Heading into the Skyhawk Conference playoffs, the Live Oak High
rugby team looks ready to compete. At least judging by their final
regular season match. On Saturday, the Acorns registered their
highest point tally of the season, routing host Valley Christian
63-22. Scoring early and often, Live Oak built a 29-7 halftime
advantage on solo tries from sophomore center Victor Kalata, senior
8-man Ben Frates, senior scrum-half Eduardo Arias and two tries by
senior prop Ruben Sanchez. Junior lock Erik Cifuentes rounded out
the first-half scoring by adding a pair of conversions.
Heading into the Skyhawk Conference playoffs, the Live Oak High rugby team looks ready to compete. At least judging by their final regular season match.
On Saturday, the Acorns registered their highest point tally of the season, routing host Valley Christian 63-22.
Scoring early and often, Live Oak built a 29-7 halftime advantage on solo tries from sophomore center Victor Kalata, senior 8-man Ben Frates, senior scrum-half Eduardo Arias and two tries by senior prop Ruben Sanchez. Junior lock Erik Cifuentes rounded out the first-half scoring by adding a pair of conversions.
The second half saw the Acorn ruggers add another six tries, one each by junior flanker Mark Pimentel, senior wing Tim Abbott, Arias, and Cifuentes, and two scores by junior center/wing Dustin Muhn. Cifuentes added another two conversions to lead the team with 13 points. Sanchez, Arias, and Muhn finished with 10 points each. Also playing well for the Acorns was junior Anthony Guidry, making his first start at fullback.
Top players for Valley Christian were, Ben Jones, James Toombs, and Andrew Decker.
Live Oak travels to Aptos High on Wednesday in the opening round of the Skyhawk Conference playoffs. Kickoff is set for 6pm.
The winner of the match automatically qualifies for the NorCal playoffs and plays defending Skyhawk Champion Silicon Valley for the conference’s top seed in Tier 1 on Friday or Saturday.
Junior Sharks ice hockey
Despite winning two of three matches in the opening rounds of the State Championship Tournament last weekend, the Junior Sharks and local favorites Brett Johnson and Anthony Bradley found themselves eliminated from the final rounds.
Rebounding from a 4-1 loss to Bakersfield in their opener (in which the local team was short on players), the Junior Sharks battled back to post victories over Inland Valley (4-0 behind goals by Johnson and Bradley) and Vacaville (2-1 on a game-winner by Johnson).
But a complicated tie-breaker process left the Junior Sharks short of advancing to the finals, where Vacaville beat Bakersfield 7-2 for the state title. Even more frustrating was the fact that the Junior Sharks had pounded Vacaville 9-1 to win the NorCal championship just the week before.
