Manteca’s Lily Dundas and Gabby Leon connected for touchdown passes in the final minute of each half, but that was not enough, as visiting Central Catholic scored four first-half touchdowns on the way to a 28-13 Valley Oak League flag football win Wednesday at Guss Schmiedt Field.

“We took ourselves out of position a lot early on,” Buffaloes coach William Riddick said. “They have a really good team. They executed and we didn’t.”

The first scoring connection between Dundas (19 of 34 passing, 205 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions) and Leon (three receptions, 69 yards) was good for 1 yard and brought Manteca (5-2 VOL, 12-4 overall) within 28-6 with 13.4 seconds left in the first half. With 43.9 seconds left in the game, Leon took a short pass from Dundas and sprinted 61 yards for a score.

Sari Lawson pulled in six passes for 80 yards for the Buffaloes. Jaelyn Rosas posted 13 pulls for the Manteca defense with Lawson and Myah Hayter adding five pulls apiece.

Mia Cardoza directed the offense for Central Catholic (7-0, 12-4), completing 17 of 29 passes for 239 yards with three touchdown passes to Adisyn Quadros (eight receptions, 144 yards).

“The girls have been putting in a lot of work,” Raiders coach Ryan Moring said. “We started spring practice around April and followed into June and worked hard during June and it’s really starting to come together. We’re a really young team. I’ve had the majority of them since their freshman year. I have eight juniors now going on year three and things are starting to gel.

When asked about Cardoza, Moring said, “There’s not a lot of negative things I can say about her. She’s mobile, she’s accurate and she has a cannon on her. She’s very, very intelligent, and we’re in a really good spot as a team right now.”

The Buffaloes host Patterson on Monday at 7 p.m.