It’s not difficult to understand why there’s a lot of excitement
surrounding today’s 3pm field hockey showdown between Live Oak and
Sobrato
Morgan Hill – It’s not difficult to understand why there’s a lot of excitement surrounding today’s 3pm field hockey showdown between Live Oak and Sobrato.
For the Acorns, it’s the season-opener for a fifth-place team from a year ago that returns plenty of talent and experience.
A couple of miles away, the Bulldogs are coming off a dominating 6-0 win in their season-opener last Tuesday against York, and would like nothing more than to pin a loss on their cross-town rivals.
“They’re excited about it,” Sobrato coach Carmen Villegas said about her players, who also had a scrimmage Thursday against Westmont. “They’re really looking forward to playing.”
Live Oak understands that the Bulldogs will be ready to play and plan to bring the intensity to the game.
“We’re going crazy,” Acorns’ junior Sarah Locarnini said. “We’re going to have the war paint. It’s going to be intense.”
“It’ll probably be one of our most intense games,” senior goalie Janet Lee added. “It’s a cross-town rivalry, they just came off a big win against York, so it’ll be interesting.”
Sobrato is hoping to make strides this season. It’s still a young team with only one senior, but the squad is fielding a varsity team for the third year and the program attracted 50 interested participants when practice began.
“We’re very excited about the season,” Villegas said. “We have some returning players, some new players and some players who are first-year, so it’s real mix of kids.”
Villegas is hoping to see the program develop and believes this could be an important year for it to grow.
“We’re breaking into the place where we get the older kids,” Villegas said. “That’s how you start passing along traditions.”
For a more established program such as Live Oak, the goals are different.
“To go to CCS,” Locarnini said of what the team hopes to accomplish. “We want to make it.”
After a season in which the Acorns lost a lot of overtime and close contests, the players say the know what it’ll take to get over the hump and win those games.
“We really need to focus on finishing off our games and making it a solid win,” senior Rebecca Webb said. “Really give it 100 percent, give it our all everyday.”
In addition to the tri-captains, Locarnini, Webb and Lee, Live Oak will rely on other experienced players to lead them.
Lexy Nuno, Kami Tersini expect to be constant scoring threats, Sarah Whitling and Robin Nelson are a pair of strong midfielders and the defense will look to Tanya Ferry and Kelly McDonald to make plays.
Sobrato has less experience, but will bank on Jessica Naranjo to provide senior leadership. The Bulldogs are also looking for strong play out of junior Elizabeth Gordon, sophomores Jenna Vivian, Lindsay Van Kuelen and junior goalie Casey Post.
Sobrato will also be counting on some momentum from the big opening win.
“We dominated the game. It was a tremendous way to start the season,” Villegas said. “Just watching the kids starting to teach the other kids, you start seeing that next level and it feels really good.”
Jimmy Durkin is the Morgan Hill Times sports editor. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 203 or jd*****@*************es.com.
