Last year, Live Oak knew its 10th game would be its last.
After a 5-0 start, the Acorns went 1-4 to miss the playoffs. A year later, Live Oak enters its 10th game knowing there will be an 11th.
Thanks to a 35-14 win over Gunderson last week, the Acorns clinched no worse than a share of the Santa Teresa Division title and a berth in the CCS playoffs for the first time since 2010 as Lincoln forgoes the playoffs for an annual Thanksgiving day game.
But Live Oak won’t be taking Evergreen Valley lightly — there’s still plenty on the line.
“It’s good that we got (playoffs) wrapped up, but we still want that undefeated (league) season,” said coach Mike Gemo.
The Acorns are one win away from a sweep of the Santa Teresa Division and their first outright title since 1996.
A win tonight will give Live Oak 25.5 points, which could translate to a high seed in the Division IV playoffs.
“There’s still a week of football to play and there’s a lot of games that will put people in the playoffs and take people out of the playoffs,” Gemo said.
Live Oak could play the loser of tonight’s MTAL contest of undefeateds. Pacific Grove and Carmel are both 9-0 and will vie for the league title tonight. Projections have the winner of that game getting the No. 3 seed and the loser the No. 7 seed, who would play Live Oak assuming the Acorns win tonight.
Live Oak will go against an Evergreen Valley team that is still adjusting to the Santa Teresa Division.
The Cougars moved up from the West Valley Division with San Jose, who is also struggling in the higher league.
Both schools heading into last Friday were winless. Evergreen Valley earned its first win last week by defeating San Jose 16-13.
Evergreen has been held to single digits five times this season and has been outscored 338-96 this season.
“Evergreen is coming off its first win of the year, so they’re going to be pretty hyped up,” Gemo said. “They’re going to want to give us our first loss of the year, so we’re going to have to stay focused and do what’s right on the field and get on the field and get out of there.”
Gemo said the boys need to be focused when they get off the bus and not allow Evergreen any momentum early.
Live Oak last week spotted Gunderson the first touchdown before putting up 35 unanswered points behind the efficient passing of Erik Ornduff and the legs of Trevor Bearden.
Bearden increased his CCS career rushing record to 5,730 yards as listed on Maxpreps.com and didn’t play in the fourth quarter.
He will once again be asked to lead his team as Live Oak readies for the playoffs. Meanwhile, Ornduff is coming off his best passing performance since Gilroy in Week 1.
Live Oak will close out the regular season 7 p.m. tonight at Evergreen Valley.
Follow Cheeto Barrera on Twitter @MHTCheeto for live game updates from Evergreen Valley. Return there for breaking news on playoff seedings.
