Manteca back-to-back VOL champs after second-half comeback victory over Oakdale
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Manteca rallied with 19-point second half, clinched 10-0 record and VOL title.
- Defense forced fourth-down stop; Gully connected with Harris twins twice.
- Oakdale lost WR Flores to high ankle sprain; team enters playoffs with likely top seed.
If football was played over two quarters, Oakdale would be Valley Oak League champions.
The Mustangs on Friday would have been the ones smiling, throwing their helmets in the air and celebrating with the band. The student section likely would have stormed the field like it did after the win over Central Catholic earlier this season.
But, unfortunately for the Mustangs, football is a four-quarter sport and Friday, Manteca took advantage of a 19-0 second half to claim its second straight outright league title and secure a perfect 10-0 regular season. The 40-26 win secured the program’s first undefeated regular season since 2006.
“We’ve been a second-half team all year,” Manteca head coach Mark Varnum said. “We’ve had some great second halves and it’s just adjustments. A big testament to our coaching staff and the adjustments they make at halftime.”
Manteca fell behind 26-21 at halftime, but the Buffaloes’ confidence was never shaken. They roared back
It started on defense.
Oakdale, already in the lead, looking to send the Buffaloes an early second-half gut punch, went on an 18-play drive that lasted over 10 minutes. With the ball on the Manteca 24-yard line, the Buffaloes came away with a fourth-down stop, sending the visiting crowd into a frenzy and giving the offense the juice it needed.
In two plays, Manteca was in the end zone as quarterback Owen Gully found Jaylin Harris for a 68-yard touchdown pass to give the Buffaloes their first lead of the game, 27-26.
After the fourth-down stop, Gully and the offense struck again. On third and 21, the senior signal caller completed a 61-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Harris, Jaylin’s twin brother, for a 33-26 lead.
“It’s a great connection,” Gully said. “Those twins every day after practice, (it’s) reps, reps, reps. That play where Jaylin Harris broke for a touchdown, we ran that play after practice. It resulted in a touchdown and that’s what they deserve. They work their butt off every day at practice and it shows on the game film.”
Nikko Juarez put the nail in the coffin, rushing for 50 yards on a one-play scoring drive, opening a 40-26 advantage.
Jayden Harris sealed the game with an interception and with 1:30 left, Manteca kneeled out the clock and the celebration began.
“Us seniors, we lost to them as freshmen when we were 9-0, we didn’t want to let that happen again,” Gully said. “With everything going on, we just knew, overcome adversity. We stayed calm and did our job.”
A key injury hampers Oakdale
Oakdale looked like it was on its way to an upset victory and its first outright VOL title since 2017. The Wing-T was firing on all cylinders with Wes Burford, Richard Flores and Chase Lopez each recording rushes of 15 or more yards.
Lopez capped Oakdale’s first drive with a 15-yard touchdown and Flores ran around the edge for a successful two-point try with 6:53 left in the opening quarter. On Manteca’s ensuing drive, Peyton Wallace came away with a diving interception. Both sides traded stops before Burford broke open a 52-yard touchdown run and two-point conversion to open up a 16-0 game. Manteca answered with a score then the game began to turn on back-to-back plays.
Flores suffered a high ankle sprain with around nine minutes in the second quarter and one play later, a Grant Gardner pass ricocheted off a Mustang helmet and into Xyloh Kuresa’s hands. The senior rumbled through a number of tacklers for a nine yard pick-six, cutting the lead to 16-14.
Oakdale responded, however. Burford scored his second rushing touchdown of the first half, a 25-yard score, and added a safety before the halftime buzzer. Oakdale led 26-21 at the half.
The Mustangs could not get anything going in the second half. A handful of players rotated into Flores’ spot in the offense as they shifted formations and lineups, trying to fill the void with the outside threat.
“It’s not the same without Richard in there, but I was happy with the way the kids responded to adversity,” Oakdale head coach Garrett Martin said. “We moved the ball in the second half, we just couldn’t score.”
Both teams are in the playoff picture
In his address to the team before Manteca broke its postgame huddle, Varnum articulated his thoughts clearly. He hoped “the section” watched the game. Because he felt the Buffaloes left no doubt about who should be the top ranked team in the Division II bracket .
“There shouldn’t be any drama about who the No. 1 seed is,” he said to his team. “Manteca is the No. 1 seed.”
The veteran coach doubled down a few minutes later. Noting Manteca’s overall body of work this season. The teams they beat, the scores they put up and, of course, the most glaring factor for their case as the top seed in arguably the most competitive postseason division in the section, their perfect 10-0 regular season record.
“It should be a no-brainer who the one-seed is, but we control what we can control,” Varnum said. “(Being) back-to-back VOL champs is huge, we’re happy about it, but we want bigger things.”
Oakdale missed out on a league title, but its eight regular-season wins are more than last season. It will enter the D-III postseason as a likely top-three seed.
The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section selection show is Sunday afternoon and that morning, both teams’ fate will be decided. The section’s seeding committee will meet and crunch numbers, looking at individual non-league wins and losses, outcomes against common opponents and head-to-head matchups. The MaxPreps rankings will be important but ultimately, the committee will be the final judge on where a team is ranked.
Both teams will embrace the chance at added rest with the bye week in between the regular season finale and the start of the postseason for the top eight teams in their respective divisions. Oakdale will hope for Flores’ speedy recovery. He and Manteca’s star receiver, Martinez, will have two weeks before the journey to a blue banner begins.
This story was originally published November 1, 2025 at 7:27 AM.
