Two non-calls wound up working in East Union’s favor on Wednesday when the Lancers stole a point in a 1-1 stalemate with Manteca at Woodward Park.
In the 80th minute, East Union worked to create a scoring opportunity on the attacking third and lobbied for calls on two separate infractions — a handball and a foul — near the top of Manteca’s penalty box.
Seconds later, Chloe Silva had the ball at her feet thanks to a poor clearance from the Buffaloes and a clear look at the Manteca goal from the top left corner of the box. It was just the second shot the Lancers put on frame all game.
Neither team could muster another shot in the three minutes of added time.
“When the ball came to me, (defenders) were coming at me and I knew I had to take the shot,” the senior midfielder said. “At first, I was a little irritated because there was a handball and they didn’t call it. We got lucky that they didn’t call the handball.”
At this point, East Union (1-2-3, 6-8-4 overall) will take the results any way they come in the rough-and-tumble Valley Oak League. With the two other matches of the night also ending in ties, the fifth-place Lancers did not lose ground in the race for four Sac-Joaquin Section playoff berths. Four games remain with a road match against Oakdale coming up next Monday for EU.
“One of the things we’ve struggled with this year is finishing games, (playing) all 80 minutes,” Lancers coach Jason Silva said. “Tonight, the girls fought hard and we were able to get that goal in the last minute of the game.
“It’s always a tough game going up against Manteca. They’re in first place for a reason, and they’ve only lost or tied a couple games this year. This gives us a lot of momentum moving forward. We have Oakdale in our next match, and that’s another tough game. This gives us something to build off of.”
Manteca (3-1-2, 18-1-3) came away singing a different tune. The Buffaloes were a couple minutes away from distancing themselves from the rest of the pack with a game in hand — their make-up match with Sierra has been rescheduled for Friday.
“The league is tough, and we’ve been a little inconsistent lately,” Manteca coach Justin Coenenberg said. His Buffaloes were coming off their first loss of the season, 1-0 to Oakdale.
“This is the third game this year we were in a situation where we’re up, and we give up a goal in the last couple minutes. It’s super frustrating that we didn’t finish the game.”
Finishing shots in the run of play was another issue. The Buffaloes out shot East Union 13-4 and had multiple chances on counter attacks.
They finally cashed in during the 62nd minute, as Sienna Jones headed in a corner kick from Serenity Ceritos.
Jones nearly had an assist nine minutes later, but Joanna Roa’s first-time blast was met by a left-handed deflection from EU goalie Genesis Rodriguez.
The Buffs beat East Union 2-1 the last time they met, allowing a late goal that gave the Lancers some life. They were unable to get the insurance goal this time around.
“To be honest, throughout the game we had three or four golden opportunities where we gotta put that ball in the back of the net, and in most games we put that ball in the back of the net,” Coenenberg said. “Occasionally, we’ll have that game where we just struggle putting it in the back of the net.
“It just seems like when we’re on, we’re all on, but when we’re off it seems like we’re all off. It could have easily been 3-0 going into that last few minutes and it’s a different game. That’s why we have to make sure we capitalize on our opportunities and finish the game off.”
