Acorns have favorable schedule for 2009 football season
MORGAN HILL — The Live Oak football team is set for one of its most exciting nonleague schedules in recent history.
On top of hosting Salinas, a CIF-Central Coast Section semifinalist in 2008, the Acorns will face both major rivals, Sobrato and Gilroy.
Live Oak will open on the road against Gilroy — which last year advanced to the CIF-CCS Open Division playoffs — in Week Zero, then will host Salinas in Week 1. The Acorns have a bye in Week 2 before playing as the away team against Sobrato at Richert Field.
“We get two great CCS-bound teams before we face Sobrato — that’s exactly what we were hoping for,” third-year Live Oak coach Jon Michael Porras said Thursday. “It will be a great test. We want to be as ready as possible for Sobrato.”
Porras and his staff and players are especially excited to renew the school’s rivalry with Gilroy, now of the Tri County Athletic League. Porras and former Gilroy coach Rich Hammond planned the showdown last year.
“We knew we were both going to be young this year and thought it would be fun to renew this rivalry,” Porras said. “Everyone already knows about it. Any time you play Gilroy, people get excited here.”
The Acorns’ Mount Hamilton Division slate includes a pair of two-game home stands. After its league opener at Pioneer, Live Oak will host Lincoln and Oak Grove before traveling to Piedmont Hills. The Acorns will play Leigh and Leland at home to end the regular season.
Porras said it’s a favorable schedule for his team, which last year missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
“We’re in a good position,” he added. “We have a lot of guys back, plus some talent coming in. We’ll be ready.”
