East Union was 40 minutes away from securing a huge Valley Oak League victory on the road Wednesday against Oakdale.

Oakdale ended up winning decisively, 4-1.

It was the second match in three days that East Union (2-2 VOL, 4-2-1 overall) was outplayed in the second half. Head coach Victor Polanco let it slide Monday when his Lancers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and held on for the 4-1 triumph.

He said it will be a point of emphasis today in practice.

“We lost concentration in the second half,” Polanco said. “They scored four goals in 20 minutes and that was it. That’s something we are going to have to talk about, because we made a lot of mistakes in the second half.

East Union drew first blood in the 23rd minute when Alex Velasquez knocked in a goal set up by Gerardo Romero’s free kick. The Lancers continued their strong play early in the second half until about the 55th minute when Oakdale blasted in the equalizer.

Oakdale (3-1, 8-3-3) had four different scorers with Jose Becerra and Abe Jauregui each registering a goal and an assist.

Manteca 3,
Central Catholic 0

In Modesto, the winless Raiders went into their defensive shell to keep Manteca (4-0, 8-2-2) off the board in the first half.

The Buffaloes finally broke through about 10 minutes into the second half after Marcus Montano followed up on his own miss to score his first of two goals. He doubled their lead minutes later, working off a feed from Braulio Solis. Jason Maravilla capped scoring with the assist coming from Josh Kong, who set him up with a negative pass.

Manteca outshot Central 18-4, and goalies Eduardo Aguilar and Jose Zamarripa secured one save apiece.

The Buffaloes head to Weston Ranch next Monday for a first-place battle.

Sierra 2, Kimball 2

In Tracy, Sierra (1-2-1, 5-9-1) settled for a disappointing tie against a Kimball side that has just two overall wins under its belt.

The Timberwolves took two leads on goals from Henry Diaz and Kevin Mendiola, but the Jaguars were able to counter with tying scores.

Frosh-soph

East Union 5, Oakdale 2

Daniel Gomez set the tone with three goals over the first 10 minutes. Oscar Soto and Jacob Garcia added a goal apiece.