it was bouncing around forever just glad we were able to fall on it to pick up the offense there.”

Fay scored two more times in second quarter, both on passes from Tafoya. The first receiving score came from 5 yards out on a fade put only where the junior wide receiver could get it. The second receiving and third on the night for Fay came on a 26-yard reception in which he broke tackles before getting to the edge to run by Enochs defenders to make it 29-0 going into the break.

“Gunnar is an electric athlete with great speed,” Stock said. “Once he gets going and can show off that track speed, there aren’t many around here that are going to catch him, and it was nice to see him stretch his legs there on that big play.”

The Lancers defense could have been content with the eight points it put up on its own in the first half, but perhaps the biggest defensive play of the evening came late in the third quarter. After Lopez was tackled on fourth down trying to get a punt away, Enochs took over at the Lancers’ nine yard line. Two plays later, Lopez made a fantastic over-the-shoulder interception in the end zone before taking the ball 105 yards the other way for the second defensive touchdown of the evening for East Union.

The entirety of the fourth quarter was played under a running clock but was not without an interesting play, as East Union backup quarterback Bryson Ybarra, a transfer from Foothill of Sacramento, came into the game and found senior tight end Erick Cortez from 20 yards out to make it 42-0.

The Lancers will get back at it next Friday night as they face fellow Division IV playoff hopeful Placer. The Hillmen will come into the showdown at Dino Cunial Stadium 4-0 after their own 42-0 victory over Rio Linda Friday night.

“We know they are going to come in here ready to play,” Stock said. “It’ll be a good test and let us know where we stand against the other schools up there in the rankings in our division.”

Kickoff from East Union is at 7 p.m.