The Manteca Cowboys rallied to defeat the Delta Junior Kings at Manteca High’s Guss Schmiedt Field last Saturday, 19-16.

The win pushed the varsity squad’s mark to 4-1 in the NorCal All-American Youth Football League.

Trailing 16-12 in the fourth quarter, Manteca’s hopes looked dim after a fumble, with the Kings taking over with over four minutes remaining in the game. That’s when the Cowboys defense took over, stopping Delta on a fourth-and-three situation with two minutes left and no timeouts.

Quarterback Seth Santos then found Donicio Samoy on a 35-yard pass play at the Kings 23. From there, Samoy broke loose for the go-ahead score with one minute left in the game.

The Kings answered with their passing attack, advancing the ball to the Manteca 35. Nillo Yuson secured victory for the Cowboys with an interception.

Offensively, Parker Caston tallied 100 yards along with a 1-yard touchdown. Justin Scoz scored had two TDs while gaining 34 yards. Samoy had 70 yards rushing, 36 yards receiving and a score.

On defense, Samoy had a team-high seven tackles. Brian Galvan had six stops and Mykail Redman and Val Gomez both had five tackles. Steven Sanchez finished with three tackles and a fumble recovery. Yuson also had three stops and an interception.

The Cowboys will host the Pacheco Panthers at 4 p.m. Saturday at Manteca High.



Junior varsity

Cowboys 32, Kings 12

Manteca improved to 5-0 for the season thanks in part to a strong second-quarter effort.

The Kings forged an early 6-0 with a first-quarter touchdown.

The Cowboys got untracked with back-to-back TDs by Seuseu Alofaituli, who gained 145 yards rushing on 12 carries and 44 more yards on three catches.

Marcus Panelo followed that up with a 25-yard scoring run. He also added the conversion, upping Manteca’s lead, 19-6.

In the third, Cowboys quarterback Angel Sena hooked up with Frankie Portis on a 23-yard scoring toss. Panelo then sliced his way through the Delta defense, scoring on the 39-yard scramble. On the extra-point try, Gabriel Flores connected with Domingo Vargas.

Panelo also finished with 84 yards rushing, 58 yards passing and two touchdowns. On defense, he tallied six tackles and an interception. Sena was 10 of 11 passing for 208 yards and two scoring tosses. He also had nine tackles, three sacks, and recovered two fumbles.

Alofaituli, in addition, had a team-high 11 tackles. Gabriel Francisco had eight tackles.



Rookies

Cowboys 12, Kings 7

Manteca did it with defense, as Matthew Pilkay tallied eight tackles in the second half. He also completed a pass to Presley DeMello, resulting in a Cowboys’ touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter.

On the other side of the ball, DeMello had four tackles, caused a fumble and also recovered a fumble.

Andrew Sena sparked special teams with a 46-yard punt return, setting up Melvin McCoy’s 25-yard touchdown run.

McCoy also rushed for 69 yards and came through with five tackles.

In addition, Anthony Martinez and D.J. Martinez had five and four tackles, respectively.



Starts

Cowboys 27, Kings 0

Stanley Kimoni rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Cowboys. Joshua Grabowski added 62 yards and two scores and also threw for 26 yards. Joelle Urtega contributed 67 rushing yards.

The defense dominated led by Nicco Cedolini’s eight tackles and two sacks. Adam Sena also recorded two sacks to go with two fumble recoveries.