Twenty-year-old defender Itsuki Oda scored the first goal of his professional career as Kashima Antlers beat visiting Cerezo Osaka 1-0 in the J. League on Wednesday night.
In an end-to-end clash between two teams angling for a berth in next year's Asian Champions League, it was the largely second-string Antlers who grabbed the points to move up to third place.
With his team set to host Iranian club Persepolis in the first leg of the ACL final on Saturday, Kashima manager Go Oiwa benched a number of regular starters including top scorer Yuma Suzuki and right-back Daigo Nishi.