With just six games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Oakdale Lady Mustangs varsity soccer team currently sits in sixth place in the Valley Oak League standings. This past week Oakdale (10-6-3, 3-4-1) fell 2-1 to third place Central Catholic (9-2-1, 5-1-1) and tied 1-1 with fifth place Kimball ( 5-5-6, 3-4-1).
Monday, April 11 the Lady Mustangs hosted Central Catholic in the team’s first game of a long four game home stand. Senior forward Madison Feuerstein continues to have a brilliant final season as she scored the team’s only goal of the game in the second half on a pass from fellow senior, defender Natali Montoya.
“We had an opportunity to win this game on several different occasions. We tied them late in the second half but Central Catholic scored a late goal and we ran out of time. The girls made some defensive errors that led to goals this week, and moving forward we cannot afford to make those mistakes,” said head coach Alfredo Quiroga.
Two days later Oakdale welcomed Kimball to town in what was a first half offensive struggle for both teams, as halftime saw them locked in a scoreless tie. In the second half, Oakdale’s Feuerstein scored her 18th goal of the season on an assist from junior Amelia Hernandez. Feuerstein leads the Valley Oak League in points (42) and goals (18) and is currently tied for third place in assists with six. She is tied with teammates Bailey Antonio and Megan Burke.
“This was a game where the ball hit the cross bar or even the lower post and we could not straighten it out,” Quiroga said.
If Oakdale wants to punch a playoff ticket, they will need to turn things around this week when the varsity girls welcome seventh place Weston Ranch (6-9-0, 1-7) and eighth place Lathrop (1-12-1, 0-8-0) to Oakdale.
The Lady Mustangs blanked Weston Ranch in their first meeting 4-0 in Stockton on March 23 and also shut out Lathrop 7-0 in their road meeting on March 28. The Lady Mustangs game against the Cougars was held on Monday, April 18 following The Leader’s press time, and Oakdale hosts Lathrop on Wednesday, April 20 with a scheduled start time of 6:30 p.m.
“I am confident that we can still make the playoffs. The Valley Oak League is very competitive and they take the top four teams. There is still a lot of soccer left to be played,” Quiroga said. “We will remain competitive as we have all season, we have been able to hang in there with the top teams and we will see those teams again before the end of the season.”
Junior Varsity
The young JV girls continue to battle it out on the field as the team improved to 2-5 in Valley Oak League action with a 1-0 home win over Central Catholic. Jenna London scored the team’s lone goal in the first half on a pass from Maddy Freitas.
