ONLINE EXCLUSIVE — The fate of Oakdale High’s varsity girls soccer team will be decided during Tuesday’s showdown, April 30, at rival Sonora.

Since Oakdale (14-7-1 overall, 8-5 Valley Oak League) trails rival Manteca (13-6-1, 8-4-1) in conference points, the Lady Mustangs must escape Tuesday’s contest with a better outcome than the Buffaloes do in a likewise meeting against East Union (17-1-2, 10-1-2) at the same time.

Oakdale and Manteca split contests this year, but Oakdale beat fifth-place Sierra twice while Manteca was 1-0-1 against the Timberwolves.

This means Oakdale owns tiebreaker criteria, and will enter the 2013 Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs in one of seven enrollment-based brackets to be determined, if they end deadlocked with Manteca in VOL scoring.

It all comes down to Tuesday’s game, a rematch of Oakdale’s 3-0 victory at home on April 2. The Wildcats are just 7-9 on the season with a 4-8 stanza against conference foes. The sixth-place Wildcats have not defeated any of the top five teams in the VOL.

“Tomorrow’s game is going to be decisive,” Oakdale coach Alfredo Quiroga said on Monday. “We have to come together and get the win.

“We also have to hope that East Union can tie or beat Manteca.”

The Lancers beat Manteca 4-1 on April 2, but have no chance of slipping to the No. 3 seed, and would only surpass unbeaten Kimball (11-0-1) if the Jaguars manage a prolific downfall to Lathrop (0-13) and Sonora.

Tuesday’s contest begins at 6:30 p.m.