Though there was nothing to play for but a few postseason power
points and a whole lot of pride, the Live Oak High boys soccer team
came up with one of its best efforts of the season in its
Tri-County Athletic League finale on Tuesday.
Though there was nothing to play for but a few postseason power points and a whole lot of pride, the Live Oak High boys soccer team came up with one of its best efforts of the season in its Tri-County Athletic League finale on Tuesday.
Seeking to avenge a key defeat at the hands of the undefeated Mustangs earlier in the season, the Acorns overwhelmed their league rivals, and held a 2-0 lead with just 15 minutes left to play.
But Gilroy rallied for a pair of late goals, including one on a disputed penalty kick, to tie the game at 2-2 and preserve its undefeated season.
However, Acorn coach Tony Goble said his team’s effort served notice to the rest of the teams in the Central Coast Section that Live Oak should not be taken lightly.
“I told the team, that’s the No. 2 team in CCS and we played with them,” Goble said. “There’s not a team in the CCS that wants to play us. We’ll be one of the low seed teams that causes problems.”
Goble said he expects his team to be seeded at about 13th or 14th in the section playoffs, which begin next week.
Goble said the TCAL’s “B” league rating hurts the local teams’ seeding potential.
However, Gilroy (8-0-1 in league, 17-0-5 overall) is expected to be a high seed in the postseason, now that the Mustangs are the lone undefeated team in CCS. Gilroy, ranked No. 2 in CCS for most of the season, was expected to move up to the top spot in the section rankings after top-ranked Watsonville suffered a 3-0 upset loss to Santa Cruz this week.
But Live Oak (6-1-3 in league, 13-5-3 overall) actually outplayed the highly touted Mustangs from the outset, scoring goals by Hassan Abdullahi and A.J. Battel for the two-goal lead before Gilroy came back.
Battel’s goal came on a drive from about 30 yards out and underscored his value to the team offensively.
Goble said Battel has been playing “at a different level” than anyone else on the field since he returned from injury early in the league season.
Gilroy got its first goal on a long high pass that it won in the air before finding the back of the Live Oak net.
The second Mustang goal, and the equalizer, came on a controversial penalty call on Acorn defender Nick Mott.
Goble said the call was “very, very questionable” but said his team never should have let Gilroy score the first goal.
“Their first goal is exactly what they do,” Goble said. “They pass it in, win it in the air and score. I told the team if we don’t give up that goal in the 65th minute then the penalty wouldn’t have hurt us.”
Live Oak was playing without team captain Hussein Abdullahi, who broke his leg during a match against Salinas last week.
