Weston Ranch coach Francisco Cisneros let his players enjoy the moment.

Now, they go back to work.

The Cougars celebrated their clinching of a second straight Valley Oak League title soon with Thursday’s 5-1 victory at Sierra’s Daniel Teicheira Memorial Stadium, chanting “VOL! VOL! VOL!”  soon after an official signaled the end of the match.

The mission, however, is not yet complete for this talented and senior-heavy group that will be fractured by graduation. The focus now is to repeat as Sac-Joaquin Section champions.

“Goal 1 completed,” Cisneros said. “Now we move onto the next one.”

Checking off that first achievement proved to be no easy task for the Cougars (11-2-1 VOL, 20-4-2 overall), who ran the table last year for the school’s first-ever soccer title. Their only blemishes in league this year were losses to Oakdale and a 3-3 stalemate with Sierra (9-3-2, 15-8-2). Oakdale, which ended Weston Ranch’s league winning streak at 26, defeated Central Catholic 2-1 on Wednesday to jump ahead of the Cougars in the standings. The Mustangs needed for Weston Ranch to lose or tie Thursday to claim the crown.

 “It’s a tough league, and to win it back to back is a huge accomplishment big time for these boys,” Cisneros said. “I’m proud of the way they played tonight and hopefully we get rolling in the playoffs as well.”

It didn’t take long for them to get rolling in their regular-season finale. Omar Centeno scored the first of his two goals in the 28th minute and was set up by a cross from reigning league MVP Joseph Mayorca, who also netted a pair of goals.

Mayorca had four point-blank misses early on before cashing in with a breakaway goal in the 37th minute. And right before the end of the half, Mariano Perez deflected in Kevin Medina’s corner-kick offering to give the Cougars a commanding 3-0 advantage by the break.

Mayorca and Centeno struck again in the 45th and 59th minutes, respectively.

“We thought we had a good chance of winning the game,” Mayorca said. “Our mentality was there, but after that first goal we knew we had it — we have the VOL title again.”

Eddie Aguilar scored Sierra’s lone goal with a header in the 65th minute. Athen Gonsalves assisted the score with a long throw-in. Aguilar is the Manteca area’s leading scorer with 37 goals, while Mayorca is on his heels with 35. 

Aguilar had a chance to change the momentum of the game in the opening minutes, but his breakaway attempt grazed off the left post. Shortly after, Sierra defender Jonathan Vargas went down with an ankle injury, which helped unlock the floodgates for the Cougars. Making matters worse for the Timberwolves, forward Pedro Maciel sat out the entire second half with a sore knee. They were already down a starting midfielder, who was out sick.

“He’s our main defender, the heart of our defense,” Sierra coach Joe Pires said of Vargas. “He was the guy to watch No. 10 (Mayorca). With him down we had to put (midfielder Jesse Semenza) back there and everything changes. Put that all together and here we are — perfect storm.

“They are a very good team and they played better than we did,” Pires added. “Very well deserved for them.”

Sierra finishes in a third-place tie with cross-town rival East Union, and both will join Weston Ranch and Oakdale in the postseason. Weston Ranch captured the SJS Division IV crown last season but is forced to compete in Division III for winning league. Sierra, because of its enrollment, is likely to drop to what could be a treacherous 13-team Division IV bracket. 

The playoffs begin next Tuesday, and the section will release first-round pairings today.

Southern League

Gustine 3,

Ripon Christian 1

The season came to an end for the defending SL and SJS Division VII champion Knights (3-10-1, 5-15-1) on Thursday, but they made one of the league’s top teams earn the victory.

Host Gustine (10-2-2, 14-9-4) trailed 1-0 at halftime before scoring all three of its goals in the second half, the last of them coming in the final seconds. A hand ball in the penalty box gave Ripon Christian the opportunity to jump ahead early on, and Jake Van Vuren converted.

The Redskins, runners-up to Orestimba, seized control in the second half and scored in the 44th and 63rd minutes.

“They were getting too many openings, so we switched some things around,” RC coach Keith Terpsma said. “We had trouble on the offensive end in the second half. (Goalkeeper) Lukas Vermeulen made some great saves to keep us in the game.”