A late surge by the Live Oak High boys water polo team lifted
the Acorns to victory in the first round of the Central Coast
Section Division I playoffs Saturday. Led by Ryan Gautschi
’s four fourth-quarter goals, fourth-seeded Live Oak pulled away
for a 21-10 win over No. 5 Mount Pleasant at Independence High in
San Jose.
A late surge by the Live Oak High boys water polo team lifted the Acorns to victory in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs Saturday.
Led by Ryan Gautschi’s four fourth-quarter goals, fourth-seeded Live Oak pulled away for a 21-10 win over No. 5 Mount Pleasant at Independence High in San Jose.
With the win, Live Oak (22-9 overall) advances to the Division I semifinals where the Acorns will face No. 1 seed Bellarmine on Wednesday at 2pm at Independence High. The winner will advance to the championship game on Saturday at 10am at Independence High.
Despite the football score, the game was close the entire way.
“I’ve seen this all the time in the first round,” said Acorn coach Mack Haines. “They are hyped up because they think they are supposed to win.”
The Acorns sputtered in the first quarter, engaging in a defensive battle where both teams took several minutes to score.
The Cardinals struck first, but Live Oak struck back and struck back hard. The Acorns scored four goals for a 4-1 lead before Mount Pleasant put another notch on the board.
The next two quarters went the same way as the Acorns scored four goals in each quarter, while the Cardinals only scored three goals per quarter and fell behind 12-7 entering the fourth quarter.
Live Oak was helped along the way by Mt. Pleasant, which made costly fouls that led to ejections and Acorn goals.
The fourth quarter was vintage Live Oak. The Acorns came out swinging and tallied seven goals before Mount Pleasant could do anything.
Gautschi led the way for LO with10 goals, while Corey Robinson had seven goals, Justin Short added two, and Kyle Fast and Mike Acevedo each scored one.
In its first-round matchup, Bellarmine easily took care of Mountain View 19-2.
“They have some great athletes and some great coaches on that team,” Haines said of Bellarmine. “Those kids work real hard and it pays off. My team knows they will be going up against the best.”
LO girls volleyball
An inspired comeback against league rival Salinas gave the Live Oak High girls volleyball team a shot at another big upset in the second round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs at North Salinas High on Saturday, but the Acorns couldn’t quite close the deal.
Rebounding from a 2-1 deficit to force a deciding fifth game, LO led 14-12 in the tiebreaker with two game points.
But the Cowboys rallied to tie, then win, the final game and took the match 19-25, 25-13, 25-18, 20-25, 17-15 to eliminate the Acorns from the postseason.
“We just couldn’t put them away,” LO coach Laura Coleman said. “But I’m proud of them. It’s a scary thing that fifth game.”
After winning the first game of the match, LO lost its focus in games two and three before its big frontline of Tiven Catrett, Juliette Bowers, Kristen Russ and Katerina Cinkova began taking control against the smaller Salinas team.
Then, in the final game, LO got out to a big 8-3 lead and seemed headed toward repeating last season’s playoff upset of the Cowboys.
Last year, the Acorns beat Salinas in the section playoffs en route to making the CCS championship match and advancing to the Northern California playoffs.
It wasn’t to be this time, though.
Salinas rallied to take a 12-11 lead before three straight Acorn points gave LO two game points.
But two Salinas tip kills and a trio of unforced errors by LO gave the match away.
“To beat them, everybody has to have an awesome game,” Coleman said. “Not everyone did.”
LO finished the season 19-16 overall, battling a series of injuries and illnesses that kept the team from fielding a complete roster for much of the season.
The Acorns were seeded No. 7 in the CCS playoffs and beat Monta Vista in their playoff opener last week.
