Live Oak opens with win over San Benito, takes third in
Polo-Fest
Morgan Hill – Live Oak continued its domination of San Benito in boys water polo by knocking off the ‘Balers 6-3 on Friday in the opening round of the South Valley Polofest.
The Acorns, who followed up that win with a 9-5 loss to Valley Christian in the semifinals before beating Archbishop Mitty 13-11 in the third-place game, are now unbeaten since 2002 against their former Tri-County Athletic League rival and continued a nearly 20-year trend of success against San Benito.
“There was a lot of hype and build up for the San Benito game,” Acorns coach Mack Haines said. “Our kids also felt that they were playing for tradition. For the first time in many years we were playing as the underdog.”
The ‘Balers, who lost a pair of one-point matches to Live Oak in TCAL play last season before the Acorns moved to the Blossom Valley Athletic League this year, entered the game confident. Much of that had to do with an earlier season win over Leland – Live Oak’s top BVAL competitor who beat the Acorns in double overtime two weeks ago.
“The game was probably bigger for San Benito than for us. But it’s still a very nice win,” Haines said. “(San Benito) felt a lot of pressure. I don’t think they were overconfident. I think they had every right to feel it was their year to beat us. But our kids rose to the occasion.”
In a game that was tied 1-1 before Live Oak took control in the second half, defense proved to be crucial.
“Our main game is our defense,” senior Cameron Peachey said. “We were doing drop back because they mainly have whole sets … and it just paid off.”
After the emotional win for the Acorns, they came out a bit flat against Valley Christian, a team Live Oak has beaten twice this season.
“I think we were still probably relishing the victory from the night before,” Haines said.
But the Acorns rebounded in the semifinals to beat Mitty, a powerhouse from the always tough West Catholic Athletic League.
“What I was impressed with was after a pretty lasckluster performance and very physical game, we were able to come back and beat Mitty,” Haines said.
Senior Kyle Fast scored five goals in that win and Cameron Peachey and Sam Cretcher each had three. Cretcher and Fast led the way with two goals in the San Benito game and Cretcher, who tied Fast for tournament team-high honors with seven goals, scored twice in the loss to Valley Christian.
Staff writer Scott Campbell contributed to this report.
