A Live Oak-Sobrato regular-season finale in 2011 would require
several pieces to fall in place
It had all the makings of a late-season thriller.
The hits, the crowd, the tension, the rivalry. Live Oak and Sobrato delighted a standing-room-crowd of almost 4,000 local residents for 48 minutes Friday at Richert Field in an El Toro Bowl that finally lived up to its billing.
It was the closest meeting between the Morgan Hill rivals in history — Live Oak 21, Sobrato 14 — and it wasn’t over until Dominic Bejarano’s last-minute interception, one of countless memorable moments on the night.
The others? Where to begin. When I think back to El Toro Bowl IV, I’ll remember Obi Mbonu colliding head-on with Nikki Weber; Cody Van Aken’s explosive 40-yard run in the fourth quarter; Live Oak coach Jon Michael Porras getting a Gatorade bath (or was it just water?) after the game; and one of the best running backs dual I’ve seen in 20 years of watching prep football — and I once saw six players rush for more than 100 yards in a game.
I’ll also remember Danny Galli’s harrowing injury and how it inspired the Acorns.
The game had everything — truly an “amazing” experience, as Bejarano said afterward. Which makes it more discouraging to know the El Toro Bowl has eight to 12 weeks left this season to decrease in value. And it will.
If there is one thing that needs to be changed about the annual Morgan Hill city championship, it’s the schedule. The game has been played in weeks 1-3 the past few years — El Toro Bowl I was a 2007 Central Coast Section playoff opener — and became just another nonleague win or loss by the end of the season. Both teams have bigger things to shoot for, like playoff berths and league titles.
The El Toro Bowl deserves the same seasonlong buildup. It is one of the best things to happen to Morgan Hill, bringing the entire city together for one day.
In a perfect world, it would be played the same day the other great rivalry games take place, a week before the start of the postseason. It is that way at every level of the game, think Michigan-Ohio State, UCLA-USC, Army-Navy.
“The big-rivalry game is one of those things that’s supposed to build up over the season,” Gilroy coach Greg Garcia said. “There’s no better way to do it.
So, why doesn’t the El Toro Bowl get moved? It’s not that simple.
The one hurdle to climb over is the Blossom Valley Athletic League, which handles all scheduling for its three divisions — Mount Hamilton (A), Santa Teresa (B), West Valley (C). Since Live Oak and Sobrato are in the A and B divisions, respectively, there is no possible way they can square off at the end of the regular season unless the rest of their conference mates agree to alter their schedules.
The counterpoint is Gilroy-Christopher, who will play their first varsity game against each other — I’m calling it the Garlic Bowl — Nov. 12 despite being in different leagues; Gilroy the Tri County, Christopher the Monterey Bay.
How is this possible? There are seven teams in the TCAL and MBAL as opposed to eight in the Mount Hamilton and Santa Teresa. One team makes a huge difference. The Gilroy teams get one more nonleague opponent and one extra week to squeeze them into the schedule.
Gilroy High lucks out the most. The Mustangs open against Live Oak, wrap up league play against San Benito and end the regular season against Christopher, an ideal track to the section playoffs.
“It really worked out well for us,” Garcia said. “We open with a bang against Live Oak … and get our biggest rivals at the end of the year, just like it should be. The kids should have something to shoot for even if their season isn’t going that well.”
In Morgan Hill, they would it the city championship.
Christopher coach Tim Pierleoni added: “It doesn’t matter if you’re 9-0 or 0-9 going into that final game. You’ve got something big to look forward to. It’s something the whole community looks forward to, too. It’s kind of anticlimactic if you schedule it earlier.”
An end-of-season rivalry game is the perfect exclamation point for an up year, and the perfect antidote for a down one — not that either Morgan Hill team is heading that way.
Instead of tuning up for league play against any old opponent last Friday, they faced other … in front of the whole city.
Borello sees some advantage in that, but not enough to outweigh the chance of playing your biggest rival toward the end of the season.
“It would be much better if we played the El Toro Bowl in Week 5, 6, 7 or 8,” he said. “When you play this early, it can be just sloppy. Neither team is up to form yet.”
There are two plausible ways the El Toro Bowl can be moved toward the end of the season: Either the local teams forfeit their playoff eligibility like San Jose and Lincoln, who play the annual Big Bone Game, or move into the same division — again, not that simple.
The BVAL divisions are aligned based on the strength of member programs by sport. Teams can move up or down each year, but only if the division coaches allow it; they vote at season’s end. (Reminder: Live Oak and Sobrato are in different CCS divisions, meaning a playoff tilt is all but out of the question.)
So, if the Bulldogs place high in the Santa Teresa, and the Acorns avoid a total collapse (trust me, they’ll be fine), Bull Bowl V should be as good as set for the end of the 2011 regular season.
Until then, feel free to root for the other side.
