Sierra scored four second-half goals – two by Bryan Ramos – to pull away from East Union for a 5-2 Valley Oak League soccer win at Daniel Teicheira Memorial Stadium.

Leading 1-0 four minutes into the second half, Ramos took a pass from Cesar Martinez, got behind the Lancers goalie and tapped it in with a top-of-the-foot shot for a 2-0 Timberwolves lead. Ramos made it 4-1 off of an assist by Jesus Coronado with 10 minutes left in the game.

“It was a lot of teamwork,” Ramos said. “I had two perfect passes from my teammates.

“One of them I took the goalie and had an open shot at the net and in the other I put it in the far corner.”

Coronado helped get Sierra (3-1-1 VOL, 7-4-2 overall) on the board 13 minutes into the game with a perfectly placed corner kick that Juan Acosta tapped into the net for a 1-0 lead, the only goal of the first half. Martinez made a penalty kick midway through the second half for Sierra to boost the lead to 3-0 and teammate Caleb Ngui capped the game’s scoring with six minutes left in the game on a breakaway.

Timberwolves coach Joe Pires was pleased with the victory, but not surprised.

“It was a good win,” Pires said. “It is always a good win when you beat your cross-town rival. We have a good team and we need to stay consistent.

“We were playing at home and I wasn’t expecting to lose points at home, so I am happy with the results.”

The Lancers (2-3, 2-6-2) got on the board in the 34th minute when James Rendon scored on a breakaway to draw within 3-1 and Jaime Castaneda made it 4-2 when he took a pass from Carlos Sanchez and got it past the charging Sierra goalie.

“We just had a good play,” Castaneda said.  “Sanchez found me and the goalie got out to me in time but I was able to barely put it past him.”

Abel Lopez had 12 saves for East Union. Starting Sierra goalie Mannie Garcia had four saves and teammate Julian Semenza had two.

Lancers coach Victor Polanco realizes that early mistakes proved costly.

“We made too many mistakes and we started to score too late,” Polanco said. “And when we made those mistakes they scored against us.”

Frosh-soph

East Union 2, Sierra 0



In a battle of VOL unbeatens, the Lancers handed the Timberwolves their first loss in their last 13 outings.

Hirardo Romero got East Union on the board 11 minutes in and with five minutes left Payton Harding got the Lancers an insurance goal.

“It was a tough game,” Sierra coach Carlos Gaspar said. “We should have played a lot better.”