The crossbar denied Alejandro Sanchez a second-half hat trick on Tuesday, but Sierra’s junior defensive midfielder wasn’t too disappointed about it.

His penalty-kick conversions provided enough breathing room for the Timberwolves to knock off visiting Kimball 4-1 and force a two-way share of the lead in the Valley Oak League.

Paul Barrios and Emmanuel Ruiz scored the first half goals for Sierra (6-1-1 VOL, 10-5-3 overall), which previously tied the reigning co-champion 1-1 in Tracy.

“Their field messed us up a little bit,” Sanchez said. “We didn’t adjust fully to turf yet, so it caught us off guard. But I also feel like we came out with more intensity this game.”

Sierra was on the front foot from the outset, serving dangerous crosses and breaking away with overlapping runs. Barrios, the Timberwolves’ left back, was rewarded for his late-arriving run in the 10th minute after Hugo Reyes had a shot parried by goalkeeper Sahib Sandhu, who finished with 10 saves. Barrios pounced on the loose ball near the left post and poked past Kimball’s outstanding shot stopper.

Kimball (6-1-1, 11-2-1) answered six minutes later on its first scoring opportunity of the game. Sierra goalie Diego Velasco (three saves) initially deflected Zhubin Wahidi’s shot on the counterattack, but the Jaguars were able to finish it off with the uncontested rebound.

That did not shift the momentum, however, as the Timberwolves continued their relentless attack. They eventually recaptured the lead on the final play of the half. After a free kick near midfield, Reyes flicked the ball toward the goal from the top of the penalty box, and Ruiz outhustled a Kimball defender in front of the right post to get his foot on it and score.

Sierra had a 12-4 advantage on shots in the first half but was not satisfied with the lead.

“I was not comfortable at all at halftime,” Sierra coach Joe Pires said. “One goal is nothing with a team like (Kimball). We had so many opportunities, we dominated, but we didn’t finish. They come down on the one good opportunity and finished. In the second half, our goal was to take it to them and keep the pressure.”

The Timberwolves were unable to score in the run of play in the second half, but some dynamic movement on counterattacks led to the penalties.

In the 63rd minute, Anthony Napoles chased down a perfect through ball from midfield and was tripped up by Sandhu in the penalty box as he moved to evade the keeper off the dribble.

Sanchez’s second shot from the spot came six minutes later after back-up goalie Sebastian Pope barreled through Nathan Perez, who had a 1v1 set up by Reyes’ terrific breakaway along the right touch line following a Kimball corner kick.

Sandhu actually blocked the second PK, but Sanchez put it away off the deflection.

Sanchez nearly completed the hat trick in the 73rd minute. Victor Mejia Martinez hit him with an accurate throw-in, but the headed shot caromed off the crossbar.

“Got the job done on both pens, but I wanted the third one,” Sanchez said. “Couldn’t get it, but that’s alright.”

The championship is still unsettled in the VOL with two games remaining. Third-place East Union, which trails Sierra and Kimball by just a point, wants to avenge one-goal losses against both. The Lancers first host Sierra on Thursday.

Pires believes his team is refocused after its 3-2 upset loss to Manteca last week. The T’wolves bounced back with two dominant efforts, including a 3-0 shutout at Oakdale.

“We were maybe looking ahead too much, but that’s over,” Pires said. “Today was a big game. We did our job, got the victory. I thought we dominated. We did a pretty good job today and I’m proud of every single player — we got mostly everybody in there to play. Now we have another big game on Thursday.”