The annual Valley Oak League Championship wrestling tournament was staged on Friday, Feb. 7 at Oakdale High School. Invading the gym were Central Catholic, Patterson, Mountain House, Sierra, East Union, Manteca and the host Mustangs. Grapplers participated in front of a standing room only crowd.
Prior to the first match, Oakdale honored a handful of seniors for Senior Night 2025. Those who were honored were Izaias Espino, Taylen Beck, Gideon Gerber, Aden Prather and Ethan Sanders.
On a successful evening, Oakdale had 10 wrestlers reach the finals. In those 10 matches, eight of the competing Mustangs were crowned champions.
At 108 pounds Izais Espino faced off against Sierra’s James Dani Morimoto in the finals. After a long battle that went the distance, it was Espino who earned a 1-0 victory.
At 122 pounds, Jake Simmons squared off against Central Catholic’s Jonah Blackwell in the finals. In the second period, Simmons pinned his freshman opponent.
Talen Beck became champion at 128 pounds. He defeated Central Catholic’s Barrett Silva 11-4.
Oakdale then ran into a pair of Raiders in the finals that got the better of them. At 134 pounds, Jesse Meza fell to Kekoa Ogawa 4-1 in an intense match to finish second. At 140 pounds, sophomore Avery Jones lost to Sean Griffin 9-0 to end the night with second place honors.
The Mustangs got back on track when 159-pound junior Cody Soares earned a first period pin over Sierra’s Christian Anyan. At 167 pounds Gideon Gerber defeated Sierra’s Raymond Martin via a first period pin.
Sophomore Xander Birakos defeated Manteca’s Miguel Cocio in a battle of the 192 pounders via a first period pin fall.
Wes Burford, 217 pounds, also won via a first period pin fall. The multisport athlete defeated East Union’s Isaac Alvarez.
In the final match of the evening, Matthew Cooley and Eli Swartz of Central Catholic went the distance. The 285-pound grapplers had fans on their feet as Cooley won 2-0.
Oakdale took first place with a team score of 497 points. Second place was Sierra at 438.5; Central Catholic took third at 336, edging out fourth place Mountain House, with 335 points. Patterson finished with 296.5, Manteca 296.0 and East Union placed seventh at 94.0.
GIRLS SOCCER
Continuing their regular season success, the Lady Mustang varsity girls soccer team notched two more league wins this week. Oakdale defeated both Patterson and Mountain House, both newcomers to the Valley Oak League.
On Monday, Feb. 3 the girls hosted Patterson and earned a 3-0 victory on Senior Night with goals from freshmen Kaila Cox and Ashlyn Splettstoesser as well as sophomore Dakota Burford. Sophomore Shelby Mitchell added an assist. Avery Alves served as the goaltender for Oakdale. She had four saves in the win.
On Wednesday, Feb. 6 the girls traveled to Mountain House and won 3-0. Cox, Burford and Kyleigh Melconian all scored for Oakdale and all three goals were assisted as Piper Ramirez, Burford and Melconian had assists in the win. Alves had one save in the game.
At the JV level, a 5-0 win over Patterson and a 6-1 road victory over Mountain House capped off a successful week for the young Lady Mustangs.
BOYS SOCCER
In a rough week for the varsity soccer boys, the Mustangs were blanked by Patterson on the road 5-0 and then lost to Mountain House 3-1 at home. Earlier in the season Oakdale lost to Patterson 3-0. The Tigers are in first place in the Valley Oak League standings with a record of 11-0-1.
On Thursday night the boys hosted Mountain House. The match was tied 1-1 at the break but Mountain House scored a pair of second half goals to earn the victory. Senior Abraham Isidro scored the lone goal for Oakdale. Mitchell Benning was the goalkeeper for Oakdale and had three saves. Mountain House swept Oakdale this season as they blanked Oakdale 5-0 earlier in the season.
The junior varsity team split in action this week as they lost 1-0 at Patterson but bounced back with a 2-0 home win over Mountain House.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Oakdale High School’s varsity girls basketball went on the road this past week, traveling to take on Sierra on Thursday, Feb. 6. After a fast start, Oakdale’s offense hit a wall and the girls eventually lost 53-13.
Oakdale scored the first basket of the game as Cassidy Terry hit a jump shot with 5:48 left in the first quarter to go up 2-0. Gaby Acosta’s assist to Samantha Powell in the paint gave Oakdale a 4-0 advantage with 4:19 remaining in the opening quarter. Terry scored on an offensive rebound and connected on a midrange jumper to expand the lead to 6-0 with 1:32 left in the first quarter. Sierra’s first basket came 30 seconds later with a long three to cut the deficit in half 6-3. Oakdale led 6-4 at the end of the first quarter.
Sierra poured it on from there, including a 16-0 run at one point in the second quarter. Oakdale ended a nine minute, 21 second scoring drought late in the half but trailed 19-8 after two quarters.
The struggles continued for Oakdale as Sierra built up a 28-8 lead with 6:38 remaining in the third, and the Lady Mustangs managed just a few points in that third quarter and just one in the final frame, on a Brielle Lee free throw.
The freshman girls won 22-16 over Sierra.
Thursday night, Feb. 13 Oakdale will head to Mountain House with a 7:30 p.m. tip off time for varsity.
BOYS BASKETBALL
In their only contest of the week, the varsity boys basketball posted a convincing road win. On Friday night, Feb. 7 the Mustangs went to Sierra to take on the Timberwolves on their Senior Night. Oakdale spoiled the night for the host team, winning 60-43.
A large amount of Mustang fans traveled to see the team battle for the road victory. Oakdale led 29-22 at halftime. In the second half Oakdale pulled away from Sierra.
In the second half, Jake Norris drove hard through the paint for a layup to put Oakdale up 33-22 with 6:32 left in the third quarter. Charles Benninger extended the Mustangs lead when he slashed through the lane for a basket to make it 36-28 with 4:18 remaining in the third quarter. A corner three by Noah Zepeda gave Oakdale a 43-29 lead with 1:24 left in the third quarter. Niki Jones got the crowd on their feet when he powered through the lane for a tough basket to go up 45-29 with just under a minute left in the third.
Benninger scored a game high 20 points for the Mustangs on the road. Jones added 17 points and Zepeda had 11.
Oakdale finishes the regular season with a pair of road games. On Wednesday night, Feb. 12 the Mustangs travel to Patterson to play the Tigers and on Valentine’s Day Oakdale heads to face the Mustangs of Mountain House. Both games are scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start time.
