Sonora found out the hard way that it does not pay to give the Manteca soccer team second chances.

Three of the five goals the Buffaloes scored in the second half were second-chance goals as Manteca bounced back from an early one-goal deficit to defeat the Wildcats 6-1 for third place in the Buffalo Cup on Saturday at Guss Schmiedt Field.

“Sonora was a good, strong physical team but part of our problem is that we are not patient with our possessions,” Buffaloes coach Justin Coenenberg said. “If we don’t score right away we just start playing long balls.

“We talked about being patient with possessions and more opportunities would come and we got more movement from our forwards in the offensive third in the second half.”

Marcus Montano had two of those second-half goals for Manteca Buffaloes (2-2-1). He broke a 1-1 tie three minutes into the second half when he booted in a rebound off of Jason Maravilla’s shot and midway through the half he headed in a shot off of a pass from Raul Marquez.

“In the first half we were not really doing what we were supposed to do,” Montana said. “We were not possessing and talking as much as we needed to.

“In the second half we were trying to get into more of a scoring mentality by trying to pick up the hustle a bit and we were able to get a couple in.”

Five minutes after Montano’s rebound goal, Jason Maravilla made the score 3-1 when he took Ramon Rojas’ blast off the iron and put it back in the net. Rojas made it 5-1 when he blasted in Montano’s rebound. With five minutes left in the game the Wildcats knocked in an own goal off of a shot by Patrick Padilla.

“We have talked about how we have to get our shots on frame,” Coenenberg said. “When you blast the ball over the goal nothing good happens.

“If you get it on frame at least maybe the goalie can’t get his hands on it (and) we get the rebound, and we need to make sure we have the numbers in the box to put the ball in and they listened.”

Sonora got on the board first four minutes into the game off of a goal by Louis Bouchet. At the eight-minute mark Manteca’s Kevin Rodriguez centered up in front of the goal and relayed a pass from Braulio Solis into the net to tie the score at 1-1

“It was close for a while,” Coenenberg said. “After out loss to Lincoln to start the day – where we played well despite losing – we talked about not dropping down and we came out that first half and dropped down.”

 

Lincoln 3, Manteca 1

With five minutes left in the semifinal contest Montano scored on an assist from Maravilla to close the Buffaloes within 2-1 but the Trojans scored with seconds left to ice the game.

“It was a lot closer than it sounds,” Coenenberg said. “We gave up an own goal to put them ahead 2-0.

“I think Lincoln was the best team we have played this year and we really elevated our game. In spite of us losing, we stepped up our play overall.”



Manteca 9, Bret Harte 3

The Buffaloes pulled away in the second half Friday after being tied 1-1 at halftime with the Bullfrogs to open the tournament.

Maravilla and Solis each had two goals and an assist. Jose Marin had a goal and two assists, Montano and Rodriguez both had a goal and an assist, Marquez and Aron Navarette each had a goal and Rojas had an assist.