Acorns fall to Homestead, earn draw against Lynbrook
Morgan Hill – A young Live Oak boys soccer team is still searching for its first win of the season, losing to Homestead on Tuesday 1-0 and tying Lynbrook 1-1 on Wednesday.
The Acorns open with a 0-1-1 record, though coach Tony Goble said the team is continuing to improve.
On Tuesday, Live Oak opened its season against the defending Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza League champion, losing 1-0.
Goble said on Wednesday his team played much better than they did against Homestead, but were unable to keep an offensive push going.
“In the second half, we played some good soccer,” Goble said. “We played pretty solid, much better than against Homestead.”
The Acorns took a 1-0 lead early in the second quarter when Ramon Sainz fielded a Sheldon Steenhuis header and lobbed it past the goalie.
“I saw Sheldon got a head on the ball and I wanted to be sure that I got in position to make a second play on it.”
The goal was set up on a free kick that was knocked around by several players before Steenhuis, who had been moved from goalie to forward in the second half, was able to get his head on the ball.
Goble credited Steenhuis for being a force that drew the defense around him allowing opportunities to develop.
“He is a dominating figure,” Goble said. “He is physical (and) he is fast.”
Both teams had several opportunities throughout the game, but neither could score in the first half of play.
Midway through the first half, junior forward Robert Adam had a breakaway that he nearly got past the goalie.
But after the ball bounced around for a bit, the Lynbrook goalie scooped it up denying the score.
As the game progressed, the Vikings became more aggressive and had several shots that went wide.
One, however, nearly got through, sending Steenhuis diving to stop the ball.
In the second half, the Acorns pressed hard on the ball, keeping the Vikings on defense the majority of the time.
After Live Oak scored its goal, they began to press harder, creating several counter attack opportunities that either went high or wide.
However, despite the dominance, in the latter minutes of the half, the Acorn line began to fall apart.
Lynbrook was able to get past two defenders on a break away that goal keeper Christof Lauper initially hit with his hands, but couldn’t stop.
Lynbrook recovered the ball and made an uncontested shot into the net, tying the game at 1-1.
Live Oak nearly lost the game less than two minutes later on another Lynbrook breakaway.
A Viking player was making a charge at the goal with two defenders behind him, one of which gave him a shove as he entered the box.
The referee called for a penalty kick, a call that some of the players did not agree with.
After some arguing and saying things about the official, two Acorns were pulled off the field by Goble when they each received a yellow card.
“The players were asking me to go back in, but I’m not going to do that after what happened,” Goble said. “I was telling them, if you are going to put yourself in front of the team, you are not going to play.”
Goble added that he mentioned it to the team and hopes they can all put it behind them.
But after the tempers died down, the penalty kick hit off the cross bar and was eventually cleared by the Acorns.
Sainz said he was pleased that the team stopped the threat but said it needs to step it up if they are going to win games.
“We need to play 90 minutes and not let things go in the last five minutes,” Sainz said.
