While the East County Lions varsity showed little regard for the rules of the game Sunday – they committed 10 holding or illegal block-in-the-back penalties along with two for unsportsmanlike conduct – they managed to keep the Manteca Cowboys off the field and shut Manteca out 36-0 for the Northern California Youth Football Super Bowl championship at Tracy High’s Wayne Schneider Stadium. 

 Ball control was the Achilles heel for the Cowboys as they fumbled the ball away three times, threw two interceptions and saw the Lions recover and onside kick with the Lions coverting five of those six turnovers into touchdowns. Manteca totaled just 14 offensive plays with only five in the first half.

 Keona Cayode made an interception for the Cowboys off of a tip by Marques Callahan. Cayode led Manteca with seven tackles followed by Ace Avelar with four tackles, Colton Stonum and Indervir Sandhu with three each and Emilio Perez, Rafael Espinosa, Nick Luna, Dylan Lee and Angel Ramirez all with two apiece. 

Starts

Pittsburg Jr. Pirates 24, Manteca Jr. 

Timberwolves 0

 Every time opportunity knocked for the Timberwolves they were unable to answer the door. After losing just one fumble through 12 undefeated games, Manteca coughed the ball up four times inside the Jr. Pirates 30-yard line – once inside the 5 – and the Jr. Timberwolves could not recover from those mistakes .

The Northern California Youth Football Super Bowl game took place Sunday at Tracy High’s Wayne Schneider Stadium.

 Leiland Riggelman led Manteca with 65 yards on 11 carries. Kendhal Sweet-Mallory added 50 yards on 14 carries 50 yards and Brody Carabello had three carries 15 yards and a 15-yard completion to Riggelman.  

 Carabello, Alex Espinoza and Tino Torres made five 5 tackles each for Manteca. Sweet-Mallory added four stops, Riggelman three with a fumble recovery while Elijah Pugh and Rudy Torrez had two tackles apiece.